Q&A: Between the lines of NEJM EHR report – ‘Trust trumps technology’ for EHR success, authors say

Distinguishing itself from previous efforts to prove the viability of EHRs and meaningful use, a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine shed light on just what can be accomplished by using electronic medical records rather than paper records.

The finding: A survey of 27,000 adult diabetics spanning 500 primary care physicians across 46 practices in the Cleveland area found that those practices employing EHRs earned “annual improvements in healthcare that were 10 percent greater than their paper-based counterparts,” and their patients were “significantly more likely to have healthcare and outcomes that align with accepted standards than those where doctors rely on paper records.”...