Individual efforts count for next to nothing when failure is epidemic. So how do we mobilize all the key players to solve this?

• Pay physicians by creating new "DRGs" that pay for actions enabled by EHRs, including email reminders, online scheduling, email visits, telehealth visits, mobile phone visits, text message replies, email/text medication reminders, etc.
• Find the doctors and hospitals that have successfully implemented EHRs and duplicate their best-practices.
• Provide a federally funded grant for physicians who demonstrate financial need to buy and implement EHR systems (create guidelines similar in scope to the federal student financial aid programs). Physician organizations and other advocacy/policy/thinktank groups create mentoring organizations and open-source databases where best-practice lessons in EHR use are detailed. Start with CIO Dr. John Halamka of Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center in Boston. He gives out daily doses of 'vaccinations' against EHR failure for free on his blog, "Life as a Healthcare CIO."
• Bypass the doctors and go straight for consumers. Companies like Google and Microsoft are entering the consumer space with PHR offerings available direct to the patient.

When we break the failure to implement EHRs into components that are "cure-based" as opposed to "treatment based," we can construct a vaccination plan that addresses the high-risk areas for each sector of the health care industry, as shown above.

But how will you vaccinate yourself, your family, against EHR failure? Will you lobby your elected representatives? Talk with your doctor about options? Explore using a consumer-oriented PHR like Microsoft's HealthVault?

This epidemic can be deadly. Are you satisfied with a failing grade?