I’m usually pretty quick to adopt technology and ways to promote this blog. For example, I’ve been on Twitter for a long time as @ehrandhit. It’s taken a while to get to 4472 followers on Twitter, but it’s pretty cool to see that there are that many people interested in electronic medical record on Twitter.

For some reason though, I’ve kind of avoided using Facebook to promote this site. I think that there’s probably a part of me that wanted to keep my personal life (Facebook) away from my EMR life. Not because I have anything in my personal life to hide. Probably more about the other direction. I didn’t necessarily want to talk about EMR in my personal life. Which doesn’t make that much sense, because I love talking to doctors or other people about my EMR stuff.

Well, all of that background aside, I decided it was time to start a Facebook fan page for EMR and HIPAA. So, if you’re on Facebook, feel free to say you like EMR and HIPAA. Right now it pulls in both this site and my EMR and EHR website. I imagine I’ll tie it into Twitter as well at some point. That way you’re getting all the great EMR info you want.

Also, if you haven’t found it already, you can also subscribe to EMR and HIPAA by email. One person told me it’s their daily morning read. That’s a little scary for me to think about, but I’m also flattered that it’s the case.

Today I have a lot of mixed emotions going on. Although, the one that overwhelms all of the other emotions is excitement. Yesterday was the last day of my day job and so today is my first official day as a full time entrepreneur.

It’s a big step for myself and my family, but I can’t wait to see what I’m going to be able to do online working on it full time. I’ll be continuing my work on this site and EMR and EHR. I also have a number of TV related blogs and so I’ll continue my work on those. Then, I’ll be doing a few little side consulting gigs and speaking events (like this one) to kind of bridge the gap in income.

Then, I’ll also be working to create a new website to help amateur sports teams and other organizations to fund raise (currently called Sportsriffic). I’ll be leveraging the low cost web to give as much back to the organizations as possible. Almost a “Facebook for fundraising.”

In some respects fundraising by these organizations is similar to healthcare. Fundraising hasn’t benefited from technology the way it could, similar to healthcare. I’ve also wondered how this idea might apply to non-profit hospitals, so if you’re part of that I’d love to chat with you. It’s been amazing to see how many people are affected by fundraising and how many different types of organizations could use what I’m building.

This is going to be quite the adventure. I don’t think it will change too much about what I do here. So far, people seem pretty happy with the content I’m creating. However, I’m certainly open to hear feedback on what I could do better, topics I could focus on more, etc. This is going to be an exciting year!

As always, on the weekend I write a little less focused and intense content. Well, I’d say that writing about the US Airways pilot “Sully” Sullenberger on an EMR site is way out there. However, he’ll be a keynote speaker at HIMSS and the guy is a hero. So of course I find the guy incredibly interesting. Plus, someone sent me this video rendering of “Sully” landing Flight 1549 in the Hudson and I gained even more respect.

The first few minutes of the video are slow, but then it’s absolutely intense hearing the radio communication and the communication between the pilot and co-pilot. Wow!

More of my HIMSS plans and meetup info on Monday.

It’s been a little while since I thanked the companies that sponsor EMR and HIPAA. Please check out the various vendors that support the writing I do on this site. Plus, check the bottom of this post for some other methods of advertising an EMR, an IT company, and EMR consultants.

First up is a quick look at some of the new EMR and HIPAA sponsors:

• Ambir – I’m really excited to have Ambir as a sponsor on EMR and HIPAA. They’re the first device company to appear on our site. Ambir is an industry leader in digital imaging. Those who have an EMR know how important finding the right scanner equipment is to your office. I know I’ve burned through a few scanners that couldn’t handle the load. Check out Ambir’s recently announced scanner product.
• MD-IT – I first became familiar with MD-IT when I learned about a Medical Transcription Service Consortium for Sharing Patient Data. It’s initiatives like this that really make MD-IT an interesting company. I won’t be surprised at all if a transcription company like MD-IT really makes a dent in health information exchange.
• Sfax – Secure electronic faxing. HIPAA audit trails. Store and find faxes. Save time and money. Electronic faxing is really an essential part of any EMR implementation. Plus, it can be implemented before even selecting an EMR.
• TBD Consulting – A full-service consulting firm that specializes in employee performance improvement. In healthcare, they focus on Clinical Transformation and Healthcare Talent Management. They’re also doing some interesting things with Second Life and they’re also pretty avid bloggers.

I’m also always grateful for those sponsors who keep renewing with me. Medscribbler, InterSystems have both been sponsoring EMR and HIPAA for a while and it’s much appreciated.

