Based on "Preliminary Estimates of Electronic Medical Record Use by Office-based Physicians" in 2008 the electronic system of medical records is unpopular among American physicians: it's used by less than 40% of doctors.

The study by the National Center for Health Statistics showed that from two thousand physicians only 4% consider electronic systems functional. About 20% of respondents using them to extract recipes and directions for the tests, view the results of laboratory tests and imaging, as well as for clinical records.

All other respondents work with old-fashioned paper documents, but agree that electronic health statistics can improve health, reduce medical errors and save money. Note that in Europe doctors are not so conservative: for example, in the Netherlands 98% of physicians use computers for record keeping, and in Britain - 89% of doctors.

The newly elected U.S. President Barack Obama promised to make the introduction of electronic health systems essential part of health reform. For this purpose from the public purse will be allocated 50 billion dollars over the next five years.

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