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EMR and EHR Ads

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It seems fitting on Super Bowl week to take a second and look at the advertisers that make what we do here at EMR and HIPAA possible. None of their ads cost $1-2 million like the Super Bowl ads, but if you’re looking for some great Healthcare IT and EHR products then you’ve come to the right place. If you like what we do here at EMR and HIPAA, then take a minute and see the advertisers who like what we do as well.

Also, I have a special ad promotion for new advertisers from now through the middle of February. If you’re interested in knowing the details, drop me a note on our Contact Us page.

New EMR and HIPAA Advertisers
Canon – I can’t imagine anyone reading this needs an introduction to Canon. In the Healthcare IT space they offer a suite of scanners, printers and copiers that are found in healthcare organizations across the country. I even have the Canon imageFORMULA DR-C125 in my house and use it regularly. The need for heavy duty scanners in healthcare isn’t going to go away for a long time. I’m glad to have Canon on board as an advertiser.

iPatientCare – EHR vendors always do well as advertisers on EMR and HIPAA and so it’s great to have iPatientCare as a new advertiser. They provide the full suite of EHR, PMS, PHR, HIE, and Mobile that you could need along with all the important EHR and meaningful use certifications. I see that they’re going to be exhibiting at HIMSS at Booth #5519 if you want to check them out at HIMSS. Plus, I love that their website has an image that says they won 9 TEPR Awards. Many of you probably won’t even know what TEPR is since it’s no longer around. However, TEPR was a conference focused exclusively on EHR (although it was probably called EMR back then since it was before EHR became in Vogue). The fact that they won awards at TEPR shows how long iPatientCare’s been doing EHR.

simplifyMD – I first started working with simplifyMD when they graciously sponsored the New Media Meetup at HIMSS 2012 (The 2013 event will be announced shortly, but save Tuesday, March 5th from 6-8 on your calendar). It was a great event and they were a great sponsor. simplifyMD is a certifed EHR vendor that strives to tailor their EHR workflow to the doctor’s current workflow. Something that dotors love to hear and experience from their EHR. They’re a web based EHR. Plus, they recently came out with these great simplifyMD and EHR cartoons. I’m sure I’ll be featuring more of their cartoons in the future.

Returning EMR and HIPAA Advertisers
Sfax – I call Sfax a returning advertiser because they first started advertising on EMR and HIPAA back in December of 2009. So, they supported EMR and HIPAA back when we were just starting to get some traction. After a short hiatus, they’re back as an advertiser. What many don’t realize is that Sfax handles the faxing for a large number of the EHR vendors out there. While I generally avoid faxing as much as possible, sometimes it can’t be avoided and so I’m always grateful I can just send a fax similar to how I send an email using Sfax. Word on the street is that they have the next version of their software coming out soon. I’m excited to check it out.

Mitochon – Similar to Sfax, Mitochon first started advertising on EMR and HIPAA back in Decmber of 2010. After a short break they’re back again as advertisers. I’ve really enjoyed watching Mitochon mature as a Free EHR vendor (They do offer the full suite of free services: PM, EMR, HIE, etc). When Mitochon first started advertising with me, they were a brand new company with a big vision and lots of ideas, but still a lot of work to do. They’ve come a long way since then with their product and their company. One example of that was in their mobile EHR solution that I wrote about previously.

Renewing EMR and HIPAA Advertisers
A big thanks to all these renewing advertisers. It’s beautiful seeing so many of them supporting us for so long.
Practice Fusion – Advertising since April 2010
EMR Consultant – Advertising since July 2009
Amazing Charts – Advertising since May 2010
Cerner – Advertising since September 2011

I’m very appreciative of those advertisers who support the work we do. As I look at the stats for the advertisers, I’m really happy that we’re providing real value to their companies.

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January 31, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  HealthCare IT
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EHR Vendor as ACO

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When I was doing my interview with Dr. Jonathan Bertman and John Mooney about the Pri-Med acquisition of Amazing Charts, Jonathan Bertman made a really interesting comment that stuck with me. I asked him how he thought that Amazing Charts would do in this world of hospitals acquiring medical practices. He said that they were evaluated the environment, but then he suggested something that I’d never heard suggested before.

