The country with some of the world's leading developments in medical treatments is stuck with a paper-based system that is, well, killing us.

That's one message from a forthcoming book from the Center for Health Care Transformation, titled Paper Kills.

In a pre-publication blurb, Mark B. McClellan, the former director of Medicaid as well as the FDA, said "Moving our health care system from pen and paper to 21st-century information technology is essential to getting the best care to people at the lowest cost."