The system was intended to replace two older patient records systems.
One of my clients, for example, extracts information on research projects and postgraduate supervision directly from central records systems.
Hipaa, enacted in 1996, did not anticipate Web-based health records systems like the ones Microsoft and Google now offer.
Advocates contend that electronic records systems will improve patient care and lower costs through better coordination of medical services.
Computerized records systems can be extremely effective in drawing out relationships between past and present cases and suspects.
The shortfalls included "unwarranted delays to diagnosis and treatment" – which the report said, could have endangered patients – as well as unsafe information and records systems.
The doctors were expected to purchase electronic medical records systems and to provide services that substituted for individual doctor visits, like e-mailing with patients.
Re "In Unexpected Medicare Benefit, U.S. Will Offer Doctors Free Electronic Records System" (news article, July 21): The advantages of electronic medical records systems should not be underestimated.
It may be, said Dr. David C. Kaelber, a co-author of the study, that electronic records systems may offer part of the solution.
That is apparently a violation of the federal Privacy Act, which requires that government agencies accept public comment before new records systems are created.
(Uganda has banned them all; South Africa has banned pilots of new electronic medical records systems. Here's a map of pilots in Uganda that eloquently explains why).
