Off the Record — Avoiding the Pitfalls of Going Electronic. 2008. [Accessed April 18, 2008].

Many of the readers of this blog have probably seen these articles in the New England Journal of Medicine this week:

1. Off the Record — Avoiding the Pitfalls of Going Electronic. 2008. [Accessed April 18, 2008].

2. Personally Controlled Online Health Data — The Next Big Thing in Medical Care? 2008. [Accessed April 18, 2008].

3. Tectonic Shifts in the Health Information Economy. 2008.

I was most interested in the Hartzband and Groopman article, which was concerned with “what does this mean for us?” The “us” referred to, though, is “us doctors.” What about “us, the people with a primary professional mission to serve the public.” (I still have this link on my mind, forwarded by Bob Moore from Group Health Cooperative). It’s possible that if patients had the same access to their electronic medical record that we do, that many of the problems expressed in the article would, as I like to say, be “self-healing.” If I know that the patient I am serving is going to read what I write, how will that impact my interest in making it accurate? (My guess: A lot)

See what you think, comments welcome of course.