In his State of the Union address this week, President George W. Bush included a call for new technologies in health care, including "improved information technology to prevent medical error and needless costs."

The high-profile mention of information technology in medicine follows up on a speech the week before, in which the President proposed that within ten years, every American have an electronic medical record. Said Bush, " We've got fantastic new pharmaceuticals that help save lives, but we've got docs still writing records by hand." In this hour, we'll talk about possibilities for digital medical records. What are the advantages -- and disadvantages -- of moving to such a technology? (interactive summary of this segment)

We'll also find out about new research looking at how the brain makes memories. Though there's no shortage of research on memory formation, this study has a twist -- the researchers imaged the brains of the study subjects as they made memories of events that didn't actually happen. We'll find out what such studies of false memories might tell us. Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (3-4 Eastern). Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.

Guests:
Lucian Leape, MD
Adjunct Professor of Health Policy
Department of Health Policy and Management
Harvard School of Public Health
Boston, Massachusetts

William Hersh, MD
Professor and Chairman
Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology
Oregon Health and Science University
Portland, Oregon

Joseph Heyman
Obstetrician/ Gynecologist in private practice
Board of Trustees, American Medical Association
Board of Commissioners, Joint Commission of Accreditation of Health Care Organizations
Amesbury, Massachusetts

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Craig Stark
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland

Books/Articles Discussed:

Okado, Y. "Neural activity during encoding predicts false memories created by misinformation." Learning & Memory, February 2005

(find books discussed on previous broadcasts)

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This segment produced by Annette Heist