Funding an infrastructure to support primary care informatics

Abstract

Strong primary health care is essential to the future of overall health care in the US. This will require access to, and widespread use of, electronic information tools in primary ambulatory care, especially the use of electronic patient clinical records and the delivery of 'just in time' clinical information at the time and point of care. The use of such information tools in US primary care now lags far behind their use in other developed countries. It is doubtful that US primary care medical informatics will close this 'gap' unless specific emphasis and resources are directed to this goal. A nationwide primary care informatics centralised co-ordinating group, funded by the federal government and/or private foundations, is a practical and achievable means toward this end.