I recently came across an article from the BBC titled "Why didn't electricity immediately change manufacturing?" The parallels to modern day healthcare and the "electrification" of medical records via the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) are worth discussing. In 1881, Thomas Edison built electricity generating stations in Manhattan and London, and within the next year, electricity was being sold as a commodity. A year later, the first electric motors were driving manufacturing machinery in factories. Despite the quick development, in 1900 only 5% of mechanical drive power in U.S. factories was from electric motors. In traditional steam-powered factories, the power came from large coal-fire steam engines that rarely stopped, created a lot of grease and dust, and were hazardous for workers. Some factory owners did implement electric motors, drawing upon clean energy from a nearby generating station. But despite the huge investment, they did not see immediate savings. "Why? Because to take advantage of electricity, factory owners had to think in a very different way," the BBC reported.
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