Today’s NYT article on the hurdles that small practices might face with EMR implementation in lieu of the HITECH Act corroborates our earlier post about the steep learning curve in implementing the systems.  One provision of the HITECH Act that gives us optimism that the government will help small practices install EMRs is the funding allocated for regional healthcare IT resources.  Still, it’s not clear from the HITECH Act how these entities will be formed, how many IT resources will be allocated to help doctors install EMRs, or how they will operate.  We hope more clarification will come from the Obama administration in the coming months.  As an aside Allscripts prepared this pdf brief on how the HITECH Act affects their customers that might be helpful for doctors trying to understand the impacts of the act on them.