There were two recent columns in the New York Times which suggested that unless someone steps up to say “No” to people, health care costs will continue to spin out of control. In the U.S., no one denies that the upward trajectory of health care costs as a percentage of GDP is unsustainable.

In Canada, in order to deal with a similar problem, provincial governments all continue to reduce the services covered by the public health care system, thus violating one of the five principles of our system. But even in Canada, rapidly rising health care costs are breaking provincial government budgets and are unsustainable.

David Leonhardt, in his April 6 column, stated: “Learning to say no more, often will be a three-step process…The first is learning more about what treatments work and when they don’t…The second step – maybe the most underappreciated one – is to give patients the available facts about treatments…The final step is the bluntest. It involves changing the economics of medicine, to reward better care rather than simply more care.”

Gina Kolata, in her March 29 column, pointed out: “Estimates of the amount of medical care that is unnecessary range from 10 to 30 percent, although no one knows for sure…Doctors often blame patients for demanding useless care, but many concede that patients often have too little knowledge or power to say no to tests or treatments. The new law includes money for comparative effectiveness studies, and those can give guidance on which tests and treatments are better than others.”

This is where electronic records come into the picture. At this time, their major value is seen as coming in two areas. They can reduce the time required for a physician to obtain reliable and accurate health information about someone who is not her/his patient – specialists, emergency room physicians, doctors in other cities or countries – and thus possibly reduce diagnostic and treatment errors. They also should held reduce prescription errors – overmedication, drug abuse, conflicts among drugs.

While both are important, the real, long-term value of electronic records, both for patients and health care costs, will come when they are linked with diagnostic software. Most of us are under the delusion that doctors are always right. In economics we refer to physician services as a credence service – before we use such services we do not know the quality or reliability of these services, and after using these services, we are no better informed.

We would be surprised, perhaps shocked, if we actually knew how often doctors are wrong.

They are not trained to diagnose an ailment that extends beyond their area of specialty. Further, most physicians do not keep up with the most up-to-date research. Nor are they capable of factoring a large number of complex variables, including DNA make-up and genetic histories, quickly into their analysis. Computers are faster, more comprehensive and likely much more reliable.

With the right software, which would be updated very often to take into account new research and health data for each person, diagnosis would be more accurate, and the best tests should be prescribed. The test results could be inputted quickly, perhaps without the need for any intermediary, and the software should prescribe the most appropriate treatment options and/or more tests, if necessary. Such software could play a role similar to the auto-pilot on airplanes, with doctors overseeing the outcomes, and disconnecting the auto-pilot in emergency situations only. Personally, I probably would rather rely on the auto-pilot characteristics of the software than on most physicians.

The best physicians and researchers in each filed should be used to help write the software. And like all other fields where there are very few, real super stars, why not use the best to produce the software which could leverage the full potential of electronic records and research to reduce medical errors, waste and costs?

The opinions expressed in this blog are personal and do not reflect the view of either Global Brief or the Glendon School of Public and International Affairs.