US president elect Barack Obama stated that his administration will invest money to make sure that the health records of all Americans are computerized in the next five years. Estimates have put the cost of such an endeavor in the billions. However, the move is intended to eventually save Americans billions in health care costs. More importantly, electronic health records have been shown to improve patient care by reducing medical errors. Obama’s plan is to eventually have one standard electronic system that all health care facilities will use. This certainly will not be an easy task given the commercialization of health care in the US today. On a related note, beginning this month Medicare will begin to offer incentives to physicians who prescribe electronically.
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Tags: computer, health, medical records, obama, US
Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I believe that Obama, has a perfect solution to this Health records systom.But, it should be federal kept.I’v ran into problems,of not being able to get my medical record,complait to the state medical board and no results.Then theres the high medical costs,the the hospitals incure on people with no insurances,Then, when you go to emergencies,They take test after test,but they don;t inform the physyian about it so what good are the test.Insuranse companies should check the bills before they pay.all the additions of medicine and care that patients never recieve,all the extra add ons.And who wines up paying for thier defaults..The the ones that can’t afford insurance in the first place. We need a new systom.Period,,,Also with prescritions ,The insurance co. should have some kind of tracking on presciption,to track how the DOCTORS are over prescribing Prescription drugs to patients.Legal drug pushers.That would save peoples lives and the insurance co. money…
January 13th, 2009 at 3:18 am
My Doctor startes using the eprescribe three years now. I as a patient just can’t say enough goodness about it. all I have t do now when I leave her office is drop by the drug store on my way home,I have one of those mom and pop drug stores that get you meds in less than 15 minutes.
thank you
January 13th, 2009 at 4:24 am
What ever happened to our right to privacy? You can ask you doctor or hospital each time you visit for a copy of your records, then no one but the prople you designate can see your PRIVATE records. Just one more way government tramples our constitutional rights.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:48 am
seig heil obama… Big Brother is lurking!
January 13th, 2009 at 7:07 am
I am very happy that we now have a president in the U.S. who is truly committed to improve health care. I am particularly happy that he is pro-life in moving stem cell therapy forward. Had he been president 8 years ago, instead of President Bush, we may today have some cures for a lot of devestating diseases. We are now 8 years behind. I hope that President Bush or anyone in his family is never afflicted with Parkinsons, Alzeimers or any other incurable disease that stem cell therapy may one day help. He would have to decline this therapy. President Bush has not shown any compassion for anyone with an incurable disease.
Thank-you President elect Obama. We finally have a truly good and compassionate person who will help overcome disease.
January 13th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
What has to individuals privacy!!!!!! iI don’t want my records computerized. He can improve health care with out invading our privacy. We don’t need big government inventing jobs. Watch out this is the first steps toward a socilist society.
January 13th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
This is not compassion; this is coercion. Government programs like this end up wasting resources that could help make us healthier and wealthier. Watch for more high prices and a falling US economy.
January 13th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
The military has had their medical records computerized for sometime now. Even some civilian doctors keep records of their patients on the computer. It would be great to download your records on a thumb drive and take them to any specialists that you might see as well as your primary doctor.
BTW-I don’t think their is any privacy when it comes to insurance companies getting your medical info, is there?
January 15th, 2009 at 12:39 am
I do NOT want my medical reoords computerized! I fully understand some of the positive side of having records computerized but I also understand the negative side of having medical records on computers. One has only to pay attention to the news and listen to the many, many times computer systems are hacked or sent to the incorrect place. Once your records are computerized they can (and will be) sent to many places you never wanted your records to go. Mistakes are made, fraud happens, etc., etc….it is opening a bag of worms and once done, there is no going back. Can’t you stop and think of many people or companies that you would NOT want to have your medical information?! You had all be thinking long and hard about this situation because it is one of President elect Obama’s priorities. Once your records on computerized you will have NO privacy left!
January 16th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Privacy is a huge concern and the temptation to misuse information will increase with the ability to access it and aggregate it, but if you visit medical websites like this one and if you search for medical topics on Google, your health concerns (not necessarily your own diagnoses) are already accessible to those who know how to find them. I received a prescription yesterday and found this site by chance when researching the side effects by searching for the drug by name on Google. I did the search after work from my work computer, which has a fixed IP address. That IP address and my search terms are in Google’s web server logs, and, because I followed links rather than typing or pasting the urls into my browser’s address bar, in the web server logs of the sites I visited.
There is a way to protect privacy and have standardized, networked databases, or even a centralized database, and that is to include no names in the database. The means to link names and records could be controlled with devices (hand held, and in the hands of the patient) that use non-permanent codes like those used for VPN access to the computers of organizations with strong security concerns. I haven’t thought out the details, but I’m sure it’s possible.
Law enforcement and computer security may protect data. I’m much more worried about expanding legal uses of our data, wherever it’s stored, than I am about hacking and other illegal uses of our data. Instead of refusing to use technology that might save lives, save money and create jobs – (I say might – I’m not getting into that part of the argument) – we need to be incredibly vigilant about not allowing our rights to be trampled and we need to recognize abuse as it tries to creep up on us and protest early and often.
January 17th, 2009 at 2:31 am
I already know the benefits of electronic health care records since my benefits are through the V.A. To do this nationally, however, we must have a NATIONAL – Single payer system.
When I managed a small 501(c)3 childrens’ Theatre and initiated health insurance coverage for the staff, we had three insurance companies in the first four years when two companies opted out of insuring residents of California. Needless to say, each time we had to begin at square one and any illness which might have occurred during those first years would have been seen as a “pre-existing condition”.
I do not know how the system which covers government employees is funded, but the direct or shared costs for employers and employees seems to amount to about 20% of payroll. This is a higher cost than Social Security.
It is there apparent and absolutely necessary that both Social Security taxes be applicable to all earned income and that the Medicare tax, which now does apply to all earned income be slowly increased, perhaps a step up with each increase in the minimum wage. Only with universal coverage can our workforce be truly National. People will not be penalized for moving to another state or employer, and all records would easily be available through universal coverage
Health Insurance should be taken out of the hands of private companies and brought under National coverage. Our recent experience in having to bail out AIG and Wall Street Brokers and Banks certainly demonstrates that private corporations are not able to sustain themselves when their decisions go sour.
I WONDER JUST HOW MUCH HEALTH COVERAGE COULD HAVE BEEN PROVIDED, NATIONALLY, WITH THE TRILLION DOLLARS OUR PRESENT BAILOUT IS COSTING; NOT TO MENTION THE SIMILAR AMOUNT EXPENDED ON AN UNNECESSARY WAR.
NORBERT KAMMER
POST BOX 2621
CARMEL,CA. 93921
January 26th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
thats all we need. something else for hackers to get into. once that happens, you can guarantee your life will be messed up. i guess its not bad enough that hundreds of thousands of people get their credit card information ripped-off, now there will be individuals medical records at risk. please say no to this because you do not know how fast your information can be used against you. plus its going to cost money to create the program and then doctors will raise their fees and insurance companies might also. we as american citizens need our government to save money, not spend it and ruin our future.