"The real change is in the DNA of healthcare one office at a time," Klasko said.

The project's aggressive ad campaign includes billboard ads as well as online ads on Google Health. The campaign will help apply some peer and consumer pressure on reluctant physicians, Klasko said. Patients, already used to electronic banking and electronic buying, will be encouraged to ask their physicians why they continue to rely on bad handwriting to prescribe.

Some incentives put wind at the project's back. A new Medicare law provides about $3,500 a year for physicians who prescribe electronically, and it calls for penalties on those who do not e-prescribe by 2012.

"It's a relatively easy first step for physicians an a logical place to start because of the huge cost - in dollars and human lives - of our current system of handwritten prescriptions that are hand-delivered to the pharmacy."