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.

As I’ve been writing and reading about ARRA and the HITECH Act, I’ve had a few moments to consider the impact that things like the HIT Policy Committee will have on the future of EMR adoption in the US. Between that committee, ONCHIT and HHS the decisions they make will have far reaching impact on EHR adoption. I’ll leave the question of whether they’ll have a good or bad impact to another post.

Instead, I couldn’t help but wonder what impact bloggers and various EMR related websites and forums can have on EMR adoption. More specifically, I’ve been asking myself what kind of impact does this blog have on overall EMR adoption including both selection and implementation. Maybe I should be asking myself the question of how much impact could EMR bloggers have on influencing the HIT policy committee, ONCHIT and HHS, but I think that’s basically falling on deaf ears.

Instead, I think that bloggers like myself can have a real lasting impact on specific readers lives. Hopefully those who visit my blog get a better understanding of why they should implement an EMR. I hope they find some guidance on how to select an EMR and avoid various EMR sales miscommunication. At a minimum, I think the people who have bought the high volume scanners I suggested will be really glad they found this blog. I’m not sure why else people visit this blog.

Maybe this is all a little too personal, but I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on the impacts blogs and other EMR related resources have on EMR adoption. I’d like to think that blog like mine can have a good impact on the EMR world and aren’t just a nice place for those in the industry to sit around the virtual water cooler.

Either way, as I write future posts, I’ll be taking some of this into consideration. I think this will also give me a little bit of added motivation to complete a series of e-Books on EMR selection and EMR implementation. Hopefully those can provide some real targeted and valuable information to improve those two vital areas of EHR adoption.

Over the past 6 months, this blog has grown beyond anything I thought was imaginable. Being a blogger definitely has its ups and down, but overall I just love being able to share my perspectives on what’s become the incredibly interesting area of electronic medical record.

Along with the growth in visitors to EMR and HIPAA, I’m also glad to welcome a couple new advertisers. You may have already seen their ads in the sidebars, but I’m really proud to have this group of quality advertisers on EMR and HIPAA. Here’s a quick look at the latest additions:

DigiDMS EHR – This EHR company calls themselves “Your Virtual Medical Practice Secretary.” Originally started in 2001 and built for a specific doctor’s office, they’re a rather new EHR company that can benefit from having built on some later technology. A young energetic group that I’ve really enjoyed working with. Take a look and see what their EHR has to offer.

EMR Consultant, EHR Scope, EHR TV and Speech Recognition – This family of websites is a really nice addition to the EMR and HIPAA advertisers. I’ve known the owner of these websites for almost the entire time I’ve done this blog and he’s a stand up doctor who really cares about the EMR industry. That’s really reflected in the quality of the tools he offers.

Welcome to these new advertisers! Looking forward to continued growth of EMR and HIPAA.

I’ve had on my list to do a nice post talking about all the people suggesting how meaningful use should be defined. Unfortunately, I’ve been sidetracked by a number of projects in my life. Not the least of which is a website about EMR and EHR that I’ll announce officially on this website shortly. Hopefully I’ll have the time to do a full fledge post on defining meaningful use very soon. I’ve been collecting a lot of perspectives on meaningful use and so it just takes a lot of energy to sort through them all.

The other thing that has really taken my time was this presentation about EMR that I did today at a local medical school. You may remember that I asked for some help in preparing a quality EMR presentation and so I wanted to thank all those who contributed to my presentation. It’s really amazing how much better the readers of this website can make me look in a presentation or article that I’m doing. I must admit that I really enjoy doing presentations and I love talking about EMR. So, it was a lot of fun. I think next on my wish list is to be invited to present at some EMR related conference or even better would be to take part in a panel at some conference.

What I did find really interesting with the medical students was what it was like to explain the HITECH Act and $18 billion of EHR stimulus money to a bunch of students. They were all just laughing at the way the HITECH act is set up and trying to promote EHR usage. I was laughing myself thinking about how silly it sounds when you talk about why a doctor might not want to worry about the possible EHR stimulus money. I don’t think they were fooled by the pile of EHR stimulus money.

What’s really amazing is that I just checked and this will be my 400th post on EMR and HIPAA. I don’t usually sit there and look at how many posts I’ve done. I just try to create some good content that people will find useful. Then, I look back and think about what 400 posts involves and I must admit that I’m pretty proud of what I’ve created here.

I also find it funny that while this will be my 400th post to this blog, I still have 168 drafts of ideas that I just have never had the time to post about. I really should go back and see what’s in there. I rarely ever look past the last 10-20 draft posts. I’m sure there’s some real gems that I just never found the time to write about. So, if you start seeing some references to older items, then you’ll know I’m just doing some spring cleaning on the blog.

