The United States is far behind countries that lead the world in using electronic health records, and the nation should borrow some of their policies to increase the adoption rate of e-health records here, according to a report a technology advocacy group released on Wednesday.

In its report, the nonpartisan think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said the United States lags Denmark, Sweden and Finland in adopting electronic health records. For example, all primary care physicians in Sweden use electronic health records, while the rate is 99 percent in Finland and 95 percent in Denmark. Only 28 percent of primary care physicians in the United States use electronic health records, the foundation reported.

The rates in Denmark and Finland are high because the countries started pushing the use of the records in 1994 and 1996, respectively, years before the United States began using the systems.

Read More – U.S. lags the world’s top adopters of electronic health records systems