I’m also working on some less expensive sponsorship options starting first with my EMR and EHR Vendors List for a premium listing on that page. I’ll be redesigning that page soon to accommodate it. Plus, I’ll be adding 2 new pages that will list IT Support Companies who specialize in EMR and also an EMR Consultants List. I expect it will be only $50-100 per Year to advertise on those pages. Please drop me a note if you’re interested in these new premium listings.

Otherwise, adverting on EMR and EHR has been going very well also. Plus, plans for HIMSS are starting to take shape. The first company to sponsor my coverage of HIMSS is on board and I’ve got 4 different companies interested in sponsoring a blogger/twitter meetup at HIMSS. So, if you’re going to HIMSS let me know in the comments and I’ll let you know when and where the meetup will take place.

Finally, the EMR job board has been doing Great! A job listing on the site goes for only $30 and it’s gotten 184 views already (or $0.16 per view). I haven’t seen any other healthcare IT or EMR job boards that do that well.

Ok, so much for a short post about my sponsors. I guess there’s just a lot going on. Plus, I haven’t even mentioned a future EMR selection e-Book and EMR conference I’m putting together.

I always think it’s fun to think back on the last 5 or so years doing this blog. When I first started there was a lot of excitement about HIT blogging. People were just kind of getting into it and there was a lot of interaction between bloggers. Then, it seemed like interest in the subject waned for a while. For example, one of my early “EMR blog sparring partners” was a blog called Calyx. From the looks of their archive, they lasted for just under a year of blogging and then just stopped. No note of why. Just no more posts. I actually thought maybe Calyx had gone out of business, but then I found their corporate website. I wonder how their Misys EMR stuff is going now.

I also use to enjoy some fun exchanges with the good people at TempDev. In fact, I still do on occasion, but you can see that they’ve gotten busy to blog. Or at least so it seems to me. Maybe I should find something to keep me more busy too. I guess for me blogging is part of my enjoyment. Why I enjoy writing about EMR is beyond me. I find it interesting and fun or I would have given up long ago. Like so many others that I could mention.

You can find a bunch of EMR and HIT related blogs listed on HITSphere. Sadly few of them are updated regularly. Not that I need any more content to read, but it’s fun to see what people find worth blogging about.

Of course, with the $18 billion of EMR stimulus money the whole EMR world has been reinvigorated and the biggest trend I’ve seen happening is the various EMR vendors joining the blogging world. I won’t try to list them all here, because there are far too many. Obviously, I’m a huge fan of blogging and the power of blogging. So, it’s nice to see EMR vendors join the discussion. Of course, that assumes that their blog is a discussion and not just a sales page and/or place for the press releases that no one wants to read.

Now, what does any of this have to do with you? Probably nothing really. Sometimes that’s the beauty of blogging. You’ll be surprised how many people will read you writing about nothing. As long as it doesn’t become a habit.

You know you’re a true blogger when you write a post for a holiday like Thanksgiving. Luckily, blog software is so good these days that I wrote this well before Thanksgiving and then just scheduled it to appear. So, I’m likely either: eating, watching or playing football or eating if you’re reading this on Thanksgiving Day.

I just thought that it would be fun to list a number of things that EMR and HIPAA is thankful for:
My Readers – You are all phenomenal and teach me as much as anything.
My Advertisers – Getting paid something to do this is beneficial. Hopefully it’s as beneficial for you too.
Obama’s EMR Stimulus Money (HITECH) – Let’s just say that Obama’s EMR stimulus has worked great for this site
EMR Update Forums – Really was a great way for me to learn about EMR software when I was first starting. Not to mention the traffic from that site kept this site going when I first started.
WordPress – Best blogging software out there. In fact, great for pretty almost any website. Did I mention it’s free?
Other HIT Bloggers – Most are listed here. Nothing like starting an interesting conversation between 2 blogs. Man, I’m such a nerd. Oh well…
My Wife – She deserves all the credit for letting me do this in my “spare” time.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, every once in a while I like to indulge myself a little and look back at the evolution of the EMR and HIPAA blog. What most people don’t know is that this originally started out at http://www.crashutah.com/emr I was too cheap to pay for a domain. That boot strapped approach will probably never leave me or this blog. The other fun part of the story is that this website originally just started on a Christmas break whim. I was bored and decided to start this blog. Turns out it was one of the best decisions I’ve made.

Today marks what I find to be an amazing milestone for this EMR and HIPAA website. We just passed the 1.5 million pageview mark. I can barely fathom that type of number. I can’t even get my mind around it. I had to check twice to make sure I was looking at the number right. Taking a look back, my first milestone marker was when I passed 30,000 pageviews. That only took about 5 months. Now I do that each week.

