Re “Digitizing Health Records, Before It Was Cool” (Jan. 15), which described one company’s role in supplying electronic medical health records:

The article noted that companies’ varying platforms for these records “have raised concerns about usability, especially when different systems must share information” and that some people “wonder if the government should play a bigger role in creating uniform technical standards and designs.”

I am a practicing physician in a 12-provider private practice. My group has adopted an electronic platform from one company, while each of our two local health systems has a different one. We are linked to receive electronic information from one system, but the other does not provide it to us. We cannot send information to either.

Part of the 2009 federal stimulus package was meant to encourage and promote wider adoption of electronic records. Health systems and vendors should include portability with all providers in their systems in order to receive the stimulus.

Marvin H. Kamras, M.D.

Washington, Jan. 15

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=a8280abc6b0a801cb9a437419e21ad70