Patients would be better cared for if Canadian hospitals and doctors' offices would stop relying on paper charts and begin using electronic health records, health policy experts say.

Computers can improve patient care, for example, by helping to prevent drug interactions, said Charlyn Black, head of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia.

It can "make sure patients are receiving refills, that they don't forget to take medications, that they get reminders for important preventive care," said Black.

Among industrialized countries, Canada is among a few yet to embrace the idea of keeping health records electronically, said Black.

Indeed, Canada's health-care system is 25 to 30 years behind the country's banking system in terms of using information technology, said Tony Fell, chairman of RBC Capital Markets.

Fell said he resigned from the Ontario government's Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network in frustration over the provincial health system's refusal to embrace the benefits of technology.

"It's unfortunate that no government has the foresight to see that information technology is the only way out of the morass that we have in Canada's health-care system," said Fell, who has also chaired the board of the University Health Network, a group of hospitals.

Advantages versus costs

Electronic systems streamline work, eliminate duplication and protect consumers' privacy, Fell said, pointing to the banks as proof. But he said the health-care system is reluctant to make the required investment.

This year's federal budget has $400 million earmarked for the health-care system's information technology, but computerizing doctors' offices alone will cost another $2 billion, said Richard Alvarez, president and CEO of Canada Health Infoway, the government-created group overseeing the computerization of health systems.

"The hold up really is the dollars," said Alvarez, who said half the country will have electronic health records by 2010.

Currently, about 20 per cent of Canadian doctors have offices that keep electronic records. Those that do, such as Halifax-area family physician Dr. Robert Oliver, recognize the benefits.

"I think the biggest barrier is physicians are comfortable doing what they're doing," said Oliver. "They don't see the advantages of the electronic record necessarily versus the cost of it."

But there are advantages, in such routine functions as writing prescriptions, which Oliver does by e-mail directly to the pharmacy. Research suggests that cuts the risk of mistakes in half.

The clinic where he works is recouping its technology costs in time saved, and now has extra space where the paper charts used to be stored, he said.

And there's a level of comfort for patients, too. Sylvia Thimot said she likes that Oliver has her entire health and medication history at his fingertips.