Earlier this week, Mayor Bloomberg announced a new plan to put health information of millions of New Yorkers online. He touted the initiative, "By bringing this health technology to New Yorkers, we are building a national model for a health care system that works... In Washington, they talk about how our health care system should be reformed; here in New York City, we are actually doing it."

Using $60 million of city, state, and federal funding, the City aims to provide physicians with computer software to better track patient medical information. By getting rid of the mountains of paperwork and dusty charts littering doctor's offices, the computer system will provide a centralized database of medical records including medical history, lab results, allergies, and medications.

The program will periodically remind overworked and/or absent-minded MDs about tests and duties that are routinely performed (ie. cholesterol checks, prescription refills). By giving a team of doctors who may be caring for a single patient access to the same information, the plan may make healthcare more efficient and prevent unnecessary repeat examinations and the prescribing of multiple medications that may lead to lower costs and prevent dangerous drug interactions and overdoses. Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said, "By giving doctors and patients the tools to better manage conditions such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, we can prevent thousands of strokes, heart attacks and early deaths."

So far, two hundred doctors caring for 200,000 or so patients have signed up, with a goal of 1,000 doctors involved by year's end. The City will also help pay for part of the service for docs who have practices where 30% or more of the patients are uninsured or on Medicaid.

New York City's movement towards electronic medical records is just one example of many such incentives across the country. Because of obvious concerns about patient confidentiality, while the Health Department will be allowed access to general medical data on how the City is doing, specific patient records will remain between them and their doctors.

Naturally, security and data theft remain a real concern with electronic medical record keeping - a lesson learned when a portable hard drive went missing from an Alabama veterans hospital about a year ago (the Veterans Affairs hospital system has been using an electronic records system for years to much critical acclaim from doctors and patients alike). And the ACLU has voiced worries about medical records becoming even more accessible to law enforcement agencies which are already allowed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) to demand them without warrants.