News released last week suggests this is may be the case.

The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, trumpeted that of the doctors who used electronic medical systems, “6.1 percent had a record of paid malpractice claims compared with 10.8 percent of physicians who did not use an EHR.”

In lieu of the lack of any improved patient outcome data associated with EHRs, proponents are trying to find additional carrots for doctors to make the jump to digital adoption.

Not so fast, says Dr. RW, who points out that after “controlling for sex, race, year of medical school graduation, specialty, and practice size, the relationship between EHR adoption and paid malpractice settlements was of smaller magnitude and no longer statistically significant.”

It was a good try though.