In order to lower costs and improve quality, the healthcare system needs to adopt EHRs at a quicker rate, but the public must be fully convinced of the technology's security in order to support physicians' transition to networked systems, according to one expert.

The HITECH Act mandated updates to certain HIPAA rules regarding data security, but the final rules have yet to be implemented. Deven McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said at a meeting of the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and Law that these new rules should go into effect immediately.

This would show the public that the government is serious about protecting data, McGraw said. Numerous surveys have shown that privacy breaches are among the leading concerns of the public regarding EHR use. Satisfying this concern could lead to greater support for the use of the technology, leading to higher adoption rates.

"Failure to build and maintain public trust in the collection and sharing of electronic health information will doom efforts to leverage health information technology to promote innovation in the healthcare sector," she told the subcommittee.