Drexel Hospital prepares to launch its vaunted new Electronic Health Records (EHR) system when a series of inexplicable deaths at the hospital raises questions for a cadre of Drexel employees committed to patient privacy and safety in "Coded to Kill" by Marschall Runge, M.D.

A decade in the making, the Drexel EHR is the most innovative technology to promise a revolution in the healthcare industry. More than just a database, the system uses state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and machine learning advances to “quickly and accurately diagnose every human malady.” Housing four million real-time medical records and boasting the “most secure firewall in the world,” Drexel’s EHR is on the cusp of revolutionizing healthcare and becoming the national standard.

But in the hands of two men, it is a tool of unrestricted power.

Burning with ambition, both Charles Richmond, head of the National Institute for Medical Safety, and Hugh Torrence, an ex-Army and former National Security Agency operative, are “bastions of an establishment that required both light and dark to survive.” Torrence lives in the shadows, as does his small clique of brilliant IT “nerds” who work out of an underground bunker called The Cellar, a surveillance command and control center that sees and hears all, seemingly everywhere at once.

Meanwhile, Senator Elvin Walters — a presidential hopeful waging war against the new electronic record system — is one of Drexel Hospital’s “anonymous” patients, seeking care for a longtime heart condition. With his team of tech wizards, Torrence can use the EHR to cause havoc with the push of a button, with no paper trail and no fingerprints. But first, other loose ends need cleaning up, and a rash of inexplicable patient deaths at Drexel points to the need for a scapegoat.

Enter Dr. Mason Fischer, an ex-Delta Force medic, who loses two of his patients due to questionable and contradictory input from the EHR. He begins to question the infallibility of the new system and seeks the help of Drexel’s IT wunderkind, RT, as well as his girlfriend, Dr. Carrie Mumsford, an internal medicine resident and daughter of the hospital CEO.

Runge martials his cast of characters well and moves the action at a brisk pace as Fischer and his growing clique of EHR resisters dig deeper into the mysterious deaths, only to discover they are in the crosshairs of Torrence’s wrath and Richmond’s cunning calculations.

Runge, the executive vice president for Medical Affairs at the University of Michigan and CEO of Michigan Medicine, is perfectly placed to write a masterful medical and tech-savvy thriller… and he delivers.

"Coded to Kill" contains zero fat, dwelling less on character development and more on the book’s compelling premise: what could go wrong with technology containing patients’ private medical history and the ability to diagnose and treat instantly? The answer Runge gives is chill-inducing.

With its mix of real-world scenarios and devilishly designed medical “mishaps,” it is safe to say you will not want to visit the hospital anytime soon after reading Coded to Kill. That is a testament to Runge’s well-written and page-turning plot, one that fortunately leaves the door open for another installment. Highly recommend.