EHRs can lead to improvements in patient care by enabling physicians to track all stages of a patient's treatment, but experts say that the technology may also boost care quality in more subtle ways.

For example, many believe that EHRs will represent a major boon to comparative effectiveness research. This process involves looking at common practices in healthcare and determining which are the most useful and cost-effective, and which contribute to high expenses while standing in the way of patient safety.

EHRs support these efforts by providing researchers with access to greater amounts of data, making it easier for them to see what works and what doesn't. These types of initiatives have gone on for decades, but it previously would have taken researchers many years to compile the amount of data they can now access in a few minutes thanks to EHRs.

The Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a report in which it stated that comparative effectiveness research has already led to major improvements in the treatment of prostate cancer, osteoporosis and diabetes. Fueled by growing EHR use, this research could continue to make great strides in the future.