Yesterday, Rhode Island, Governor Donald L. Carcieri announced his plan to establish a $20 million bond to create a health information network that will create a real-time and more accurate system of care for patients.

"We need to bring health care into the information age," Governor Carcieri said. "Relying on paper records means that critical information may not be available to patients when they most need it -- whether they are in an emergency room or seeing a specialist. Establishing a secure, on-demand health care information system will be an enormous benefit to Rhode Islanders and their doctors, and it will reduce our overall health care costs by eliminating redundancies."

Funds from the bond will leverage federal and private resources to secure hardware, software and the network capabilities necessary to share, secure, and compile medical data. While more providers are adopting electronic health records, the state funding will play an important role in designing, implementing, and overseeing such a network.

Most medical records are currently kept in manila folders, which often prevent doctors and patients from accessing the most updated patient data. Studies have shown that this outdated system contributes to duplications in testing and unnecessary admissions to emergency rooms.