Earlier, I had written here about electronic medical records (EMR). Megan McCardle has a second post on it, in which she details another unintended consequence: as the pressure on doctors' time increases with EMR, doctors will resort more often to template answers. This will worsen the accuracy of records, leading to all sorts of additional problems.
Despite the problems, it still makes sense to changeover to EMR. However, I'm unsure one should create public incentives to do so; if the benefits outweigh the costs, surely the market will encourage EMR. If they don't, it won't. In other words, let the market decide!
No comments:
Post a Comment