I believe health information technology, when developed and applied correctly, is something that is needed in our health care system. There is the possibility, as stated by many people below, that personal information can get in the hands of the wrong person, potentially violating HIPAA, but this also true with our current paper system. For example, a couple of weeks ago, my mom had put in a request for my grandmother's and brother's insurance summary for tax purposes. Though she filled out the paperwork (and I do mean writing on a piece of paper, nothing electronic about it) with only their information and none of her own information, my grandmother and brother both received summaries in the mail of my mom's medical insurance records, rather than their own. This could have happened to anyone and we were very lucky that my grandmother and brother received this information rather than some complete stranger. This does show that this can happen with our current paper system.

As a member of a large HMO that has a home in northern California and southern California, I have seen the benefits of having things such as medical records be electronic. When I visit a physician down here in Southern California, they have absolutely no access to any medical information that is in my Northern California records. This is frustrating because my medical history is incomplete. Heaven forbid I should need some major surgery or other major procedure while I am living down here (I have yet to officially declare southern California as my medical home) because there will be that gap in where this information is recorded and my normal physicians may not have access to this. I find that when I visit a physician down here, I am advised that I am years over due for certain procedures or tests and that it is imperative that I get them done immediately. If only they had access to my Northern California records, they would know that I am up to date with everything and this advice is unneeded.

Our health care system could run much more efficiently with health information technology, saving potentially a large amount of money and even more time.