TUESDAY, July 17 (HealthDay News) -- A majority of U.S. physicians have now adopted an electronic health record system as part of their routine practice, a new national survey reveals.

The finding is based on responses provided by nearly 3,200 doctors across the country who completed a mail-in survey in 2011. The survey was conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics as part of an ongoing three-year effort (continuing through 2013) designed to assess perceptions and practices regarding electronic health record systems.

Specifically, the poll found that 55 percent of U.S. doctors have embraced some type of electronic health record system. And roughly 75 percent of those who have done so reported that the type of system they took on meets the criteria of playing a "meaningful" role in their practice, according to the terms of 2009 federal legislation (entitled the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) designed to promote the use of electronic health records.

What's more, 85 percent of those doctors who now have an electronic health record system in place said they are either "somewhat" or "very" satisfied with its day-to-day operations (47 percent and 38 percent, respectively). And three in four said patient care has improved as a result of electronic health record adoption.

The poll also indicated that among those who have yet to embrace an electronic health record system, almost half said they plan to do so in the coming year.

Physician age seems to have played a role in how likely a doctor was to have already brought an electronic health record system into their practice, the findings showed. While 64 percent of those under the age of 50 have done so, the poll revealed that the same was true of only 49 percent among those aged 50 and older.

Office size also seems to matter, with larger physician practices being more likely to have incorporated an electronic health record system into their administrative infrastructure. Specifically, 86 percent of offices with 11 or more physicians on site had taken on such a system, compared with roughly 60 percent to 62 percent of those with two to 10 physicians and just under 30 percent of single-doctor practices.

But although some kinds of specialists (such as surgeons) were somewhat less likely to have implemented an electronic health record system, race, gender and physician location did not seem to play a role in the likelihood that a doctor's office would or would not bring the technology into their workplace.

Eric Jamoom, of the health care statistics division of the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, and colleagues published their findings July 17 in the NCHS Data Brief.

More information

For more on electronic health records, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

FRIDAY, July 13 (HealthDay News) -- Access to care for U.S. military service members and veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) must improve, says an Institute of Medicine report released Friday that also calls for better tracking of treatments and results.

The congressionally mandated report also said that the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs should launch research programs to evaluate the effectiveness of their PTSD programs and make the findings widely available.

In addition, service members should undergo PTSD screening at least once a year at defense department treatment centers, as is currently done for veterans seen in the VA system.

Of the active service members and veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and screened positive for PTSD symptoms, about 40 percent have received a referral for an additional evaluation or treatment. Of those referred, about 65 percent have received treatment, according to the report.

"DoD [Department of Defense] and VA offer many programs for PTSD, but treatment isn't reaching everyone who needs it, and the departments aren't tracking which treatments are being used or evaluating how well they work in the long term," report committee chair Sandro Galea, professor and chair of the department of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City, said in an Institute of Medicine news release.

"In addition, DoD has no information on the effectiveness of its programs to prevent PTSD," Galea said.

An August 2011 editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association said that as many as 20 percent of soldiers returning from war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan develop PTSD -- a condition marked by emotional numbing, nightmares, flashbacks of terrifying events and severe anxiety.

The VA and defense department are making efforts to improve access to care for patients with PTSD, but many obstacles remain and occur at various levels, the report noted.

Patients may not seek care because of fears that doing so will harm their military career, because they have to travel long distances to see a mental health provider, or because they can't take time off from their military duties or jobs to get treatment.

Health care providers may have difficulty treating patients because of a lack of training or time and location issues. Organizational barriers may be the result of limited treatment capabilities in combat zones, restrictions on where and when medications for PTSD can be used, and challenges in getting service members or veterans to appointments, the report said.

The defense department and VA need to collect more data on barriers to PTSD care in order to better understand them, and any interventions used to remove these barriers should be assessed for effectiveness, the report said. In particular, the report suggested exploring "telemedicine" and other emerging technologies.

In response to the report, Pat Gualtieri, executive director of the United War Veterans Council of New York, said: "On behalf of all veterans, I strongly urge implementation of this recommendation. Suicide has claimed four times as many veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan as combat. This is a national tragedy which must be addressed more aggressively."

