Study: Health info technology saves lives, costs

Hospitals in Texas that used computers to keep track of patient records and manage care had lower rates of deaths, complications and costs, U.S. researchers announced. Researchers said patients treated in hospitals that ranked highest in use of health information technology to manage patient records and physician notes were 15% less likely to die compared with patients in hospitals that ranked lower. "If these results were to hold for all hospitals in the United States, computerizing notes and records might have the potential to save 100,000 lives annually," Neil Poe, MD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, who worked on the study, said in a statement.