One of my readers made some interesting observations about what meaningful use in a doctors office meant. It’s interesting how different people can look at the term meaningful use.
Without getting into semantics, to me the words “meaingful use” means “a way to get government money.”
Maybe I’m just a little too practical Seriously though, would we be talking about meaningful use of an EMR if it weren’t for the government money? NO. We’d be talking about all the benefits of an EMR. The use of the EMR would just be a function of obtaining those benefits. I love how a bit of money can do all sorts of funky things.
Meaningful use should mean being able to accomplish my tasks without having to struggle with the interface. Not only is this definition eminently measurable (here at Electronic Ink we do it for clients every day), it can also be accomplished before or after development. Not surprisingly, a design that accounts for “meaningful use” before development requires much less “customization” by developers. Note that my definition has nothing to do with a checklist of features!