While there are certainly hurdles remaining in the country’s adoption of electronic health records, experts believe that 2011 will be a tipping point when more practices adopt the technology and providers will begin to see some return on their investments.
The key to this is the fact that exchanging information between practices is getting easier, experts told Government Health IT. In recent months, several programs have gone online that are designed to facilitate the transfer of information among providers, which many say is the key benefit of electronic health records.
Chief among these initiatives is the Direct Project. This government-run program allows doctors to share information with each other through a secure form of email. It recently went live in several states.
“Direct is not the be all and end all for information exchange, but it’s a simple [and] secure way,” said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, ONC deputy national coordinator for policy and programs, according to the news source. “And it starts to show value for physicians.”
Additionally, state-wide exchanges have gone live or will soon launch in several states, including Wisconsin and Louisiana. Experts believe that physicians that participate in these programs will very rapidly begin seeing a payoff.