We all know EHRs are expensive, that's why the federal government has promised some $45,000 to physicians who start using one over the next few years. Even Wal-Mart's EHR is pricy, charging physicians $25,000 up front with recurring monthly license fees. Meanwhile, you can get started with your very own EHR for under $200 on Apple's iTunes store.

A new study from the June issue of the American Journal of Managed Care concludes that EHRs can dramatically reduce costs and save resources compared to managed care programs for high-risk cardiac patients. The study shows that even minimal use of an EHR can help prevent costly medical procedures and increase quality of life in millions of patients at risk for chronic diseases, the number one global killer according to the World Health Organization.

A caution to readers: This post is about methods for certifying Electronic Health Record (EHR) technologies used by physicians, medical practices, and hospitals who hope to qualify for federal incentive payments under the so-called HITECH portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Do you plan to take my medical records home with you? This might become a more popular question after the recent discovery of VA Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho's medical records. As it turns out, the records had been gathering dust at the home of Dr. Robert C. Miller, former director of Tech's Cook Counseling Center. Could this situation have been avoided with EHRs?

While providers scramble to roll out EHR systems in time for ARRA funding, physicians have declared war on the clunky, proprietary software they are required to use. It complicates work flows, requires unnecessary data entry, and wastes time with superfluous windows and buttons, requiring the use of a maddening series of drop-down menus, mouse clicks, and work-arounds to perform even the simplest tasks. Today's EHR systems are sorely in need of the 'killer app', a term familiar to all professional computer programmers and software designers.