Health IT chief: EHRs worth the effort

The transition from paper to electronic health records may be a challenge, but it is worth the effort, says David Blumenthal, MD, national coordinator for Health Information Technology, who spoke with Medical Economics during the Medical Group Management Association's annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, in October.

"I think that the idea that there's no return on investment is going to turn out to be a myth," says Blumenthal, a former practicing internist at Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System in Boston, Massachusetts. "You can't be fully competent anymore in your practice if you can't use the best information that's available about your patient, and that means electronic information."