Online Resource Helps Physicians Learn About Adopting EHRs

Family physicians interested in incorporating electronic health records into their practices can learn from those who already have adopted EHRs via a learning resource Web site recently launched by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The Web site includes a suite of resources that cover virtually all aspects of implementing an EHR system.

The site has links to documents with pragmatic advice, descriptions of barriers encountered and overcome by those who have implemented EHRs, and hands-on tools to identify the best system for a practice. It also discusses such issues as

"The goal is simple -- help health care providers at the ground level learn from each others' real-world experience and give them easy access to the best information available," said AHRQ Director Carolyn Clancy, M.D., in a news release announcing the site. "For providers, especially those in smaller practices, adoption of health IT can be challenging on many levels. This shared learning tool brings the lessons of experience together in one place."