During a meeting I held with the CEO of Aprima (previously iMedica), it came out that Aprima has created a learning management system for users of the Aprima EMR system. Ok, before you stop reading, hear me out.

Sure, every EMR vendor has some sort of online help or learning system by now. What I found interesting about the Aprima EMR learning management system is that it actually graded the doctors on what they learned.

Ok, doctors might hate to hear that they’re being graded, but that’s kind of missing the point. There’s a number of reasons why grading a doctor’s (or I guess other staff too) comprehension of the online learning is important.

First, is that it gives the EMR vendor an idea of how well the practice has actually learned the training. We all know that it’s one thing to go through a training and another to really learn what’s being taught. Second, based on the number of times the user had to retake the “test” you can gain a decent idea of how quickly that person is able to pick up technical concepts.

Plus, I think this type of testing can also provide the EMR vendor some feedback as to which trainings need to be improved. If everyone fails the prescribing module, then maybe you need to improve the product or improve the training that’s being given.

Finally, having a learning management system like this in place could also extend to training doctors on how using that EMR can help you meet the meaningful use guidelines required to receive the EMR stimulus money. Yes, pretty much everything has to come back to meaningful use, doesn’t it?

I’m not sure that Aprima has taken their learning management system this far, but it sounds like they’re heading down some of these paths.

Another quick side note from my visit with the CEO of Aprima was their “Take a Tablet” program that let’s doctors take a tablet to play with during the sales cycle. Basically, they want the doctor to learn to be comfortable using a tablet for other things so that using the EMR on the tablet will be natural as well. Pretty interesting way to “train” the doctors on the tablet technology.