Another uninformed rant today from MedPundit on a nationalized medical record, claiming that

The government’s paramount goal in pushing a nationally-connected healthcare record is to be able to monitor and prescribe what kind of treatment everyone gets. You might be 85 years old and not want a mammogram, but too bad. The system will make sure you are harassed until you get one.

She’s clearly never even *used* the VA system for a patient. Yes, it reminds you about screenings like colonoscopies and mammograms, but in two mouse clicks you can turn the request off for any number of reasons. Add this to the fact that the VA does a much better job of screening its populations and doing diabetes follow-ups *because* of its electronic medical record, and you’ll realize she just wants to create an evil government enemy to satisfy her libertarian needs. She complains about a private insurance system, and then applies it to all medical records. (Also note that a recent Health Affairs study showed the US has the highest rates of medical errors as well.)

Update: Epiphanies has more with some linked articles–didn’t have time to find them this morning. And she’s right about EMR technology needing to be user-friendly, but this may be a case of a generation gap: I wonder if MedPundit’s generation is just not good with computers, and that’s the problem.

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