This Health Industry Insights report summarizes recent progress in the adoption of both electronic medical records (EMR) and electronic health records (EHR) nationwide and the analyzes the effects of recent events at national, state, regional, and local levels to the ultimate success of the National Health Information Network (NHIN), arguably one of the most visible eHealth initiatives of the Bush administration.

Because the need for providers to electronically access patient medical history data is more relevant from across town, rather than across the continent, questions persist as to the ultimate value of the NHIN. "Nevertheless, the NHIN has become a symbol of the Bush eHealth policies; one that keeps the concept of HIT highly visible on the national stage and provides a 'test bed' for the development of standards to facilitate data exchange at any regional level. And this, in and of itself, is not a bad thing," said Marc Holland, program director for Healthcare Provider IT Research.