Electronic Medical Records

blog

RAND Turns 75: A Look Through the Decades At World-Changing Research

From anticipating the Space Age in the 1940s to studying gun policy and COVID-19 responses in the 2020s, RAND is celebrating 75 years of research that has made a difference.

commentary

The Problems Facing VA Modernization Are Bigger Than Its Software Systems

The list of criticisms of the new Veterans Affairs electronic health record system, Oracle Cerner, is long. It's expensive, downtime has been high, and doctors' orders have gone missing, putting patient safety at risk. How did this implementation go so wrong? And what should be done now?

Shira H. Fischer @ShiraFischer

commentary

How Smartphone Apps Could Help Keep Health Records Accurate

Electronic health records have helped streamline record keeping but providers aren't always able to reliably pull together records for the same patient from different hospitals, clinics, and doctor's offices. The growing use of smartphones offers a promising opportunity to improve record matching.

Ben Moscovitch, Robert S. Rudin @rsrudin

commentary

A 'Learning System' in Behavioral Health Can Help in Sharing Best Practices, Innovations

Leveraging technological advances to make better use of the best available data could help rein in healthcare costs and improve both quality and safety. This makes sense whether the healthcare being delivered is physical or behavioral.

Bradley D. Stein @BradleyDStein

blog

The Price of Personalized Health Care

Medical care in the United States is entering an era where technology can give patients more control over their care and let them take control of their health data.

commentary

Privacy Preferences for Healthcare Records and Information Across Europe

The general public has a more nuanced preference for the privacy of electronic health records than previously thought. Survey respondents said that they would not be averse to individuals involved in the health and rescue professions having access to their basic health information.

Catherine L. Saunders, Sunil Patil

commentary

Ransomware Hackers Are Coming for Your Health Records

Cyber criminals may be preying on hospitals because cyber protection measures likely have not kept pace with electronic data collection and because hospitals typically do not have backup systems and databases in place, even though such attacks can strain health care systems and potentially put patients' lives at risk.

Lillian Ablon, Mark W. Friedberg

commentary

Electronic Health Records: Yesterday's Ebola and Today's Zika

Electronic health records in U.S. hospitals are not yet prompting for screening questions related to Zika virus. Why? The existing system is too slow to respond and when it does, it finds itself chasing the past.

Shira H. Fischer @ShiraFischer

commentary

A Unique Identifier Could Protect Patient Privacy

The policy debate about unique patient identifier numbers should determine the best approach for reconciling two goals: optimizing the privacy and security of health information and making record matching as close to perfect as is practical.

Michael D. Greenberg

commentary

The ACA's Opportunity to Improve Care for Substance Use Disorders

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will significantly increase coverage for the publicly funded treatment of substance use disorders. But in order to maximize the benefit to patients, families, and society, it's critical to invest in the development, validation, and use of performance measures.

Katherine E. Watkins

commentary

How Electronic Health Records Can Lead to Care Coordination

Inadequate care coordination is a major problem in health care delivery, but information technology is emerging as an important tool for enhancing coordination and, ultimately, improving the delivery of care, writes Robert Rudin.

Robert S. Rudin @rsrudin

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The Delayed Promise of Health-Care IT

Globally, the health IT industry should not wait to be forced by government regulators into doing a better job. Developers can boost the pace of adoption by creating more standardized systems that are easier to use, truly interoperable, and afford patients greater access to and control over their personal health data.

Arthur L. Kellermann, Spencer S. Jones

commentary

Medical Records Immune to Tornado in Joplin, Mo.

Across the country, electronic medical records, designed first and foremost to make health care delivery safer and more efficient, are proving valuable when disaster strikes, write Mahshid Abir and Art Kellermann.

Mahshid Abir, Arthur L. Kellermann

commentary

Do Physicians Need a 'Shopping Cart' for Health Care Services?

Providing physicians with cost data in real time automatically as a part of the electronic medical record could make them better purchasers for their patients and provide better value, writes Robert H. Brook.

Robert H. Brook

commentary

Clinical Decision Support and Malpractice Risk

From the standpoint of policy makers, the basic challenge is to ensure that liability concerns do not derail the clinical value of new CDS technology, write Michael Greenberg and M. Susan Ridgely.

Michael D. Greenberg, M. Susan Ridgely

commentary

Creating Health ID Numbers Could Improve Patient Privacy

As it considers ways to improve the efficiency and quality of U.S. health care, one issue that a new Congress should reconsider is the longstanding roadblock that has stalled efforts to create a system of unique patient identification numbers for every person in the United States, writes Richard Hillestad.

Richard Hillestad

commentary

Sharing of Health-Care Data Needs a Tuneup

commentaries by RAND Staff: insightful commentaries on current events, published in newspapers, magazines and journals worldwide.

Elizabeth A. McGlynn