Portable electronic medical records are closer to reality, but not without hitches.

Although banking, insurance, and real estate have eagerly embraced electronic record keeping, most hospitals and physician practices have by and large clung to paper patient records. A recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics indicated that only onefourth of office-based physicians currently have an electronic medical record-keeping system. But that may change soon as the federal government and private insurers provide incentives to physicians to make the conversion from paper to digital record keeping. Using a model similar to secure credit card Web portals, easy-touse and portable medical records are just around the corner, say medical information leaders. In recent months several models have emerged to test whether electronic health records (EHRs) can work. Although supporters tout EHRs as a time and money saver that reduces medical errors, some physicians have been burned by unwieldy systems before and are taking a wait-and-see approach this time.