A recent study finds that evidence of the benefits of health information technology are emerging for small practices. But the study, which reviewed previous looks at health IT, noted that the benefits don't always translate into physician satisfaction with electronic medical records.

For the article, in the March Health Affairs and co-written by David Blumenthal, MD, national coordinator for health IT, researchers analyzed 154 peer-reviewed studies from 2007 to 2010 that looked at health IT. Unlike similar studies looking at earlier research that often found negative effects of EMRs, they found that 92% of the articles reached positive conclusions (content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/3/464).

Of the studies analyzed, 96 showed post-implementation improvements in one or more aspects of care, with no aspects worse off. About 140 of the studies, including the 96 with no aspects worse off, found either positive or mixed-positive outcomes, meaning researchers found a positive conclusion overall, but the article demonstrated at least one negative aspect of health IT. The aspects of care the studies looked at were access to care, preventive care, patient satisfaction, patient safety, and effectiveness and efficiency of care.

The report's findings may be one of the green lights some practices are waiting for to buy technology, said Melinda Buntin, PhD, director of the Office of Economic Analysis, Evaluation and Modeling at the Office of the National Coordinator and co-author of the report.

"Physicians are very evidence-driven," she said. "They read medical literature, and they want to know what it concludes. The literature on this area has been voluminous and, as we say in the article, has been focused on larger health systems. But now the literature has really expanded, and we were able to say that there were benefits being shown outside of those large systems."

It comes at a good time, the authors note, because physicians are feeling pressure from the federal government to adopt EMRs and offered incentives to do so. Physicians can earn bonuses up to $44,000 from the Medicare program, or up to $63,750 from Medicaid for installing and using an eligible EMR system.

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