Researchers fire back on Mostashari for criticism of EHR study

Researchers for a study on the use of electronic health records have issued a response to public criticism they received on the study from Farzad Mostashari, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

At the HIT Policy Committee meeting on March 7, and in a blog post, Mostashari expressed strong disagreement over the study published in the March issue of Health Affairs. The study has drawn a slew of national media attention.

Authored by Danny McCormick, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School; David Bor, chief of medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance; and Stephanie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, both professors at CUNY School of Public Health, the study analyzed 28,741 patient office visits to a nationally representative sample of 1,187 office-based physicians in 2008 – the most current data available, they claim.

The study concluded that doctors who have access to computerized imaging were 40 to 70 percent more likely to order additional tests.

Mostashari said he was frustrated with the researchers’ conclusion, saying it was good for “grabbing headlines,” but not accurate. Mostashari also said the study did not use the correct data to draw conclusions about the use of EHRs.

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