Brick-by-Brick Document Scanning Projects Building Solid Foundation for Future of Electronic Medical Records

Stories about the push towards electronic medical records usually note two primary facts: one, the Obama Administration's stimulus plan includes money to induce doctors and hospitals to implement electronic medical records; and two, the vast majority of doctors and hospitals do not currently use electronic medical records systems in any meaningful way.

But reports such as this one that focus on the paucity of fully developed electronic medical records systems may be missing the larger point, which is that such systems could never exist or thrive long-term without a solid foundation.

Therefore, it is perhaps better not to rush the process, but to let it build piece by piece. Fortunately, that's exactly what appears to be happening, thanks to document scanning technology that allows doctors and hospitals to cheaply scan huge reams of paper.

Document imaging services can scan pages at an extremely low cost.

Once all that paper has been digitized, more elaborate electronic medical records systems should spring up naturally, as databases are connected and rendered searchable.