HIT:New York RHIO examined

With Washington now officially convinced that electronic medical records could have helped alleviate much of the confusion following Hurricane Katrina, look for more attention to be paid to the topic. The New York Times looks at the Taconic Health Information Network and Community, one effort to link small physician practices in upstate New York, which was funded by grants from the eHealth Initiative and the Agency for Health Care Quality. Proponents suggest that the Taconic model, which relies on a centralized database system to store information and allows doctors to access information over the Web using a standard PC, is simple and inexpensive enough for small group practices.

- see this story from The New York Times

PLUS: Proponents of EMR systems are likely to point to stories like this one out of New Orleans: Evacuees who are veterans are able to access their complete health records online anywhere in the country. Story