By Megan Moltini

THIS MORNING, SENATE Republicans moved Rep. Tom Price one step closer to the highest office of public health, rolling over a Democratic boycott in the finance committee and advancing his confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services to a full Senate vote. But while Dems still have plenty of unanswered questions about the ethics of Price’s financial dealings, health care communities are already thinking about how he might lead the agency into the future. During a confirmation hearing last Tuesday, Price came out against electronic health records, the digital histories patients make every time they see their doctor or go to the hospital. “We’ve turned physicians into data entry clerks,” he said, arguing that the burdensome recording systems need an overhaul.

He may not be wrong. For almost a decade, hospitals have been waiting for EHRs to usher in a shiny new era of standardization…