A Harvard Medical School professor David Blumenthal has been named the man for the job by President Obama to oversee the transition of Electronic Medical Records and the some $19 billion dollars invested in it by the stimulus package. Blumenthal has worked as a the director of health policy at Massachusetts general hospital, and comes from many years of teaching and learning in the health care industry. He has worked along side Edward Kennedy back in 1977-80 as a member of his health policy staff.
There is still much work to be done if we are to meet the goal of having converted to EMRs by the year 2014. There continues to be a struggle of cost and privacy issues which will surely be the two biggest obstacles Mr. Blumenthal will have to overcome as we attempt to improve health care through this technology. There has been some growing skepticism as the rapid change over to EMRs hasn't been quite as explosive as many proponents would have liked. Europe has been attempting to switch to EMR's for many years longer than the United States and yet still has a long way to go. Having a seasoned scholar like Mr. David Blumenthal of Harvard ought to be a significant boost however in furthering the cause of improving our health care industry through EMR's.
I think this sounds awesome - it's definitely a change that we need right now. I am a little wary about the privacy issues - I mean to have all of your medical history pretty accessible is kinda scary - but just from my experience in working in healthcare - it is going to be a huge improvement.
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