The September 2005 issue (subscription required) of Health affairs is devoted to Health IT public policy. An excerpt from one of the abstracts reacting to a RAND report on building a National Health Information Network: ‘…The current fascination with electronic medical records (EMRs) is not new. For decades, vendors have capitalized on this enthusiasm. But hospitals and clinics have ended up with little to show for their large outlays. Indeed, computing at a typical hospital has not gotten much beyond what was available twenty-five years ago. The RAND analysis continues the tradition of hope and hype. Unfortunately, behind their impressive predictions of savings lie a disturbing array of unproven assumptions, wishful thinking, and special effects…’