Electronic Health & Medical Records

Portrait of Dr. David Blumenthal

Temporary EHR Certification Program and List

Dr. David Blumenthal | June 18, 2010

A surgeon can’t operate without the proper equipment. A clinician can’t achieve meaningful use of electronic health records without an EHR that is designed to improve patient care and practice efficiency.
The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services announces today a big step in ensuring that clinicians can easily identify EHRs and EHR modules that have the capabilities needed to achieve meaningful use and thereby reap the financial incentives offered by Medicare and Medicaid.

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Portrait of Dr. David Blumenthal

Health IT Adoption

Dr. David Blumenthal | June 14, 2010

Introducing change in health care is never easy. Historically, adopting our most fundamental medical technologies, from the stethoscope to the x-ray, were met with significant doubt and opposition. So it comes as no surprise that in the face of change as transformational as the adoption of health IT – even though it carries the promise of vastly improving the nation’s health care – some hospitals and providers push back. I resisted using EHRs while an internist in Boston,

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Portrait of Dr. David Blumenthal

Benefits of Health IT

Dr. David Blumenthal | November 30, 2009

In February 2009, President Obama and the Congress launched a vast, ambitious program to improve the health of Americans, and the performance of their health system, by building a nationwide, interoperable, private and secure, electronic health information system.  This vision – of health care empowered by a modern information system, serving each and every American according to their needs and preferences – reflects decades of study and thinking by health care experts, health professionals, and average citizens. 

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