He said that he was considering the idea of whether Amazing Charts could act as an ACO for its members. You could tell that this was an idea that hadn’t been fleshed out completely. Although, I found it a concept that was really interesting to consider. Could an EHR vendor act as an ACO for the doctors that use their EHR?

The key question to me is really whether an EHR vendor has enough adoption of their EHR in a given area to be able to create an ACO. I imagine an EHR vendor like MEDENT that has only focused on selling their EHR in about 5 states could have enough geographically focused EHR adoption to be able to support the ACO model.

I’ve heard a number of small practice doctors call their colleagues to action when it comes to ACOs. Their call usually includes a reminder to the days of HMO’s when they claimed that doctors weren’t part of the conversation and that they can’t let the same thing happen with ACOs. Could an EHR vendor help to bring all these small practices to the ACO bargaining table? Seems like an interesting idea worth exploring to me.

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December 18, 2012 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: ACO  EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR
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What’s Behind the Pri-Med Acquisition of Amazing Charts EHR?

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For those of you who missed the news, Pri-Med acquired Amazing Charts EHR for a currently undisclosed amount. This was a really interesting move in the EHR industry. Anne Zieger suggested that this and other indicators was a sign of EMR consolidation. Turns out there’s a lot more behind the Pri-Med acquisition of Amazing Charts than most people would see on the surface.

In a call I had with Amazing Charts founder and president Dr. Jonathan Bertman, as well as John Mooney, founder and CEO of Pri-Med, I learned a lot about why this acquisition makes sense and how they’re planning to capitalize on the investment.

CME Chart Level Review
One of the most interesting things I learned was that chart level review was the best way to see the gaps and needs that can be satisfied by CMEs. Considering Pri-Med is a major player in the CME space, you can see the value that having relationships with a bunch of doctors using an EHR can be for them. I didn’t dive into how Pri-Med plans to leverage the Amazing Charts EHR charts, but you can see the possibilities. Although, Amazing Charts is a mostly client-server based EHR, so Pri-Med won’t have any access to do chart level reviews without permission from the doctors using the EHR.

Protecting EHR Data
In fact, in my discussion I learned that Dr. Bertman and John Mooney both had no interest in using a physician’s EHR data to make money. That philosophy actually seemed to bring Pri-Med and Amazing Charts together to make this acquisition happen. Both believe that their company should make money providing the software and services a doctor needs as opposed to making money off the data in an EHR. This is nothing new since I’ve heard Dr. Bertman espouse this belief many times before, but does contrast with other EHR vendors in the market.

EHR Acquisition Options
I was also fascinated to hear about Dr. Bertman’s thoughts on Amazing Charts approach to acquisition. He said that he didn’t want Amazing Charts users to experience what other EHR users had experienced when their EHR was acquired by another EHR company. He didn’t want Amazing Charts to be one of many EHR software in a company’s portfolio. Inevitably, EHR software will get sunset to streamline the company and Dr. Bertman didn’t want that for his users.

What does the Acquisition Mean for Users?
Ont thing users of Amazing Charts can expect is efforts to create clinical training and information at the point of care. John Mooney mentioned their “5 Minute Clinical Consults” as a model of short education that could be integrated into the clinical documentation process. I’ll be interested to see how this evolves. Even 5 minutes seems too long for most doctors to stop their patient workflow. However, it is interesting to bring Pri-Med’s education knowledge, experience and library to the point of care in the Amazing Charts EHR.

I also was fascinated by John Mooney’s suggestion of Amazing Charts possibly integrating a Provider Self Assessment tool into Amazing Charts. Definitely makes sense to have the doctors self assess to get the best CME. While not a perfect match inside an EHR software, it doesn’t seem completely out of place in the EHR if it’s done right.

Amazing Charts User Groups at Pri-Med Events
I also learned that they’ll be working to hold Amazing Charts user group meetings at the various Pri-Med events. This could be a great boon for Amazing Charts users. I know a lot of doctors and their staff won’t or can’t attend the national user group meetings that most EHR vendors hold. I’m not sure where the 6500 Amazing Charts users are found throughout the country, but if planned well it would be great to leverage the existing Pri-Med events for this and engage more of their EHR users close to home.

