Two surveys out confirm that patients believe that EMRs may be useful and that more doctors are using handhelds for ePrescribing. Accenture's survey suggests that huge majorities of consumers believe that EMRs can increase care quality, reduce medical errors, and even reduce healthcare costs. More than half said that they thought EMRs were more secure than paper records. Fifty-two percent even said they were willing to pay $5 per month for an EMR, although that test has yet to succeed in the real world. Meanwhile, without releasing the underlying data, Manhattan Research says that the number of doctors using ePrescribing via PDAs is up 300 percent in the past year.
- see the Accenture press release
- see the Manhattan press release (PDF)