Stimulus would boost digitizing health records

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Digitizing the nation's health information - converting medical files from paper to electronic records that could be shared among providers - is about to get a big but painfully needed shot in the arm.

Both the House and Senate versions of the economic stimulus package include $20 billion for electronic medical records, a sum expected to spur the conversion to save costs, improve the quality of care and add information technology jobs, especially in the Bay Area.

While a relatively small part of President Obama's roughly $900 billion plan to jump-start the economy, the funds amount to the largest infusion of cash the health IT industry has ever seen.

"It's a monstrous amount, given that there has been very little government support for this activity in the past," said Sam Karp, vice president of programs for the California HealthCare Foundation and former director of the group's Health Information Technology program.

Your medical records could become "campaign research".