Electronic Medical Records--just part of needed transformation

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"To improve the quality of our health care while lowering its costs, we will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that within five years, all of America's medical records are computerized……This will cut waste, eliminate red tape and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests. But it just won't save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs, it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system."

    --President Elect, Barack Obama, January 8th, 2009

Yesterday, I was asked by ABC News to comment on the statement made by Mr. Obama during Thursday’s economic stimulus speech at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.  I was pleased to do so since it provided an opportunity to expand a bit on what I had to say in Monday’s post on HealthBlog; mainly that we need to broaden the discussion (and any investments to be made) to encompass not just electronic records, but how to truly transform and expand the ways we access health information and medical services in America.  You can read ABC’s coverage and my comments here:

President-Elect Urges Electronic Medical Records in 5 Years

Bill Crounse, MD   Senior Director, Worldwide Health   Microsoft Corporation

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