Opinion: HIT must be at center of health reform plans

In an editorial published today in Business Week, an Arlington, Va.-based physician and computer scientist argues that achieving real health reform will only be possible if electronic health records are a top priority (Source: “Electronic Records Are Key to Health-Care Reform,” Business Week, Dec. 19, 2008).

“Any potential approach to restructuring health care must include universal electronic medical records so that both patient care and policy decisions are fully informed,” wrote William A. Yasnoff, who is managing partner of National Health Information Infrastructure Advisors, a health information technology consulting firm.

“As the President-elect stated,” he added, “both the quality and safety of health care could be greatly improved if complete electronic medical records were immediately available to physicians.”

A new survey from National Center for Health Statistics may be a source of optimism for Yasnoff and other EHR proponents. The mail-in survey found that 38.4 percent of office-based physicians reported using full or partial EMR systems, not including billing records, in their practices. Of that group, 20.4 percent reported using a system that including e-prescribing, test ordering, viewing lab and imaging results and clinical notes. A similar survey taken in 2006 found results of 29.2 percent and 12.4 percent, respectively.