In my conversation with these health care CIOs, I asked what the electronic patient record will mean for me as a consumer. What they told me has very interesting implications for individuals but also for any business that is data-intensive and manages sensitive customer information.

Anybody who has had health challenges knows how frustrating it can be to endure repeated inquiries about one's health history. It's even more frustrating to have endured and responded to these inquiries only to find that the clinicians have failed to record the information properly or have drawn the wrong conclusions somewhere along the line. A failure to record an allergy, for example, could result in a prescription for the wrong type of medication.

I learned that digital medical records have the potential to vastly improve the level of service and the quality of care I receive. Once the records are a reality, if I enter a hospital for a procedure, the doctors and nurses won't have to repeatedly ask me questions about my medical history. That information will be available to them in my electronic patient record. They'll also have electronic access to my medical test results and X-rays. Hence the expected boost in patient safety.

Significant data management challenges remain regarding the move to digital medicine, however. That's because most of us go to many different health care providers, some of whom are independent and some of whom are affiliated with health systems. Many of these health care providers haven't automated their records. So if I enter a hospital that uses digital medical records, information about everything done to me there is available electronically. But the medical records outside the hospital are not.

I think it's safe to assume that consumers will continue to use a variety of medical service providers who operate in various stages of automation. Suffice it to say that patients won't be able to count on the medical community to integrate and manage their disparate databases.