Obama proposing a massive effort to to make all health records standardized and electronic

From CNN:

- Obama proposing a massive effort to to make all health records standardized and electronic, to create 212,000 jobs

- Only 8% of the nation's 5,000 hospitals and 17% of its 800,000 physicians currently use EMR

- "Universal" EMR could cost at least $75 billion to $100 billion over the ten years

From Twitter:

dermdoc @AllergyNotes I use only electronic medical records in my practice. I love it. Medicine is the last luddite. 6 minutes ago from web in reply to AllergyNotes

dermdoc @AllergyNotes In my experience, docs who took good notes on paper take good notes electronically. Those who wrote worthless notes, still do. 4 minutes ago from web in reply to AllergyNotes

Deducting from my extensive experience with EMR (electronic medical records), I believe it has advantages and disadvantages like any product. For example, some users are prone to abusing the system by copy-pasting, using "canned" templates that change very little with individual patients, etc. However, overall the EMR is a much better solution than paper documentation.

References:
Obama's big idea: Digital health records. CNN.