aaron c beals

boston.com had a recent article on the pushback from doctors in the US against the adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems.

my favorite quote: “LeBow is reluctant to embrace a technology that he believes carries hidden costs, chief among them productivity losses while he and his staff master the system.”

classic short-term thinking — save money today even if it means losing money over the long run. granted, the doctor in question is 66 years old, so perhaps he’s got a reason to think about the short vs long term.

granted, there are questions about the return on investment (ROI) of electronic health record systems for doctors, especially if features like decision support are not built into the system. i argue that there are two issues here: first, many doctors are slow to adopt new technology. there are completely valid reasons for this — for example, they’re too busy saving lives to spend time learning flawed, nascent technologies. that said, their resistance to established technologies is unfortunate. second, the government has not clearly outlined the value for doctors. instead of doing this, they have set up a carrot-and-stick incentive model — a $44K payment actually encourages short-term thinking. the ROI is clearest for the government and insurance companies (benefits of cleaner reporting) — if the government is going to be in the business of pushing EHR’s down onto doctors and eventually patients, they need to make a clearer case.

as a technologist who is involved in the world of global health care, i know the value of a complete EHR system exists for all parties involved, but i’m not the one who needs convincing.