EHR Discussions Website by e-MDs

Someone pointed me to a new website created by e-MDs called EHR discussions. The site says “Welcome to EHR Discussions, a moderated discussion forum that will feature discussions on health information technology.”

When someone suggested that it was a discussion forum about EHR that was hosted by an EMR company I was really interested. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed by what I found. There was almost no discussion on the website and it was really hard to even figure out how someone could comment. Basically, it’s just a real simple blog implementation. They do allow comments, but they require you to register before you comment. If you’re trying to create discussions about EMR, then that’s the very worst thing you could do.

At the end of the day, it all goes back to expectations. I was hoping for a killer forum for people to really discuss important EMR topics. That’s what I was told it was and it says it’s going to be at the top of the website. When that expectation wasn’t met I was disappointed.

If e-MDs would have just said they started a blog about important EHR topics, I think I wouldn’t have been nearly as disappointed. They actually have created a good post about the HITECH act for example. Certainly it shows a lot of vendor bias perspective and doesn’t do any real hard core analysis, but for information purposes it’s interesting.

Just don’t expect this information intensive type of website to engender a lot of conversation around EMR. Do expect it to be a nice marketing tool for e-MDs. I’m a strong advocate for blogging by EMR companies that want to increase their presence online.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

3 Comments

  • Hi John
    I appreciate your comments about EHRDiscssions.com. We launched it a few weeks ago, and we have been continuing to add content along the way. I welcome your additional thoughts and hope that you will contribute to the dialogue as we continue to gain readership. I am a fan of your blog, and look forward to reading more.
    Regards,
    Andrea Lesh, V.P. of Sales & Marketing, e-MDs

  • Andrea,
    Open up the comments. Feel free to turn on comment moderation if you want, but if you really want a forum for discussion, then make it as easy as possible for people to comment. Otherwise, it just seems like you’re trying to create a marketing tool for e-MDs.

  • John,

    We have placed some additional content on the site that should give you a better idea of what we are intending. The knowledge base articles are intended to be as unbiased as possible and we are open to objective comments. We would also be open to contributions from other domain experts in the industry.

    Thanks,

    Mike

    Michael Stearns, MD, President and CEO, e-MDs, Inc.

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