Electronic medical records not seen as a cure-all

In a health-care debate characterized by partisan bickering, most lawmakers agree on one thing: American medicine needs to go digital. But bipartisan support has obscured questions about the effectiveness of health information technology products, critics say. Interviews with more than two dozen doctors, academics, patients and computer programmers suggest that computer systems can increase errors, add hours to doctors' workloads and compromise patient care. Health IT's effectiveness is unclear.