France leads in EMR

I thought France was an "old country" that sticks to tradition, an image reinforced by its refusal to let English in, its veneration of rural places like Provence and of its wine and cheese, and how prominent a role agriculture plays in the French economy.

So it came as a total surprise to read that France leads the world in EMR adoption by doctor's offices and hospitals. The assertion made by Ms. Moukheiber, a Forbes blogger, is based on observations made in a book I have to pick up soon titled "The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care" by T.R. Reid.

Here's the blog post. And an excerpt:

Reid’s striking observation is that there are no file cabinets; just a desktop computer. Patients conveniently hand their doctor a green plastic card—the size of a credit card, with a chip embedded. It is their portable electronic health record, and contains every visit, diagnosis, lab test, prescription, x-ray, etc. The doctor slides the card into a special reader, and the patient’s medical history pops up on the computer screen. All payments are also recorded—to who, and how much. An insurance fund pays the doctor in as little as three days.

France’s Ministry of Health told Reid there are no privacy breaches, because the medical information is encrypted.

I don't know enough about France's healthcare system (have yet to read the book), but I imagine it is more centralized and government-controlled than ours (where government pays most healthcare costs but do not run most U.S. clinics and hospitals or employ most American healthcare workers).