With politicians pointing towards the digitation of health records as a primary first step in reducing skyrocketing healthcare costs, privacy and security issues abound. To alleviate that, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt announced new policy measures to increase EHR adoption. With them, he believes, “consumer confidence in the handling of health information is likely to grow just as consumer confidence in online banking has grown, but that won’t happen without similar protections and transparency about the use of their information.” Earlier this year, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that only four percent of physicians were using “extensive, fully functioning” EHR systems.