Post-Acquisition Logistics
They told me that Amazing Charts would maintain a separate entity in Rhode Island to continue developing and supporting the EHR software. Their marketing and sales would come out of Boston where Pri-Med is located. For Amazing Charts users, this sounds like it will be mostly business as usual from their perspective. In fact, it could mean Amazing Charts has more resources available to build our their EHR software. All in all, this seems like a smart move for Amazing Charts and their users.

Full Disclosure: Amazing Charts is an advertiser on this site, but you can be sure I’d cover every EHR acquisition I can find.

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November 29, 2012 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  HealthCare IT
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Health IT & EMR Advertising

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I want to take a minute to say a big Thank You to all the advertisers that support EMR and HIPAA. If you enjoy the content on EMR and HIPAA, then take a minute to look through this list and get an idea of the companies that support what we do.

The following are the new advertisers since I last posted about EMR and HIPAA advertisers, and then the list of renewing advertisers.

New Advertisers
Digital Health Conference – I wrote previously about how much I like the Digital Health Conference in New York City. So, you can imagine I’m happy to have their event advertised on EMR and HIPAA. I hope that I see many of you at the event. It’s a great one and seems to have even gotten better this year.

GE Healthcare – If any of you watched the Olympics, you have certainly seen that GE is doing a lot of work in healthcare. It is kind of cool to think that GE healthcare is advertising in the Olympics and on EMR and HIPAA. Obviously, quite a bit different goals and EMR & HIPAA might be a little more targeted to healthcare IT professionals than the Olympics.

Physia – For those of you who haven’t yet seen me talk about Physia on Twitter, this is a new venture I’m doing with Shahid Shah. Physia does really low cost physician websites. However, that’s just the beginning of what we have in mind. We plan to layer a whole set of services on top of those websites that turn your website from a glorified yellow page ad into an integral part of your office. It’s an exciting project that is going to bring physician websites into the next century.

Renewing Advertisers
Practice Fusion – Advertising since April 2010
SOAPware – Advertising since July 2010
EMR Consultant – Advertising since July 2009
Ambir – Advertising since January 2010
Amazing Charts – Advertising since May 2010
DrFirst – Advertising since January 2012
GE Centricity Business – Advertising since May 2011

I’m very appreciative of those advertisers who support the work we do. As I look at the stats for the advertisers, I’m really happy that we’re providing real value to their company.

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September 5, 2012 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  HealthCare IT
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The Move to Cloud EHR

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I’m pretty sure that many people missed the announcement that Amazing Charts now offers a Cloud EHR. For those who don’t eat, sleep and breathe EHR like me, you probably don’t realize that this is a pretty significant announcement on Amazing Charts part and I think represents a larger shift in the EHR industry.

I know the SaaS EHR purists will say that not all “Cloud EHR” are created equal. This is highlighted in the Amazing Charts press release where it says “without a web browser.” It’s an ironic statement when you consider that most SaaS EHR happily say, “with only a web browser.” (Although, the web browser only EHR software companies should read this post by Dr. West) However, my goal here isn’t to highlight the various nuances of hosted or cloud EHR software.

Instead, I wish to highlight how one of the popular, established, client server EHR software vendors was getting enough requests from doctors for a hosted EHR solution that they now offer a cloud based EHR. The reality is that many physician practices want to have to deal with as little IT support as possible. This is the major reason I’ve heard over and over again that many practices want to have a hosted EHR.

It’s worth pointing out that Amazing Charts focuses on the small physician practice market. It’s always been clear that the larger physician practices or hospital owned practices have better capabilities and a greater interest in hosting their EHR in house. While there are strengths and weaknesses to a hosted EHR vs an in house EHR, the hosted EHR is the compelling choice for the IT averse clinic.

Very soon we’re going to see almost all new EHR installs in small ambulatory practices using some sort of hosted EHR software. This doesn’t necessarily spell the death of client server EHR software. Many large practices will continue using and implementing client server EHR software. Not to mention many long time EHR users will continue with their existing client server installs. However, the shift to hosted EHR is happening and will start to really pick up pace in the next couple years.

Full Disclosure: Amazing Charts is an advertiser on this site, but they didn’t know I was doing this post.

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August 21, 2012 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  HealthCare IT
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Great Period for EMR and HIPAA

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I use to do this a lot more when I started blogging, but I’m so busy with all the Healthcare Scene blogs that I don’t do it nearly as much. Although, I think it’s interesting to take a quick look at some of the stats for EMR and HIPAA and also take a minute to recognize the new and renewing advertisers on the site. I hope you’ll indulge me for a minute and you’ll take a look at those companies that support the work I do here on EMR and HIPAA. Most of them are not only sponsors of the site, but also readers. That means a lot to me.

