Electronic Medical Records Industry Lobbies Against FDA Oversight

The electronic health records industry is "gearing up for a Washington lobbying fight against federal safety regulations," the Boston Globe reports. The Obama administration is going to release plans in the coming months on how information technology in the health industry should be regulated. The issue is "whether the systems should be considered medical devices and, therefore, regulated by the Food and Drug Administration just as a cardiac stent or a pacemaker is regulated," the Globe also reports.

Some say that electronic health records, also known as digital medical records, can lead to prescribing errors or other errors in patient care that harm patients, the Globe further reports.