Electronic Medical Records Improve Care

Amid the vitriol, confusion and posturing over President Obama's effort to reform the U.S. health care system, a new study reveals something about health care that -- if it's possible -- everyone can agree upon.

RAND Health, an independent think tank, released a study that shows the use of electronic medical records improves patient care, according to a story on the ScienceDaily Web site.

Researchers followed more than 300 primary care physicians and "found that practices that used multifunctional electronic health records were more likely to deliver better care for diabetes and provide certain health screenings than those that did not."

The study appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Overall, we were surprised by how few strategies to improve the quality of care were linked to measurably better performance," according to Dr. Mark W. Friedberg, the study's lead author and an associate natural scientist at RAND. "The strategy that showed the most impact was use of advanced electronic health records."

According to the article, "electronic health record systems were linked to higher quality care when the systems included advanced functions such as electronic reminders to physicians, and if the systems were used routinely by a medical practice."

Doctors' offices that used "multifunctional electronic health records performed better on five of the quality measures -- two involving diabetes care and screenings for breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and chlamydia."

"Electronic health records with advanced features are uncommon nationally," according to Friedberg, as quoted in the article. "Our results suggest that increasing their adoption may help improve the quality of care in important areas of preventive care and chronic disease management."

Photo courtesy of edenpictures, via Flickr