First, let’s take a look at some stats for EMR and HIPAA. This will be the 1,318th post and there have been 6417 comments on those posts. That’s about 5 comments a post which is pretty incredible. According to WP.com stats, we’ve had 5,920,478 pageviews since I started using that stats program in July 2007. Since my first blog post was back in December 2005, that puts us well over 6 million pageviews.

This is astounding to me. I remember when I thought that maybe 1000 pageviews a day was the entire EHR market online. I’m glad I was wrong. Thanks for everyone that’s been reading. In fact, in another milestone, the EMR and HIPAA email subscription just blew by 4000 subscribers (now at 4,079). Considering I mistakenly didn’t start this email list until 2009, I’m happy that 4000 people want a daily email from EMR and HIPAA. Add in the 15,538 twitter followers on @ehrandhit and I’m humbled beyond belief.

Speaking of humbling experiences, this list of new and renewing EMR and HIPAA sponsors is really humbling as well. I’m very appreciative of their support.

New EMR and HIPAA Advertisers
Greenway – I’d been talking with Greenway for about a year about advertising on my network of websites. They might have been a little busy with something called an IPO (GWAY) that slowed the discussion. Now that the IPO is out of the way, we were able to finally finish up the details of Greenway advertising. For those who don’t know Greenway, they provide an integrated EHR and clinical research solution to more than 40,0000 providers in 30 specialties. Greenway has a single-database EHR, PM and interoperability solution called PrimeSUITE®. As one Greenway partner said to me at HIMSS, “Greenway is a good company with good people trying to do good for healthcare.” I can’t say I’ve seen anything to say otherwise.

NoMoreClipboard – The President of NoMoreClipboard, Jeff Donnell, was my first ever meeting at HIMSS. NoMoreClipboard has been doing some really interesting things since then including it’s most recent partnership with iMPak (see my interview with NoMoreClipboard and iMPak). I’d label iMPak as the most creative technology that I found at HIMSS 2012. Once I get a good demo video of the product, I’ll be doing a full post about it. It makes a lot of sense for the iMPak technology to be put together with the NoMoreClipboard technology. I’m looking forward to see what else they do together as well.

Online Tech – I think this is the first time I’ve had a web hosting company advertise on my site. After talking with Online Tech, I think I know why they want to advertise on EMR and HIPAA. Most hosting companies pay lip service to HIPAA, but Online Tech takes it very seriously. While I haven’t done a really deep dive into all the details of their hosting and HIPAA compliance, I could quickly tell how much HIPAA privacy and security was part of their culture. I believe HIPAA compliance is less about perfection and more about intent and effort. I think those who work with Online Tech won’t have to worry as much about being a “Covered Entity with Egg on Their Face.”

Renewing EMR and HIPAA Advertisers
Now to those companies that have renewed their ads on EMR and HIPAA since my last update:
Sequelmed (Advertising Since November 2009)
Ambir (Advertising Since January 2010)
Mitochon (Advertising Since December 2010)
Amazing Charts (Advertising Since May 2011)
Elsevier (Advertising Since September 2011)

As you can see, a number of them have been supporting EMR and HIPAA for a lot of years. I look forward to many more years working together with them.

No doubt this list and the numbers above set a high bar for me which I don’t take lightly. I’m sure I often don’t measure up, but I’ll keep doing what I can to provide value to people. Thanks for reading.

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March 14, 2012 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  HealthCare IT
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Healthcare Scene at HIMSS 2012

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As many of you know, I posted my HIMSS 2012 session schedule on EMR and EHR a few weeks back. Sadly, many of those sessions have been taken off my schedule, but a number of really good ones still remain. I just counted 27 other meetings with vendors the week of HIMSS. I think it’s fair to say I’m doing my part to see as many as I can to provide you some really interesting coverage.