I’ve got a lot of other things I’d like to do with this blog including creating some really pointed e-books on EMR implementation, EMR selection, EMR features, EMR consultants, etc. I also hope to have some more time to flesh out the EMR, EHR and HIPAA wiki. It definitely needs some more love if you want to participate. I know I’ve used the information a couple of times and it’s starting to grow more and more useful as people add information to the wiki.

Ok, that’s enough rambling for now. Thanks for being a reader and here’s to the next 400 EMR and HIPAA posts.

I’m sad to say I’m back again with another rant on terminology. You may remember my previous EMR versus EHR rant. Yes, I’m sorry to say that once again we have two terms which in practice mean the same thing.

Take a look at the following 2 terms:
HITECH – Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health
ARRA – American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Since the HITECH Act was passed, everyone I interacted with called the $18 billion in EHR stimulus money the HITECH Act. Now, it seems like most of the people at HIMSS are calling it the ARRA. In the end, they both mean the same thing. Just sad that we still can’t standardize the most trivial of things. I’ll continue to use HITECH act since it sounds better than ARRA (how do you even say that?). Although, I’ll be certain to add in a few ARRA so Google sends me some ARRA traffic as well.

Since I’m ranting for a moment. Turns out I also screwed up CCHIT. No, I didn’t screw up the certification. Someone else did that. I always called it C-C-H-I-T (basically spelled out), but it seems like the more common pronunciation is C-Chit. Luckily I mostly read and write about it as opposed to saying it since I try to avoid 4 letter words with “hit” in them. It’s funny how two people reading the same thing can change how it’s said.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program of EHR, EMR, HIT, HIPAA, HIE, RHIO, HL7, CCR, PHR, HITECH, ARRA, CCHIT, ONC, HHS, and of course the women love when we talk about PMS. Not to mention I still have quite a bit to write about HIMSS. Oh brother.

I just wanted to take a second to thank those EMR and HIPAA advertisers. They keep the lights on (and my wife happy). Check out our advertisers and the services they offer:

EMR Experts
myEMRChoice.com

Their support is sincerely appreciated. If you’re interested in becoming an adveritiser, check out more details on the EMR and HIPAA advertising page.

I also wanted to mention how amazed I am with the number of people who have signed up for the EMR and HIPAA Email Subscrition. The list is like a who’s who of Healthcare IT and I couldn’t be more humbled that so many people are reading what I create. The numbers following the EMR and HIPAA rss feed are just as astounding.

Hopefully, I can keep informing, entertaining and provoking conversation related to Healthcare IT. Technology is my passion and I love how technology can improve so many things. Thanks for reading and please feel free to teach me something in the comments if you ever read something you think needs to be corrected, clarified or praised.

</group hug>

I know that many of you are already subscribing to updates to EMR and HIPAA using the EMR and HIPAA RSS feed. Thanks for all those who subscribe. I appreciate your readership.

Recently, I just integrated an email subscription service for those who’d like to get updates to EMR and HIPAA in their email instead of by RSS or visiting the site. I know I use my email heavily and this feature is a really nice one.

All you have to do is click here to subscribe and enter your email address. Then, you’ll have to confirm it’s your email by clicking a link that gets sent to you. That’s too prevent spam. I hate spam and so do you. So, you can trust that I won’t be using your email for spam. It will just send out updates that happen on EMR and HIPAA.

Let me know if you have any questions and what you think of this new feature.

As EMR and HIPAA passes our 3 year anniversary, I thought I’d take a moment to thank the sponsors of this blog. Their sponsorship makes this website possible. This is especially true at Christmas time. So, thanks to both EMR Choice and EMR Experts for your sponsorship and advertising on EMR and HIPAA. Our relationship with EMR Experts goes back almost 2 years and so hopefully they’ve found our relationship as beneficial as I have found it. EMR Choice is a new sponsor that’s really trying to do some good things in the EMR market.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 3 years since I started this blog. I first started out just wanting to document my experience with EMR. I still do that to a large extent, but it’s grown to a lot of other things including some of the various EMR related technologies like the ever popular Dragon Naturally Speaking medical. Regardless of the topic, I still am passionate about EMR and the effect that it can have on healthcare. I think a ton of things need to be done to improve its implementation, but it’s needed as a platform for the future of healthcare. It will be fun to see it evolve over the years.

Also, I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays. May you enjoy the season and celebrate with those you love and care about.

I must admit that I’m a bit of sucker when it comes to recognition for the work I do on my blogs. What can I say, I like to hear that people like the work I’m doing. It’s the best motivation for a blogger.

So, of course, I was interested when I got an email about the People’s Health Blogger Awards. For all of those who enjoy what I’m doing on this blog, I’d love to have your vote as a great health blogger. Just click the “Vote Now” button below:

for John Lynn http://www.emrandhipaa.com