Female Speaker: Dr. Kevin Johnson is a pediatrician at children's hospital at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He and his colleagues use an electronic prescribing system for the medications they give patients. Dr. Kevin Johnson: And it's now been in a place for about two and half years and we are now up to somewhere close to 35,000 prescriptions per month. We have decision support built in, we have drug checking, we also have the ability to do all the pediatric dosing with some pediatricians and I'm really found with that part. Female Speaker: Dr. Johnson not only uses electronic health records for his patients, but he also has one of his own when he is a patient. Doctor's at Vanderbilt may get automatic reminders to order certain tests, perform necessary examinations or consider standardized treatment guidelines when using the electronic health record. He says, these built-in features make for more thorough care. Dr. Kevin Johnson: By providing the data that I need to make the right dictions, but also distributing those data to anyone else in the healthcare system, who sees that patient. Female Speaker: Making a switch from pen and paper communication to straightly computer records is not easy. There are some start up costs and adjustment to remain. Jeffrey Clode, an internal medicines specialist Spokane, Washington says initially it was a tough transition. Jeffrey Clode: Five years ago, he took a poll I think maybe have food adverted to junk and then go back into the paper record. It's hard to see the benefit early on because we are so much involved and getting that into place learning it. Female Speaker: But now, Dr. Clode used this system and enjoys using with his patients. Jeffrey Clode: I don't think anybody would go back to the paper record. I couldn't say that probably, five years ago. Probably, the largest advantage is nobody has to try to read your handwriting. So from a safety standpoint, it's huge, absolutely enormous. Female Speaker: Researches and physicians say electronic health records have the ability to transform clinical research making it faster and easier than it is today. In the future, the records may even be able to alert physicians to know studies their patients may qualify for. Dr. David Bates: You can look at information across very large numbers of patients, so you might for example, look at all the patients who gotten a new drug in ascertained care system, and see if any of them who have a certain complication. Jeffrey Clode: I can look at an X-ray at home, I can see the X-ray in my office, I can get nurses notes for the patients who are in the hospital in my office, I mean its amazing stuff that's being done now. Female Speaker: The plan is for electronic health records to help healthcare providers manage all the information to be generated in the future and to bring it to doctors at the point of care. Dr. Don Detmer: Nowadays, health and disease is a global phenomenon. We need to do this not only for a wealthy countries, but we need to collaborate, so we are doing this also for those parts of the world that don't have access to this technology. Female Speaker: In the mean time, providers and researchers what people to know their records can be securely access from public places such as libraries, if internet access is the challenge.