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.