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Physician adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) has become a national priority. It is said that EMRs have the potential to greatly improve patient care, to provide the data needed for more effective population management and quality assurance of both an individual practice´s patients and well as patients of large health care systems, and the potential to create efficiencies that allow physicians to provide this improved care at a far lower cost than at present. There is currently a strong U.S. government push for physicians to adopt EMR technology, with the Obama administration emphasizing the use of EMRs as an important part of the future of health care and urging widespread adoption of this technology by 2014. This timely book for the primary care community offers a concise and easy to read guide for implementing an EMR system. Organized in six sections, this invaluable title details the general state of the EMR landscape, covering the government´s incentive program, promises and pitfalls of EMR technology, issues related to standardization and the range of EMR vendors from which a provider can choose. Importantly, chapter two provides a detailed and highly instructional account of the experiences that a range of primary care providers have had in implementing EMR systems. Chapter three discusses how to effectively choose an EMR system, while chapters four and five cover all of the vital pre-implementation and implementation issues in establishing an EMR system in the primary care environment. Finally, chapter six discusses how to optimize and maintain a new EMR system to achieve the full cost savings desired.
Concise, direct, but above all honest in recognizing the challenges in choosing and implementing an electronic health record in primary care, Electronic Medical Records: A Practical Guide for Primary Care has been written with the busy primary care physician in mind.

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1. Background and State of the Art
Catherine M. DesRoches, Dr. P.H. and Paola Miralles

2. Primary Care Perspectives - Interviews and Stories of Success and Disappointment
Neil Skolnik, M.D.

3. Choosing an EMR
Kenneth Adler, M.D.

4. Pre-Implementation Planning
Christopher Notte, MD

5. Implementation
Anupam Kashyap B.E , M.B.A

6. Maintenance and Optimization
Tom Wilkenson, M.D.

7. A View from the Top - Lessons from Leaders of Industry
Neil Skolnik, M.D.

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From the reviews:

"The current state of affairs in the national debate over the need for, and how to adopt, an electronic medical record, while recognizing the difficulties, costs, and other impediments to implementing such a system. ... This is a book for every medical practice, primary care and specialist, that is facing the questions of should they implement an electronic medical record system, and when and how they should do it." (Vincent F. Carr, Doody´s Review Service, March, 2011)

"Neil Skolnik and his coauthors have written a timely book designed to guide family practitioners through the process of selecting and implementing a practice EMR. ... the book should be useful to a broad audience. Many of the topics about the selection and implementation process can also apply to physicians in specialties ... . Electronic Medical Records: A Practical Guide for Primary Care have done an exceptionally good job of walking the physician inexperienced in the use of EMRs through the acquisition process." (David Chou, Journal of the American Medical Association, May, 2011)

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