Software Advice recently hosted a survey on its blog asking physicians to voice their opinions on the benefits of electronic medical record (EMR) software. The results are in, and over 50 physicians voiced their opinions on the subject. While this is a relatively small sample - considering over two thousand physicians have successfully attested Meaningful Use, some interesting trends were clearly found in the data.

You can find the full results here: Benefits of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Software | 2011 Physician Survey. Here’s a quick snapshot of some of the most interesting findings.

Over 65% of participants agreed on the top four benefits: greater accessibility of charts, greater note legibility, more accurate and up-to-date patient information, and improved coordination of treatment by more than one provider. A reason for these being some of the most common benefits may be the proliferation of web-based electronic medical record systems, along with new mobile EMR applications.

Some of the main objectives of the HITECH Act were to improve the accessibility of patient information and improve the coordination of treatment by multiple providers, so it’s good to see that the participants agreed that these were some of the main benefits.