Dennis Quaid on Electronic Medical Records (CBS Sunday Morning)

September 15, 2009 · Filed Under medical records, policy issues, pt/doc co-care, trends & principles · 3 Comments

Actor Dennis Quaid has become an advocate for electronic medical records. In 2007 his 12 day old twins received a massive accidental overdose (10,000 units of heparin instead of 10 units), a near-fatal error that could have been prevented by the kind of bar code technology that the VA has been using for decades. (Yes, folks, sorry, a government institution was decades ahead of privatized healthcare on this.)

Quaid appeared on CBS Sunday Morning this week, in an informative piece by David Pogue of the New York Times about EMRs. It’s a bit popularized, as you might expect for network TV, but it’s a good piece, a particularly good introduction for your family and friends who might not “get it” about EMRs yet: