Electronic Med Records Are Worth the Privacy Risk

From the Wall Street Journal Blog of November 29, 2007, 9:06 am
Poll: Electronic Med Records Are Worth the Privacy Risk
Posted by Jacob Goldstein

On the subject of electronic medical records, regular folks appear to agree with the health-wonk elite.

Yes, electronic records make it tougher to keep patients’ records private, most people said in a new poll from the WSJ Online and Harris Interactive. But the risk is worth it, because the records can also decrease errors and reduce health costs, according to a majority of respondents.

Overall, 60% of 2,153 respondents said the benefits of electronic medical records outweigh the risks; 63% said electronic records can significantly decrease the frequency of medical errors, 55% said they can significantly reduce costs, and 51% said they make it more difficult to ensure patients’ privacy.

A couple other interesting findings: 76% of respondents are confident that the doctor always “has an accurate and complete picture” of their prior medical history (we suspect a survey of docs would yield a less confident response to this one). And only 1% of respondents said they use a personal health record stored on the Internet — demonstrating that there’s plenty of room for growth in the ambitious personal-health Microsoft and Google are working on.

Health Blog Question of the Day: Do the benefits of electronic medical records outweigh the privacy risk? If so, what can be done to get more doctors to go electronic?