Recently we were invited by a long standing client of ours to speak about the challenges in implementing EMR in their group of hospitals across the state. The audience, consisting of young doctors and supporting staff listened patiently to the 30 minute presentation followed by a demo of the application, which runs successfully at a 400 bedded hospital within the same city. The verdict - medical community is not ready yet. Interim solution is to adopt a document management system.
We have been doing experiments with touch screen devices such as iPhone and Android tablets to build our next generation applications for hospitals and nursing homes. One of the areas where we foresee significant impact would be be Electronic Medical Records. Apple has reported to be having workshops around iPad as a potential device which could bring down the digital divide among the medical community.
A few vendors are now offering online electronic medical records as a service. Data privacy and ownership questions remain unanswered.
Some interesting read here.
Most doctors hate their EMRs because it wasn’t designed for them – it was designed for a note taker, a record keeper, a financial analyst, or an administrator. We know doctors hate EMRs because even after more three decades of availability the dismal statistics of the opening paragraph persist. Physicians have voted with their lack of EMR system adoptions. It’s not about the money – billions of government money being thrown at physicians won’t solve bad design. Physicians aren’t averse to technology; they are averse to technology that misuse their time and reduces patient interaction. Full story