Article - June 16, 2008 - iHealthBeat

Long, Winding Road to EHRs Full of Political Twists, Turns

By Dennis Melamed

We should stop pretending that there is nothing political about establishing a network with the commendable objective of reducing medical errors.

Despite the motivation provided by the Institute of Medicine's report suggesting thousands of lives would be saved by reducing medical errors and despite
the thin veneer of bipartisan support demonstrated by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) sharing the stage as cheerleaders, we simply do not have a consensus on how to use electronic health data.

Most of us like the idea of having new health information tools, but we disagree on how to use them in many areas.

The debate is not only between privacy advocates and business interests. It's also about abortion and reproductive rights. It's about the discrimination that exists over sexuality, mental health, disabilities of all kinds and genetics.

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