EMR Fear and Loathing at the American Medical Association

If some of the paranoia about health IT that I heard last week at the American Medical Association annual meeting really is representative of practicing physicians — and not just the protectionist Medical Establishment — this country is in trouble.

As much as the AMA purports to speak for all doctors, only about one in five U.S. physicians is a dues-paying member these days, and the membership does largely seem like a clubby collection of aging white males who stubbornly cling to the status quo — particularly when it comes to IT. This is a remarkable situation, given that the status quo in health IT has changed like never before with the the stimulus legislation that allocates a net $19.2 billion for health IT over the next eight years, the bulk of which goes to help doctors and hospitals purchase electronic medical records. http://ping.fm/dUrrG