A Digital Shift on Health Data Swells Profits in an Industry

Image: Dr. Vivek Reddy, a neurologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, also works on its digital records effort. Jeff Swensen for The New York Times

nytimes.com - February 19th, 2013 - Julie Creswell

It was a tantalizing pitch: come get a piece of a $19 billion government “giveaway.” The approach came in 2009, in a presentation to doctors by Allscripts Healthcare Solutions of Chicago, a well-connected player in the lucrative business of digital medical records. That February, after years of behind-the-scenes lobbying by Allscripts and others, legislation to promote the use of electronic records was signed into law as part of President Obama’s economic stimulus bill. The rewards, Allscripts suggested, were at hand.

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