Outside of that hectic schedule, you’ll also be able to find me at a number of events (mostly social media related):
Meet the Bloggers Panel – This is happening Wed 2/22 4:00-5:00PM at the HIMSS Social Media Center. This will be a fun panel for me with two people I know quite well and love: Jennifer Dennard and Neil Versel. Plus, Carissa Caramanis O’Brien who I don’t know that well, but look forward to meeting as well. If you like social media or blogging, you’ll enjoy this.

HIMSS Social Media Center Genius Bar – I’ll be there Tuesday, 11:30 am-12:00 pm, Wednesday 10:30 am-11:00 am, and Thursday 11:30 am-12:00 pm at the HIMSS Social Media Center. Stop by and ask any question you want. You can make an appointment for it here.

New Media Meetup at HIMSS Sponsored by simplifyMD – We’re almost out of space for this event so I’ve stopped any major promotion of it. It amazes me the wonderful people on the list. Soon I’ll probably have to change it to a wait list signup once we reach capacity.

I also wanted to point out some of the interesting things that sponsors of EMR and HIPAA are doing at HIMSS. I just asked them for info late, so a number of my advertisers haven’t been able to get me anything yet. If they send me their info, I’ll update the post.


NoMoreClipboard, in collaboration with iMPak Health, will launch and demo a new comprehensive solution for achieving a successful medical home or accountable care organization. This new device, ideal for technology adverse patients, will help health systems and employers improve clinical outcomes, reduce ER visits and hospital readmissions and reduce chronic disease costs. See, feel, touch and participate in product demonstrations conducive to real-world scenarios and enter to win a $500 Best Buy gift card at HIMSS Booth #7902.
Location: Booth #7902


DrFirst is presenting the HIMSS Hero at this year’s event. DrFirst will be doing Chair and foot massages, a Caricature artist turning you into our Superhero, Collapsible water bottles, House Footies (DrFirst branded hospital socks), and Giving away an iPad 2. Stop by to learn more about DrFirst’s shift to an EHR platform company.
Location: Booth #5456


Cerner is excited to expand our presence at HIMSS12. The Cerner booth #476 will provide HIMSS attendees the opportunity to connect with peers, interact with Cerner associates and learn about Cerner solutions. Multiple Cerner clients will be in the booth to offer peer perspectives to physicians in attendance and to present how they are progressing in their journeys toward achieving Meaningful use, high quality measures and greater efficiency. Cerner associates will talk through complete workflow and documentation solutions for interdisciplinary teams, medications management, device connectivity, quality reporting, revenue cycle management and leading-edge services. In addition to the show floor, 15 Cerner clients will present in the general HIMSS educational tracks. Cerner will also participate in the Interoperability Showcase and IDC-10 Knowledge Center, where we will showcase specific solutions in respective areas.
Location: Booth #14542-, 476


GE Healthcare IT delivers workflow solutions for specialists and tools which provide insights for
hospital leadership to enable healthcare systems to run more effectively and efficiently- resulting
in better quality care for more patients at a lower cost. At HIMSS12, we’ll showcase highlights of
our extensive portfolio featuring numerous new product introductions. Now available, Centricity
Patient Portal 13 is a flexible, scalable, customizable portals that extends the provider workflow to
the patient’s home. With a range of easy-to-use self-service tools, Patient Online enhances patient
communications, optimizes staff and provider productivity, and can help strengthen the provider’s
market and competitive position. It helps customers meet Meaningful Use Stage 1 patient and
family engagement criteria and prepare them for expected Stage 2 requirements. Centricity
Perinatal-Connect provides the ability to correlate data from disparate Hospital Information
Systems (HIS) and other sources onto the fetal strip. It enables access to multiple fetal monitoring
strips while allowing documentation in the HIS all at the same time, without obstructing any
clinical information, helping clinicians deliver their best care all while maximizing current hospital
investment in perinatal IT. GE Healthcare IT will also demonstrate planned capabilities of its 50-50 joint venture with Microsoft, Caradigm, launching later this year.
Location: Booth #2635


This year, Practice Fusion has teamed up with Fitbit and our blogger friends Brian Ahier and Don Fluckinger to kick off our contest. Brian and Don will be competing for the most number of steps for a chance to win a charitable donation made by Practice Fusion in their name. HIMSS attendees interested in winning a Fitbit of their own can simply tweet their response to “Why do you want a Fitbit?” using the hashtags #fitbit and #HIMSS12 Unable to attend HIMSS12 but still want to experience the action? Virtual HIMSS12 is for you. Our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Robert Rowley and Las Vegas hand surgeon, Dr. Andrew Bronstein will be presenting an on-demand session titled Interoperability on the Front Lines: It’s Already Here.
Location: Booth #4074


