Push for digital health records sparks debate

USA Today, April 7, 2009

The government has set a goal for every American to have an electronic health record by 2014, and Kathleen Sebelius, the White House nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, calls the move to computerization "one of the linchpins" of overhauling the nation's healthcare system. But naysayers suggest health information technology is full of false promise. Digital records can lead to better care and fewer medical mistakes, they say, but the costly transformation could waste money if the doctors and hospitals buy systems that can't be connected to share information.