New England Journal of Medicine has the results of a study on the very low use of EHR’s in primary care with NY Times take on the study. Unfortunately, the message seems to be that financial incentives to doctors for pretty much any proprietary EHR system is what is needed with no analysis or thought whatsoever of their problems vs. open source ones:

‘…Four percent of physicians reported having an extensive, fully functional electronic-records system, and 13% reported having a basic system. In multivariate analyses, primary care physicians and those practicing in large groups, in hospitals or medical centers, and in the western region of the United States were more likely to use electronic health records. Physicians reported positive effects of these systems on several dimensions of quality of care and high levels of satisfaction. Financial barriers were viewed as having the greatest effect on decisions about the adoption of electronic health records…’ Links courtesy of John Leo Zimmer on hardhats.