Pat Rioux on LinkedIn made the following comment about a possible surprise that could come from the move to broad EMR adoption:

I hope the biggest surprise that we get from this huge undertaking is that we finally have providers wondering how they did their job without an EMR in the past. Improvement that is measurable speaks for itself. Patients who finally have access to their medical data and become participants in their own healthcare will be the best reward.

Well said. I’d also add that there are going to be a whole group of doctors in 5 years who never knew how to practice medicine without an EMR. There’s challenges with this too, but it’s an interesting view. Not to mention doctors who’ve been on an EMR for 10-15 years and can barely remember what it was like using a paper chart.

Yes, a few doctors will start using their EMR and miss the great chart hunt they use to embark on to find a missing chart. Or…