Not sold on having your intimate medical details existing out there, somewhere, in cyber space?  Well, if you live in the United States it appears you have five years to reconcile those concerns if New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has his way.

At a major health policy conference earlier this week, Bloomberg called for universal electronic health records by 2012.

According to NY’s mayor “In this day and age, there is no excuse for any more delay," he said. "So let's set this national goal: Five years from today, every doctor's office, clinic and hospital in America that accepts Medicaid and Medicare must be using prevention-oriented electronic health records."

EHR (electronic health records) are computerized versions of the bulky paper files occupying shelves in doctors' offices and hospitals. Supporters of ridding medical offices and facilities of antiquated paper files say they result in medical errors and are difficult to transfer between healthcare providers. Getting to 100% adoption is going to be an uphill batter with the medical industry’s reputation for being behind the times in regard to the adoption of technology in comparison to other industries.  Another factor is that cities alone do not have the resources to fix this problem.

Bloomberg suggest that the federal government can help achieve the five-year goal, by giving doctors and hospitals money to buy computers, as well as restructuring Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement to reward providers who can show they are using the records to focus on prevention, and emphasizing primary care.

Adoption of streamlined records should be part of an overall shift of emphasis away from expensive procedures to inexpensive preventive measures, he said. "What we're doing is encouraging expensive forms of treatment and discouraging less-costly disease prevention. We're breaking the bank and certainly not getting our money's worth.

Bloomberg estimated the total cost of the transition at $20 billion, which he said was a small sum compared to the trillions of dollars currently spent on healthcare in the United States.  New York City has already invested heavily in electronic health records, becoming one of the first cities to implement them in public hospitals and community health centers, the mayor said. Last year the city government committed $27 million to help make the technology needed for the records affordable to doctors.

Earlier this month North Adams, Massachusetts planned to launch a citywide computer health network to become the first city in the U.S. where any physician and many nurses in the city can access the electronic health records from their offices, North Adams Regional Hospital or the visiting nurses association.