Sharing Medical Data

The article in the LA Times starts with this: “Glendale Adventist Medical Center’s recent partnership with a nonprofit group is designed to make access and delivery of electronic medical records more efficient for those in its network.”   People outside the medical world are probably a little confused by this.  They may be thinking, wait a minute, doctors and hospitals don’t share records electronically?  The answer is no.  It turns out these systems in California had to “sign two-year contracts with the Los Angeles Network for Enhanced Services, or LANES, an L.A. County-based nonprofit that provides a platform for the exchange of electronic patient data among public and private healthcare providers”.  That won’t be cheap.

How pathetic is it that this is big news in 2017?  I sure hope their dial-up modems are working well.