NEWS TRENDS

During an era of increasing connectivity and wireless, digital communication, the adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) hasn't picked up speed at a comparable rate. According to the Medical Records Institute (Boston), 20% of U.S. doctors have implemented EMR systems. A study of outpatient electronic health records published in June 2008 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that only 13% of doctors reported having a basic electronic records system and 4% have a fully functional system.

“Let's be honest,” says C. Peter Waegmann, CEO of the Medical Records Institute, “very few comprehensive EMR systems have been implemented anywhere, and it will be a long time until significant numbers are achieved.”

A 2008 healthcare information technology (IT) status report by Waegemann discusses changes in communication between doctors and their patients, developments in information technology (IT), and the progress of EMRs. He calls the implementation of EMRs “dismal,” stating that 2008 was a disappointing year in this area.

According to a Kalorama Information (New York City) report released in December, the U.S. EMR market is expected to grow 14.1% annually through 2012. The market research firm defines EMRs as a clinical IT product that covers information systems for pharmacy, laboratory, radiology, and other applications, as well as systems that perform wireless-enabled, clinical, and surgical management functions. On the administrative side, the systems are used for billing, finance, supply-chain management, and patient data.

As patients have more access to their own medical charts, relationships with their doctors are expected to improve and reduce healthcare costs, according to Kalorama's report titled, “U.S. EMR Technology Markets.” Issues that influence EMR adoption include an increase in access and efficiency, documentation, quality of care, resources, and quality assurance. Increasing life expectancy and demographics are expected to encourage future growth. Factors that stand in the way of adoption are costs, patient privacy concerns, and anxiety over liability and accountability.

The Kalorama report also points to personal health records (PHR) as an emerging trend that will “vastly influence” the healthcare industry. PHRs allow patients to get information about medications, along with reports from labs, radiology, and culture tests, for example. Google Health, Microsoft's HealthVault, and OptumHealth Inc. are among the online sites that patients can use to manage their digital health records.

Because the Obama administration is expected to reform healthcare, more efforts could be directed at EMRs. “The role of the government can and should be to help hospital IT and electronic patient record adoption through supporting and encouraging structural changes,” said Waegemann in the Medical Records Institute report. “Stakeholders should be invited to collaborate on the changes that have to be made, and the end product will depend on the quality of work each player brings.”

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