Medscape (8/21, Melville) reports, “Patients with multiple chronic conditions are significantly less likely to receive treatment for depression at primary care practices that use electronic medical records (EMRs) compared with practices that do not use EMRs,” according to a study published in the August issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine. “Researchers at the University of Florida hypothesized that practices using EMRs would be particularly beneficial for complex patients with chronic conditions who are in need of depression treatment, offering greater efficiency in information sharing and delivery of care than those not using EMRs.” However, “the study of 3,467 primary care practice visits by patients aged 18 years and older who were identified as having depression, which used data from the 2006 to 2008 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys, showed an opposite effect.”
