New York Times Letters To The Editor Discuss Editorial Supporting Nationwide Adoption Of Electronic Health Records

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 01 Jul 2008 - 12:00 PDT

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The New York Times on Monday published several letters to the editor responding to a June 24 editorial about the need for nationwide adoption of electronic health records. Summaries appear below.

• Laura Fochtmann: The "editorial says doctors' resistance is a barrier to the adoption of" EHRs; however, doctors "recognize that electronic records are not a magical panacea," Fochtmann, chair of the committee on EHRs at the American Psychiatric Association, writes in a letter to the editor. Fochtmann writes, "Even with the best available software, some aspects of patient care can improve while other errors or problems are introduced," and privacy issues "are an additional concern." According to Fochtmann, "Addressing each of these issues, including the cost, in collaboration with doctors is much more likely to increase use of electronic records and achieve our common goal of improving the quality of care for all Americans" (Fochtmann, New York Times, 6/30).
  
  
• Deborah Peel: "Doctors are loath to add sensitive records to a system that uses personal health information against patients," Peel, founder and chair of Patient Privacy Rights, writes in a letter to the editor, adding that such information "is used to deny jobs, promotions, insurance and credit." According to Peel, "Millions avoid treatment for cancer and mental illness, putting their lives at risk, because they have no privacy." She adds, "The data mining industry makes millions selling ... health information, claims data, prescriptions and genetic information to insurers, employers, researchers, drug companies and data aggregators." Peel writes, "Doctors won't buy systems that harm patients" (Peel, New York Times, 6/30).
  
  
• Eric Wolf: "With Medicare reimbursements scheduled to be decreased by 10% on July 1 and inflation a real concern for all Americans, doctors cannot be expected to lay out tens of thousands of dollars to upgrade records," according to a letter by Wolf, a clinical instructor in ophthalmology at Columbia University and a visiting instructor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Wolf writes, "Unless Congress acts to make Medicare payments to health care providers appropriate for the increasing costs of treating patients and inflationary realities, widespread use of electronic records will be slow to come" (Wolf, New York Times, 6/30).
  
  
• Malcolm Zaretsky: The "benefits of electronic patient records would extend beyond the ability to order prescriptions online and better clinical decisions. They would be a great benefit for epidemiological research requiring collection of data about disease incidence and prevalence, safety and efficacy of prescribed drugs after they have been approved by [FDA], and surgical procedures," Zaretsky, a researcher in cell and molecular biology at the University of California-Berkeley, writes in a letter to the editor. He writes that "epidemiological research is far more time-consuming and expensive" without electronic records data, adding, "It can take hours to go through paper records searching for cases with a rare disease or a toxic reaction to a prescribed drug, a task that would require just a few keystrokes with electronic records" (Zaretsky, New York Times, 6/30).

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