This quote was far too interesting to not repost it here for all to read.

Each and every piece of multi, multi-million dollar bloated piece of crap healthcare “electronic medical record” (sounds about as dated as electronic mail, doesn’t it?”), is simply a billing engine to communicate a medical diagnosis to insurance companies with the hopes of maximizing how much doctors are paid. Each diagnosis and procedure has these numerical codes. They are a ridiculously robust antiquated language, like the code written to power the Commodore 64. There are people who speak this language – the 100 or so medical billers who are holed up in the basement of every hospital.

I’ve often argued that many EMR companies are just bloated billing software. However, Dr. Jay Parkinson described that point with a little more force than I did.

The funny part is that Dr. Jay Parkinson works for an EMR company himself. I guess he believes that his company is not one of the “piece of multi, multi-million dollar bloated piece of crap healthcare “electronic medical record””

Just to be clear, I believe the above description is true about many EHR companies, but not all. Many EHR can provide amazing results for doctors. Otherwise, I wouldn’t waste my time writing about EHR software on this blog.

In the final interview by Matthew Holt at HIMSS, Jon Bush knocks it out of the park. Jon Bush is CEO of AthenaHealth and one of the most entertaining interviews I’ve seen. He agrees with me on CCHIT, but that wasn’t even the best part of the interview. Definitely a breathe of fresh air in the HIT and EHR world. Check out the video interview:

My favorite John Bush quote from the interview: “These legacy [EHR] systems have to die.”

This is basically the second part in a 3 part series of video interviews by Matthew Holt. This interview was at HIMSS of the heat of CCHIT Mark Leavitt. This video is a little long and dry, but it gives you a feeling of Mark Leavitt and his motivations with CCHIT.

To read my comments on CCHIT, then just read this whole blog. My short takes from the video:
CCHIT is looking at ways to measure usability.
CCHIT is looking at ways to measure successful EHR implementations.
My comment: Only took 4 years to start looking.

Mark Leavitt did state that CCHIT’s goal was to “reduce the risk of buying an EHR.” If that’s the goal, I’m a little surprised they aren’t measuring the results of this. Where’s the data that implementing a CCHIT certified EHR is any less risky than a non-certified EHR?