Put the pen down, Doc, and follow us into the information age. It's the room on your left.For a profession that requires so many years in school, physicians in the U.S. have sure been resistant to take technological leaps. Only one in 10 reportedly prescribes medications electronically.

Thankfully the Medicare system is offering doctors a powerful incentive to dive into that cost-cutting and potentially life-saving pool. Beginning next month, they'll be eligible for a 2 percent bonus on Medicare reimbursements if they submit paperless prescriptions.

According to your chart, Doc, you're allergic to change. Is that correct?

Research has identified all kinds of reasons the medical industry is slow to adapt. Some practitioners have legitimate doubts about software compatibility or patient privacy. Others are just stubbornly hanging onto the paper trail they've blazed for years.

That's why the incentive program makes sense. Medical facilities worried about making the initial technological investment in a down economy aren't being penalized. At least not until 2012, when their Medicare payments will begin to erode.

You're going to feel a little prick, Doc. It might hurt, but only for a second.

The savings will pay off over time. Federal officials believe weaning doctors off their pads could save more than $150 million within five years. In a health care system already obese from administrative costs, that's a healthy sounding number.

From the patients' end, it promises more efficiency. A similar effort to go paperless in the nation's immigration system could slash prospective citizens' waits by half, according to a Washington Post story.

More importantly, less should be lost in translation with electronic prescriptions. Patients and their pharmacists won't need to decipher doctors' hasty scribbles, meaning less chance of a wrong dosage. Software at physician offices could also flag possible interactions between different medications a person is taking, improving a practice many pharmacies already employ.

Your symptoms are the same as a lot of others, Doc.

This should serve as a pilot program for the entire medical profession. If workers can get the software to talk to the programs pharmacies and insurance companies use and avoid the pitfalls electronic voting systems have encountered, the rest of the industry could follow.

Without all of those bulging patient file folders, doctors' offices would be a better fit for the 21st century.

OK, Doc. Take two of these and instant-message me in the morning.