To the Editor:

Thank you for the articles on electronic health records (EHRs) in the February 2005 issue. I appreciate the work done by the pioneers who have furthered the use of EHRs in family medicine. I only hope that we have a truly functional health information infrastructure while I am still in practice.

I also appreciated the piece by Dr. Carla Jardim [“Making the Most of Every Minute,” page 80]. Her comments led me to reflect on the things that set physicians apart from technicians. Perhaps fear of undermining the physician-patient relationship is what has kept physicians from embracing the EHR for so long. If so, it was a good reason. How we interact with people is as important as the information we give them.