Also In the News: Boosting health IT won't be easy
The low level of electronic health record use and a lack of skilled technology workers pose problems, CNN reports.
President-elect Barack Obama’s plan to increase the use of health information technology will be difficult to implement, CNN reports. The current low level of adoption of electronic health records by hospitals and physicians, concerns over patient privacy, and the lack of skilled workers who can build the technology threaten to hinder progress.
It also won’t be cheap, CNN said, citing studies that put the cost
of the plan from at least $75 billion to as much as $100 billion over
the 10 years it could take to implement it.
However, experts
in health IT also point to the $200 billion to $300 billion a year
savings the Obama plan could produce, and that in fact much of the hard
early work needed has already been done, according to CNN.