Health 2.0 Attendees Predict Slow Adoption of EHRs

Despite rabid zeal and rapid growth in their industry, even true believers predict we're still several years away from bringing electronic health records (EHRs) into the majority of the nation's doctors' offices. In a poll during the closing panel of the Health 2.0 Conference Wednesday, three out of four attendees predicted it would take at least six years to get more than half the country's physicians in small practices to start using EHRs. Asked to put a timeline on when Health 2.0 is likely to drive small physician-practice adoption above 50%, 41% predicted it would happen by 2015 and 31% predicted it would take "much, much longer." On the shorter end of the timeline, 24% predicted it would happen by 2013, and only a few saw it happening by 2011. David Kibbe, senior adviser to the American Academy of Family Physicians and a member of the final panel, said most EHRs are too expensive and too difficult to implement.