Why doctors still balk at electronic medical records

Medical records have faced an impasse preventing a transition to the digital age, and patient charts are still paper-based in most doctors' offices across the country, writes Kevin Pho, MD, in this opinion piece for USA Today. President Bush's goal was for every American to have an electronic medical record by 2014, and both presidential nominees Barack Obama and John McCain's health reform plans include language that modernizes the country's health information system. But despite the advantages of computerized records, adoption of the technology remains distressingly low due to several problems, Pho says.