With healthcare costs rising at steep annual rates, there is a push to make preventative services more accessible. A new study indicates that electronic health records may play an important role in this.

Preventative care has received much attention recently because it is widely believed that stopping people from developing illnesses like diabetes and heart disease can be cheaper than treating the conditions. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 75 percent of the nation’s healthcare spending goes to treating preventable illnesses.

For the present study, researchers analyzed data collected as part of the Primary Care Information Project, which is a New York City initiative designed to help patients on public insurance plans access more preventative services at smaller primary care office.

The researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association that these patients were more likely to receive recommended preventative services when their cases were being tracked by EHRs.

The findings show that EHR systems could play an important role in improving the quality of care while lowering costs.