EMR: Great opportunity disguised as a threat

AMA Leader Commentary. By William G. Plested III, MD, Sept. 25, 2006.

AMA LEADER COMMENTARY

A few words about current events in medical practice

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A message to all physicians from AMA President William G. Plested III, MD.

I feel strongly that American medicine is being handed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reclaim a vital part of our profession, a part that has eroded in the recent past.

The opportunity is the product of the advent of the electronic medical record.

Claims that the EMR will reduce cost of care are overblown drastically in my judgment. But there are other aspects of EMRs that will prove enormously beneficial for medical education, clinical research and practice monitoring.

These latter reasons form the logic for my appeal to physicians to consider carefully how EMRs can help them in their practices and in service to patients. No one disputes the claim that EMRs will foster higher quality care for our patients. This should be reason enough to make the necessary commitment to implement an EMR.

But two other reasons seem as convincing to me as the first.

An EMR will make considerably easier and more accurate the process of following the progress of patients receiving clinical interventions. An EMR will let those physicians who so desire to join into clinical protocols. Clinical research will be revolutionized by the ability to enroll both physicians and patients easily, and acquire, store, retrieve and analyze huge amounts of data.

EMRs will have an equally revolutionary impact on the documentation of practices of individual physicians or physician groups. I have long been a strong proponent of peer review. And although I'm aware of shortcomings in some review systems, I am committed to any technology that makes it easy to document daily practice patterns and outcomes in a fair and unbiased manner.

That is precisely what an EMR provides.