HITR.com will exhibit at booth 7707 with its affiliates Billian’s HealthDATA and Porter Research. The HITR team is looking forward to meeting attendees and showing them the benefits a free membership in the HITR.com community can bring – healthcare IT benchmarking surveys and results, social networking opportunities, and more! Register at the booth to win one of our twice-daily Kindle drawings.
Location: Booth #7707


EHR Scope will be exhibiting in booth 13756. We’ll be doing video interviews for www.EHRtv.com, including some walk-in interviews. At the booth we’ll also be showing other activities of EHR Scope, including www.EMRConsultant.com, as well as Dragon Medical Spanish, which is now available for Latin America. In addition to the activities at the booth, we’ll have 2 roaming camera crews doing interviews of exhibitors, by appointment only.
Location: Booth #13756


At HIMSS, Amazing Charts is introducing Version 6.2, with the ability to connect with HIEs and PHRs automatically. On signing a note, the patient’s CCD is automatically uploaded to the patient selected PHR or HIE (See Screenshot). In 2011, Amazing Charts received the Best In KLAS Award for #1 EMR for 1-10 Physicians.
Location: Booth #13316


Mitochon is the first FREE ONC-ATCB Certified, web-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) Health Information Exchange (HIE) and Patient Health Record (PHR) solution for medical professionals. The FREE EHR platform combines Scheduling, Charting, ePrescribing Labs and Collaboration of Care. This year at HIMSS Mitochon has a major announcement taking place on Monday February 20th. Dr. AndreVovan, Founder and Chief Medical Officer for Mitochon stated “all roads are leading to Accountable Care Organizations (ACO)/Integrated Delivery Systems and Mitochon is positioned to enable organizations to reach that destination.” Look for this announcement to learn more about Mitochon’s new offering and check out Mitochon’s Booth #265.
Location: Booth #265

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February 16, 2012 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  HealthCare IT
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Dr. Lynn Ho Interview – Micropractice Working Towards Meaningful Use

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This is the next in a series of EMR and EHR interviews that will be done on EMR and HIPAA and EMR and EHR. The full EMR interview with Dr. Ho can be found on the new EHR and EMR interviews website. The following is a summary of that interview written by Kathy Bongiovi.

After completing a family practice residency at the University of Rochester in 1989, Dr. Ho worked in a variety of settings before making her decision to open her no-staff “micropractice” in 2004. Ho defines micropractice as being “a small, low overhead, no staff, hightech-high touch practice.” Because Ho believes the current financing model of delivering primary care by cranking up the volume of visits in order to meet overhead and salary is broken she wanted to move to a model that would be better for patients and give her more professional satisfaction.

Ho realized that one of the keys to running a successful micropractice is maintaining a low overhead. Her overhead is 25-30% of gross collections instead of the typical 60% that arises from paying staff salaries and for multiple work stations.

Amazing Charts was her choice of EHR and she has found the company very responsive to user requests. All of the software pieces needed to integrate well with her EMR, both via formal interfaces and in her informal workflow.

Ho has been able to make her office completely “paperless.” She accomplished this by having all patients send her their clinical histories using Instant Medical History from her website. She also has all new patients sign a laminated “HIPAA consent, for both billing and emailing, with one signature. Then she scans the page along with a copy of their insurance card to a file. She erases the patient’s information from the laminated sheet and reuses it for the next patient. She uses EDI interfaces for most labs and some x-rays and consults. Most consultants fax her their information electronically.

Dr. Ho had no formal training in using a computer and, in fact, had only used a Mac for accessing her email prior to opening her practice in 2004. She felt that with a laptop, an all-in-one, an internet connection and an EHR as the centerpiece of her technology stable, she was set for life. She was unaware of what her technology configuration would evolve into and she became mindful of just how many of her devices would have to successfully interact to properly implement the EHR system. As of the writing of this article she was in the process of attesting for Meaningful Use and was on course to achieving MU within three months of starting the process.

