Obama 'Likes' Health IT

President Obama leveraged the power of the social network this week to promote health IT, among other topics, during a town hall meeting at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., reports eWeek.com.

The president's health IT message was basic: Paper medical records are inefficient. When physicians can't share medical records electronically, patients and insurers pay for duplicative and expensive medical tests.

Federal incentives are helping hospitals and physicians offset the expense of implementing electronic health records, Obama said, according to eWeek.com. With incentives, "we can slowly get this system [to become] more effective -- that's priority No. 1. We know it can be done, by the way."

He cited the Veterans Health Administration as an example of a large, integrated health system that is saving money by using EHRs.

The president took questions in an open format from Facebook President Mark Zuckerberg, members of the audience and from emails sent in by online viewers. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom were among those in the live audience, eWeek reports. More than 25,000 people registered to watch the webcast.