Faxes
Copy machines
For HIPPA regulations, private medical records cannot be sent via e-mail, unless encrypted. They must be faxed or snail mailed.
Sending records by e-mail with encryption only works within the physical boundaries of systems (e.g., the VA) and it requires some experience and effort to set up the appropriate encryption protocol. Maintenance is also a problem.
Hospitals must own half the fax machines in the US, and they are very slow to change.
Ergo, the fax is here to stay for at least another 15 years.
They’ve been saying fax is dead for 25 years. And yet the software fax business keeps growing at around 4% annually, even during a recession. Fax isn’t dead, fax is changing, fax machines very well might be dead. But the point to point traceability will keep fax the concept around for a long time in the legal, medical and real estate worlds.