She updated her EHR to the latest version (Amazing Charts version 6) in order to use the “wizards” that would count the necessary data. Ho commented that it was taking only 2-5 minutes more, per encounter, to include the required documentation. Although she would prefer not to have to spend the extra time filling in the boxes, Ho did admit the MU wizard in her EMR makes it rather simple and not too painful to collect the necessary data.

She had the following thoughts on whether MU certification is proper for any given practice. “If you are already leveraging your EMR to help you in your practice in a meaningful way, then depending on your Medicare/Medicaid revenues/patient mix, it may be worth it to apply”. She felt the questions to be asked “are the monies received – or the penalty that you would incur, worth the time it will take you to: 1)learn about the MU program, 2) learn how to use the MU features of the EMR, and 3) actually do the documentation?” She also feels that a provider needs to consider his or her payor mix and practice volume. However, if a provider doesn’t use the EMR to collect demographic data or to E-prescribe, there will be additional work to adopt these processes into one’s workflow.

Dr. Ho feels that attestation is not proper for everyone. Smaller practices with very tight profit margins which lack breathing room may not be able to succeed because the benefits of certification may be outweighed by the efforts necessary to becoming schooled in MU deployment.

Read the full transcript of Dr. Ho’s EMR and Meaningful Use interview.

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August 10, 2011 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: ACO  EHR  EHR Stimulus  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR and EHR Interviews  HealthCare IT  HITECH  Meaningful Use
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EMR Companies Holding Practice Data for “Ransom”

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JamesNT wrote a really interesting forum post recently about how a number of EMR vendors are holding doctor’s patient information “ransom” (his word) from them. Here’s his whole description and he even names a few EMR vendors and the challenges related to getting the EMR data out of their systems:

To many EMR’s lock up the practice’s data and hold it for ransom. The data entered into an EMR belongs to the practice, not the EMR. It is not fair for EMR’s to not provide ways to interface or export data from the database. If a doctor wants to hire an IT person or developer such as myself to write custom reports or export data from the EMR, then it should be possible. Consider the following examples:

Amazing Charts: They use SQL Server 2005 Express as their database but they remove the built-in Administrator account from the SQL instance and change the SQL Server SA password. This means anyone hoping to interface or export data is at a loss – and Amazing Charts will not share the SA password. Amazing Charts also does not publish a database diagram.

eClinicalWorks: Overly complicated database. Does not publish mySQL password (you can find it, though). Does not publish database schema. If you ask them for help, they want to charge $5000 to build an interface.

PODMED (now TrakNet): Kudos for sharing the SQL Server SA password – but does not offer a published database schema.

GE Centricity: Database schema available – if you are willing to tell a bold-faced lie to someone to get it.

Medinotes: Even after sunsetting the product, Allscripts refuses to give out the ODBC driver and database password.

MD Logic: Uses a pathetic HL7 file interface. You can place only one patient demographic in each file – so if you have 200 patients to update that means sending 200 files.

Officemate: Uses SQL Server and it is easy to get to their database – but they do not offer the schema.

I find this situation deplorable. Every EMR should make it easy to get to the data and not try to hide it or charge outrageous amounts for an interface. Seriously – who here would pay $5000 to make an interface?

Of course, he’s just highlighting the EMR software he’s used. I’m sure there are hundreds more EMR vendors like this.

Then, there’s also EMR vendors that don’t hold your EMR data for ransom like Medtuity. Here’s what Matt Chase from Medtuity said about what they provide to users of their EMR:

At Medtuity, we provide open access to the SQL database. We also provide an export facility under Options. You can export each and every encounter, years and years worth if you wish, to a PDF file for each visit, neatly labeled with the date of the encounter and pt’s name to keep it from colliding with other PDF documents. You can also export a CCR for each pt.

We also have our own proprietary format in XML. For a group with a huge number of records, they may wish to hire a consultant to write a program to consume that xml into a new system. Our xml format is most complete and includes the stuff you would not usually wish to transfer (the audit trail on that chart, for example). But it is there. We also have CSV format, but let’s face it, you cannot export sophisticated data in a CSV format. It’s fine for demographics.

How “liquid” is the data in your EMR software? This discussion is a very important one between you and your EMR vendor when you’re selecting an EMR. Make it part of your EMR contract.

More EMR vendors need to voluntarily step up to the plate and provide this type of EMR data liquidity.

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January 19, 2011 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Selection
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