Another milestone I marked was reaching 130,000 pageviews and my 150th post. That was about a year after I started this blog and I was disappointed at only having 160 comments on the site. I then marked my 400th post as well about 2.5 years into blogging about EMR.

1.5 million pageviews later is incredible. That’s 586 blog posts in just under three years. However, even more exciting is that the readers of EMR and HIPAA have contributed 2,025 comments on those posts. Let’s just say that I could go on for hours about the statistics and this blog. I’m a bit of a stats addict and love watching it all play out. However, I won’t bore you with any more details.

More importantly, I want to thank all those who have read what I’ve written and contributed to the conversation as well. I’ve learned as much from those who read this site as you’ve hopefully learned from me.

The best part is that we’re really just getting started. I was discussing this with my wife the other day. I personally predict that we’ll be lucky to reach 50% EMR adoption once the ARRA EMR stimulus money plays itself out (see 5+ years). That will still leave 50% of doctors who will need to implement an EMR. Not to mention lots of new discussions around “switching EMR software” “utilizing EMR software” “reporting from EMR software” “EMR data exchanges” etc etc etc. Yes, there will still be plenty of interest in EMR software.

I’m not promising to write as consistently and regularly as I do now. However, one problem I’ve never had is lack of content. In fact, I still have 161 draft blog posts that are just sitting there waiting for me to write them. I guess that’s why having my other blog EMR and EHR works out pretty good as well.

Once again…
Thanks to all the readers of this site
Thanks to all those who participate on the site
Thanks to the other bloggers who link to this site
Thanks to the advertisers who support the site
Thanks to my wife who puts up with me doing this site

On the weekend I try and go a little big lighter since not as many people read on the weekend. This weekend I decided to go really light and post a couple video clips of Kathleen Sebelius’ appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Thanks to Neil Versel for pointing out this videos. Have a great weekend.

It’s that time again to recognize the new additions to the EMR and HIPAA advertising fold. Plus, a couple EMR and HIPAA advertisers have renewed and so I want to thank them as well.

New EMR Advertiser:
InterSystems – This is a really interesting company that works to integrate all your various healthcare application even across large geographic boundaries. Their software powers RHIO in Rhode Island and Long Island and they just recently announced that the Swedish National EHR will use InterSystems Healthshare™ software.

I’m also happy to have renewed EMR and HIPAA’s relationship with Medscribbler. I’m glad that I’ve been able to form some long term relationships with Medscribbler and appreciate their support in keeping the lights on here at EMR and HIPAA. A few other advertisers and renewals are in the works, but that will have to wait at least until next month.

Thanks also to all those who have signed up for the EMR and HIPAA email list, rss feed and those that are following me on Twitter.

We’re in a really exciting time for healthcare IT and electronic health records in particular. I’m glad to be apart of it. I hope I can continue to add value to those who read this site. If there’s something else you’d like me to cover please let me know. Luckily, most of you aren’t shy about telling me when they disagree. I love it when you do. Those are the best chances for myself and others to really learn. Let’s keep the running EMR commentary going.

In honor of Memorial Day, I took the weekend off. This ended up being a good thing since Saturday evening I was feeling quite sick. What a way to spend my time off, no? Not that any of you really care too much. However, I thought it was worth mentioning in case anyone noticed that no new posts were created.

I also think it’s worth taking a second to honor our troops on this Memorial Day. I was able to enjoy a couple of really nice Memorial Day programs this weekend and it really helped me appreciate all that our troops do and have done to protect our country. One thought that stood out to me was a veteran of one of the World Wars talking about how people are so up in arms about the about 2000 lives lost in the current war. This veteran then went on to describe how in the World Wars more than 2000 lives were often lost in a day or two. Of course, any life lost is too many, but it illustrated the extreme sacrifice that so many people made to give us the freedom we enjoy today.

I want to also honor my brother who is a marine. I’m really grateful that he’s willing to serve our country. It’s a pretty ugly world out there and sometimes we forget how lucky we are to live in relative peace. I guess if the worst thing we have to deal with is CCHIT, then we’re doing pretty good.

On that note, I saw an interesting article talking about the CCHIT 2009-2010 plans. I won’t repeat what the article says, but all I can say is that it’s going to be a really interesting next 6 months in the healthcare IT world. I really wish I could hear some of the internal conversations that will be had by David Blumenthal, HHS, CCHIT, etc.