While at the AAFP conference recently, I saw a company called PhoneTree that I found interesting. They essentially take care of all the automated calling for the doctors office.

I was a bit surprised that a company like this is still around. Is there still a market for narrowly focused products like this? I know that many EHR vendors have integrated these types of features into their PMS and EMR software.

The other problem I had with this company was that they only have a one way interface for calling. Basically, you dump a csv file out from your scheduling system and they make the calls. However, there’s no method of getting the data back to the EHR software so you can know who confirmed and who didn’t in your EHR. Seems like a no brainer feature to me, but seemed to barely be on their radar. Probably because it would require an interface and interfaces are the worst to manage.

Of course, the really cool technology with phones is coming from the Cisco IP phones. I love the integrations that you can do with a Cisco phone and I love the idea of a soft phone on your computer even more. Too bad Cisco is so bloody expensive.

One of the lunch demos I saw at the EHR Stimulus tour was a demo of the integration of a Cisco IP phone with an EMR. I’ll admit that they are VERY brave souls to try and do a demo like this since it’s just prone to problems. Demos are always that way. Plus, I think you can get the picture of what’s happening without seeing it. At least I could have and everyone else that couldn’t probably just saw all the configuration and thought it was too complex to even consider.

That part aside, there were a couple of things that were intriguing about the demo. First, as they said, it’s interesting to see how hardware can really affect and interact with your EMR. That’s an interesting concept that I think is worth exploring a lot more. Second, if setup correctly there are a couple features that are interesting and useful. However, I’m not sure it’s really worth the cost or hassle to get these features. They are kind of nice to have, but aren’t deal breakers or makers.

The features that I did find interesting was that it would bring up the patient name/information on the phone when they are calling. I’d be interested to see how much information can really fit on the phone. However, even if it’s just a patient ID which you can use to quickly pull up the patient’s chart, then it’s a nice time saver. Plus, you can quickly verify that it is indeed the patient that’s calling using the information on the phone. Very cool feature and pretty useful. I imagine if you worked in an office with this you’d take it for granted until you moved to an office that didn’t have it and you’d miss it.

The other feature that’s cool is really just IP phone specific and that’s having a soft phone on your computer (basically the phone just runs on your computer and you can use a headset plugged into your computer). Saves on the cost of the often expensive IP phones and I expect we’re going to see some pretty amazing advances in soft phones.

Like I said. These weren’t things that should change your EMR decision, but it is a preview of some of the types of technologies we can see integrated with an EMR.

I previously posted about the EHR stimulus tour (no link since I don’t want to promote them). Today I saw what seems to amount to a press release that talks about the “EHR Stimulus Alliance” and their tour to “educate 500,000 U.S. physicians about opportunities aligned with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.”

This type of puffery just makes me sick. No. Not the educating 500,000 physicians. That’s a good thing and part of the motivation for this blog. The thing that makes me sick is this seems like just a big marketing campaign for Allscripts. Sure they have a list of other partners, but they’re basically partners of Allscripts. Check out the list: Allscripts, Cisco, Citrix, Dell, Intel, Intuit, Microsoft Corp., and Nuance. The press release calls it a “broad coalition of healthcare and technology companies.” Too bad Allscripts is the only true healthcare company in that list. All the others are technology companies that sell some healthcare products.

I just don’t like when an “education tool” is really just being used as a marketing tool for a certain EHR company. If they really wanted to help adoption, they’d sponsor a tour with a whole variety of EHR vendors where they can help doctors to be able to see the wide variety of EHR vendors that exist.

Someone recently emailed me about any conferences that exist for a doctor to be able to evaluate EHR companies all in one place. I know there have been a number of other ones in the past that no longer exist. The only one I know is still going is HIMSS. Does anyone else know of other places where doctors can see a bunch of great EHR? I ask this knowing that many really great EHR just haven’t seen the benefit of these types of shows.

Also, if anyone has a chance to go to one of these EHR Stimulus tour stops, I’d love to have you do a guest post on the experience. I sent them a tweet asking if they can stop in Las Vegas so I can check it out.

Turns out the fish are starting to feed. Check out this website that talks about the “EHR Stimulus Tour: Educating the Nation.” Ok, I don’t really want you to check out the website, since I think it’s kind of sad. At the bottom it lists the “EHR Stimulus Alliance.” The following companies are listed in this EHR alliance:
Allscripts
Cisco
Citrix
Dell
intel
intuit
Microsoft
Nuance

What a group of large companies trying to sell a bunch of product. I guess we should have expected something like this, but maybe I’m just a little surprised that they made a website for an EHR stimulus tour and everything. Interestingly the twitter link on the site goes to an Allscripts twitter account. I think we can clearly see who’s behind this website.

Honestly, this reminds me of an Amway or other MLM convention. Is it any wonder the type of information that will be given at this type of tour? I guess $18 billion is a lot of motivation to market your EHR software. I just wish they were stopping in Las Vegas so that I could go and check them out.