Dr. David Blumenthal, chief evangelist in the crusade to move American health care into the electronic age, is a recovering Luddite.
Like many doctors who continue to take a jaundiced view of electronic health records, Blumenthal for a time wandered the paper wilderness, reports Paul McCloskey for Government Health IT.
"I liked my prescription pad," said the national coordinator for health information technology, who gave the keynote address at last week's annual conference of the Health Information and Management Systems Society, in Atlanta. "I liked writing out those requisitions in triplicate."
It wasn't until the technology prevented him from prescribing a harmful drug that Blumenthal became a true believer. Having seen the light, he is confident that the federal government can convert the uninitiated.
"Instead of hanging back," predicted Blumenthal, "physicians will be at the front of this effort to advance the technology."
John Pulley
John Pulley has written the Health IT Update blog since May 2011. Prior to becoming a regular contributor to Nextgov, he covered technology for Federal Computer Week and Government Health IT magazines. He has written about government for Federal Times and Air Force Times, as well. Pulley has worked in journalism for more than 20 years. He began his career covering local government for regional newspapers. In addition, he served as a writer and senior editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education for seven years. In 2006, he founded The Pulley Group, an editorial services agency.
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