Obama's big idea: Digital health records

President-elect Barack Obama has proposed a massive effort to modernize healthcare by making all health records standardized and electronic. The plan includes computerizing all health records within five years, but it won't be easy, experts say. Only about 8% of the nation's 5,000 hospitals, and 17% of its 800,000 physicians, currently use the kind of common computerized record-keeping systems that Obama envisions for the entire country. Concerns about patient privacy must be addressed first as well, and the country suffers a dearth of skilled workers necessary to build and implement the necessary technology.