WASHINGTON. — While America's health care system routinely dazzles the world with advanced medical devices and miracle drugs, it still does most of its communicating and record-keeping using pen and paper — tools considered ancient even in Charles Dickens' time.

That is a paradox of the first order because information technology in a few, short decades has changed virtually every other aspect of our lives. It has been a revolutionary boon to commerce, transportation, education, arts and entertainment, our military and our government at every level.

The Medicare D prescription drug plan is a vivid example of this paradox. While holding immense promise for improved delivery of health care, it has created a nationwide labyrinth of confusion.

Senior citizens have found it so difficult to navigate, that millions simply have thrown up their hands in frustration despite the sizable savings offered by deeply discounted prices. Thousands of pharmacists and physicians have reported unnecessary delays in accessing patient records — further slowing the delivery of urgently needed medications.

A recent congressional report highlighted the problems by concluding that the failure to provide speedy medical treatment to Hurricane Katrina evacuees was, in large part, caused by lack of access to their medical records.

While the quality of health care in the United States remains unmatched, its delivery is far more expensive and error-prone than it needs to be.

In fact, the health care sector lags woefully behind other industries in adopting information technology — and it will continue to do so until it makes a conscious and coordinated decision to change. Without change, the system is on the verge of collapse.

We all know that higher costs do not guarantee better care or increased efficiency. Currently, 15 percent of our Gross Domestic Product goes to health care — a figure notably higher than in any other advanced democracy. Yet prescriptions still are scribbled in ink, and patient records are scattered among the files of several different doctors.

Tragically, tens of thousands of preventable deaths are caused by medical error each year — many of them occurring because we have neglected to build a comprehensive national health information technology infrastructure.

Medical records should be kept in computerized networks that are portable, accessible and highly secure. Wireless networks could give every doctor in this country swift hand-held access to comprehensive patient histories, no matter where they are physically stored.

Electronic prescriptions could eliminate the need for pharmacists to scrutinize a doctor's often unfathomable hieroglyphics — enabling better monitoring for drug interactions and improving convenience for everyone involved.

These technologies and others in development can revolutionize the health care system, increasing efficiency and affordability. Online medical records — accessible by any health care practitioner with a computer or wireless handheld — could save our medical sector as much as $78 billion over five years.

The transition to a comprehensive health IT infrastructure, of course, is not as simple as it sounds because health care is a widely dispersed industry with services delivered by hundreds of thousands of independent medical providers.

Moreover, health care is financed differently from any other product or service. The cost of converting paper records to electronic ones — of building computer networks that are easy to use but protect privacy — runs well into the billions of dollars.

Developing a national health IT infrastructure may be a tall challenge, but it is not an insurmountable one. The health care industry should model its effort along the lines of the financial sector, which years ago made a deliberate decision to work together and make information accessible.

Today, bank customers can check their balances, withdraw money and conduct business from ATMs and home computers. A similar system that is safe and secure can — and should — be developed for the health care industry.

Congress can help by passing legislation that encourages the development of a comprehensive health information technology infrastructure with incentives and research grants.

The ultimate responsibility, however, lies with the health care industry itself. Its leaders — like their counterparts in the finance sector — must begin to work together now, not later.

While developing a universal grid of health care information technology obviously will be a marathon rather than a sprint, it's a race well worth running.

By adopting information technology, the health care sector can save huge amounts of money — for itself and for consumers. Better yet, health care providers can use today's available information technology like they already use medical technology — to save countless lives and alleviate human suffering.

When they succeed, they will have earned a standing ovation from 300 million grateful Americans.

John J. Castellani is president of the Business Roundtable (www.businessroundtable.org), an association of 160 CEOs of leading U.S. companies.