According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 1 in 10 U.S. physicians in 2005 were using systems that included prescription and diagnostic test orders, test results and physician notes, which are vital to a complete health information network. That number may be in the rise, but it still lags behind demand and the pace of technology.

“As a result, the United States—which had a key role in the creation of personal computers, the rise of the consumer Internet, the mapping of the human genome and using technology to cut costs—lags Denmark, the Netherlands and some other industrialized nations when it comes to moving medical records into the digital age, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a healthcare-focused private foundation in New York,” writes Lisa Baertlein with Reuters in U.S. Health IT Lags on eWeek.com

Insurance companies, which have come under fire for cherry picking the healthiest patients or limiting payments to members, make up another sector that stands to benefit from digital information to find the most effective treatments.

 

The United States plans to develop a national network of health information by 2014, and the European Union has called for every member state to create a system of electronic medical records, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' recent Pharma 2020 report.

 

AND THE WINNER IS ... DENMARK

 

Denmark leads the pack among European and English-speaking countries when it comes to using digital information to deliver health care, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

 

The Danish government provides health care for its citizens and most of their health information is kept in a single system that can be accessed and updated by an individual's primary care doctor and other medical professionals.

 

Anyone who has personally—or through an acquaintance or family member—grappled with a complex or terminal medical condition knows just how difficult it can be to keep track of specialist visits, hospital stays and prescription drugs—and how valuable it is for doctors, patients and family members to have immediate access to complete records during a health crisis.

None of this of course is a surprise. In a June 2006 article, Health IT struggles echo 19th century challenges (Government Health IT), John Pulley writes, “Up to 100,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors, according to estimates released by the Institute of Medicine in 2000. Subsequent studies have estimated twice as many such deaths, with medical errors killing more people every year than breast cancer, AIDS or wrecks involving motor vehicles.”

“One in every five of those fatal errors results from a lack of immediate access to patient health care information, said Jodi Daniel, the director of policy and research for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.”

While the “war on terror” continues to dominate the U.S. administration’s policy, priorities such as Health IT will continue lag and fall further behind European counterparts.