Time to go through some interesting Tweets from the world of EMR and EHR.
@glevin1 – gary levin
Commodization of EMR | HealthWorks Collective
There was a link on this tweet too, but it looked like a link to a page that stole the content from the original article. I’ve been intrigued by the question of whether EMR is a commodity software or not for a while now. I still haven’t come to a firm conclusion. This article uses the idea that you can buy Allscripts MyWay at Costco as a way to say that EMR is a commodity. You can also buy eCW at Sam’s Club I believe. Although, as best I can tell, that was basically a PR move on the various EHR vendors part.
Also, the article says that Allscripts MyWay product came from the purchase of Misys. Actually, I think MyWay was originally Aprima. I believe the Misys EHR software is set to be sunset.
What do you think? Is EMR a commodity?
@BrianSMcGowan – Brian S. McGowan PhD
Percent of US PCPs using EMR = 17% in ’00’ – 28% in ’06’ – 46% in ’09’ (vs 99% in Netherlands) #socialQI #progress??
The link on this one was to a terribly long PDF file. So, I cut it out. I just wish I knew where Brian got his numbers. I call BS on the US having 46% EHR adoption in 2009. I still put us at about 25% EHR adoption now. Maybe a little higher if I’m being generous. Of course, a lot of people define EHR a lot of different ways. So, that might be part of the issue.
@DRZORBA – Zorba Paster
Back to the clinic. Everyone brings their records with them. No EMR here. If they lose their record then they’re @*%&M.
Hmm…imagine a world where the doctor didn’t keep any record. The patient was just responsible for the record. That idea is fraught with trouble and issues, but I bet many doctors would love to not have to worry about the records part of their job.
@medreccom – Medical Records
“Paper is dangerous and inefficient, it doesn’t belong in health care any longer.” Future of #EMR: on.mash.to/uhVkHn
I was interested in this tweet since it linked to an article on Mashable (a mainstream tech site). So, if I get this right, this article and series was sponsored (ie. paid for) by Lenovo and profiles Practice Fusion. In other words, Lenovo paid to advertise Practice Fusion on Mashable. Good for Practice Fusion. Although, I’m not sure how many doctors read Mashable. Maybe the article wasn’t about finding doctors, but was a way to find more tech people to come work at Practice Fusion. The article itself is pretty basic for someone that reads this site. Not a bad play if that was the intent. Full Disclosure: Practice Fusion advertises on this site. Although, they certainly didn’t pay me to write about this and link to it.
Is EHR/EMR a commodity?
I’d lean toward NO. There is too much to distinguish one from the other. That an EMR may be sold in a store does not define whether it is a commodity or not…just as the fact that there are FREE EHRs out there does not make them a commodity.
EHR Adoption levels:
I seriously doubt there are at almost 50%. Now, if you said PM adoption, I’d say that is in the 90%+ realm.
Keeping your own records:
What? Expecting individuals to be responsible for something? When I was in the military you had to go get your medical records when you moved to a new base. After 10 years of flying I had a file about 3 inches thick…and I’m a healthy SOB. Hey…what if we digitized our records and carried them on a thumb drive?? Oh, has somebody already suggested this?
I agree with you as far as PMS. That adoption is much more widespread.
People being responsible…what a novel concept. I wish we had more of that in our culture.