Electronic medical records have people abuzz. What's the reality?
Electronic records have people abuzz. But what's the reality? Primary care physician Matt Handley believes that information technology enables him to provide better patient care. + So much so that he recently spent an afternoon hooking up a computer and DSL line at the home of a patient so she can contact him more frequently. + Handley is the associate medical director for quality and informatics at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, a nonprofit health system armed with technology systems that have replaced paper records and enable patients to take part in their healthcare online. + Indeed, health information technology is the new rage for politicians and many healthcare providers who think it will help transform the industry. + Proponents say it will lower healthcare costs and improve quality of care. + Others aren't so sure. + But computerized record-keeping and communication has the potential to change hospital care and procedures dramatically. + "It gets right to the heart of what we do every day . . . and hospitals have to take pause and think about what this will mean for them," says Gary Kalkut, senior vice president and chief medical officer of Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. + Following is a primer on the issues.