In a study in Finland, an automated system monitoring  the growth of children was integrated into the electronic health care records system. That allowed doctors to catch a higher rate of growth disorders.  The other study looked at diabetes patients in the U-S, and found that electronic health records resulted in a reduction of emergency room visits and hospitalizations.  Josue Rodas is the Executive Director of the UCF College of Medicine’s Regional Extension Center.

“What we are looking at are the early beginnings of an interconnected, modernized, vastly improved health care delivery system where providers have information at their fingertips to provide quality, efficient and cost effective care,” he says.

The Regional Extension Center works with doctors on understanding how to switch over to electronic health records. Rodas says recent local surveys done by his office show doctors using electronic health records have lower instances of duplicate tests and laboratory orders.