The whole problem is that the industry views this as a cost center. It is something doctors don't want, nobody wants to spend money on it, and the EMR vendors

The whole problem is that the industry views this as a cost center. It is something doctors don't want, nobody wants to spend money on it, and the EMR vendors know this, so they try to use legal mechanisms (ACA) to require doctors to buy their stuff, vs. competing in an free/open market such as tools like Gmail, Twitter, etc. Look at incentives. This whole thing is so obvious. Nobody in health wants better records because the current industry provides no economic incentives whatsoever for the industry to keep them.