The Institute of Medicine was established four decades ago to provide objective recommendations to U.S. policymakers, health professionals, and others.

More information

The American Psychiatric Association has more about military mental health  .

MONDAY, July 9 (HealthDay News) -- When making quick decisions, people tend to prefer the option presented to them first, a new study shows.

Researchers from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, found that this idea applied to everything from choosing items on a menu to selecting a college to deciding which candidate to hire for a job. They argued that their findings could have many practical applications, including how products are marketed to consumers.

"The order of individuals performing on talent shows like American Idol, the order of potential companies recommended by a stockbroker, the order of college acceptance letters received by an applicantall of these firsts have privileged status," study co-author Dana Carney, assistant professor of management, said in a university news release. "Our research shows that managers in management or marketing, for example, may want to develop their business strategies knowing that first encounters are preferable to their clients or consumers."

In the first experiment, more than 120 participants were asked to evaluate three groups: two teams, two male salespeople and two female salespeople. Participants were introduced to the two teams one after the other. Immediately after they were introduced, the participants had to choose which group to join.

Participants were then told they were buying a car and were introduced to two salespeople, one after the other. When asked from which person they would rather buy the car, the participants always preferred the first person to whom they were introduced.

In testing their theory on preferences for consumer products, the researchers asked more than 200 passengers at a train station to choose quickly between two similar pieces of bubble gum. Once again, when forced to decide immediately, the participants mostly chose the gum that was presented to them first.

To test the "first is best" theory on more negative decisions, the researchers asked another 31 participants to view similar mug shots of two 29-year-old criminals known to have committed the same violent crimes. After seeing the photos, they were asked to decide who should get parole. Again, when "thinking fast," the participants judged the first criminal presented as more worthy of parole.

The researchers explained that in situations where people must make decisions quickly, their preferences are unconsciously and immediately guided to the options they were given first. Although there are sometimes rational reasons for wanting what they see first, the study found firsts are preferred even without good reason, which may be an evolutionary adaptation.

The study was published online July 9 in the journal PLoS ONE.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke provides more information on how the brain works.

FRIDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) -- Contrary to popular belief, happiness in life has more to do with respect and influence than status or wealth, according to a new study.

Researchers said one possible reason money doesn't buy happiness is that people may get used to their higher income, but they never tire of being admired by others.

The study recently appeared online in Psychological Science.

"We got interested in this idea because there is abundant evidence that higher socioeconomic status -- higher income or wealth, higher education -- does not boost subjective well-being (or happiness) much at all. Yet at the same time, many theories suggest that higher status should boost happiness," said Cameron Anderson, a psychological scientist at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, in a journal news release.

The study's authors said the respect people receive from their peers, such as friends, neighbors or teammates, has more to do with happiness than money. "Having high standing in your local ladder leads to receiving more respect, having more influence, and being more integrated into the group's social fabric," Anderson said.

The researchers put their idea to the test in a series of studies. First, they surveyed 80 college students from 12 groups on campus. The amount of respect the students received from their peers, known as their sociometric status, was calculated based on peer ratings, self-reports and the number of leadership positions the students held. The researchers also took into account the students' household income and asked them about their social well-being. They found the admiration the students received from their peers predicted their social well-being. Their wealth or income did not.

When the researchers expanded the group of participants in another study, they saw similar results.

In a final study, the researchers followed graduate students in business school. They found the MBA students' social well-being was tied to changes in the admiration they felt from their peers before and after graduation. They noted respect had more to do with the student's well-being after graduation than how much money they made.

"I was surprised at how fluid these effects were -- if someone's standing in their local ladder went up or down, so did their happiness, even over the course of nine months," Anderson said.

"One of the reasons why money doesn't buy happiness is that people quickly adapt to the new level of income or wealth. Lottery winners, for example, are initially happy but then return to their original level of happiness quickly," he concluded. "It's possible that being respected, having influence and being socially integrated just never gets old."

More information

The American Psychological Association has more about the origins of happiness  .