Benefits and Barriers to Adoption of Information Technology in US Healthcare

Abstract

Information technology such as electronic medical records (EMRs), electronic prescribing, and clinical decision support systems are recognized as essential tools in all developed countries. However, the U.S. lags significantly behind other countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Significant barriers impede wide-scale adoption of these tools in the U.S., especially EMR systems. These barriers include lack of access to capital by healthcare providers, complex systems, and lack of data standards that permit exchange of clinical data, privacy concerns and legal barriers, and provider resistance. Overcoming these barriers will require subsidies and performance incentives by payers and government, certification and standardization of vendor applications that permit clinical data exchange, removal of legal barriers, and convincing evidence of the cost-effectiveness of these IT applications.