Americans Optimistic On Healthcare IT's Potential

With proposed legislation for healthcare reform dividing the country, a surprising consensus is emerging on healthcare IT: Most Americans like its promise for improving health care, holding down costs, and increasing access. Those are some of the conclusions revealed in a broad survey of the US population conducted by Harris Interactive for TechAmerica and the Career College Association. Most survey respondents--62%--said there's a shortage of educated healthcare workers to use HIT properly. Nearly 45% of the respondents said they're familiar with HIT applications through their doctor, while nearly 60% said they had seen electronic medical records in use.