Gina Kolata reported yesterday in the New York Times that Medicare - in an effort to speed compliance with electronic medical-records management - is distributing its own patient-records software free of charge to any doctor in the nation. The system is public domain, and boasts a volunteer user tech-support community; it apparently also allows for user modification for those inclined to do so. Given also that it’s apparently hard to install and has a low installed user base, it’s basically Linux for doctors!

[O]nly 20 percent to 25 percent of the nation’s 650,000 licensed doctors outside the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs are using electronic patient records.

Now, however, Medicare, which says the lack of electronic records is one of the biggest impediments to improving health care, has decided to step in. In an unprecedented move, it said it planned to announce that it would give doctors - free of charge - software to computerize their medical practices. An office with five doctors could save more than $100,000 by choosing the Medicare software rather than buying software from a private company, officials say.

The program begins next month, and the software is a version of a well-proven electronic health record system, called Vista, that has been used for two decades by hospitals, doctors and clinics with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Medicare will also provide a list of companies that have been trained to install and maintain the system.

Given Medicare’s heft, the software giveaway could transform American medicine, said Dr. John Wasson, a Dartmouth Medical School health care researcher.

This is a potentially great move, assuming it has no “back doors” into patients’ records. The transparency of the system - if it is as extensive as the Times seems to imply, though that’s not clear - will help guard against this, but, considering the number of people who still haven’t set the security settings in Windows, the potential for trouble is considerable. It’s absurd even to have to consider this issue, but, with a government that will literally stop at nothing and is openly hostile to patients’ rights or privacy, the idea that this whole program could be a massive Trojan horse has to be considered.

Assuming that it’s on the up-and-up, the program is remarkable from this administration. Just recently, Republican disgrace Rick Santorum sponsored a bill prohibiting the National Weather Service from releasing weather data - compiled at public expense for public benefit - in order to give an advantage to commercial companies selling the same data for a fee. The idea that the government - which has mandated electronic medial record-keeping under HIPAA - would provide a valuable and highly effective software package for healthcare in a field in which expensive commercial packages already exist, just because it’s a good idea, is refreshing. (Let’s hope Santorum doesn’t find out about it.) One assumes a backlash from commercial software companies will be forthcoming, and here’s hoping Medicare has the fortitude, and the clout, to withstand it.