Paper Medical Records Are Vanishing Into The Cloud

Scores of filing cabinets containing thousands of patient medical records are disappearing into the cloud.

Use of electronic health records systems in doctors' offices has doubled in recent years, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2012, 72 percent of office-based physicians reported using electronic health records, up from 35 percent in 2007, the CDC says. The report finds that adoption of electronic health records was higher among younger physicians compared with older physicians, among primary-care physicians rather than specialty doctors, and among larger practices than smaller.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is helping guide implementation of the Hitech Act reforms. Led by Karen DeSalvo, the office is currently navigating the process of getting different electronic health systems to talk to each other -- a process known as interoperability.