A couple weeks ago I attended the HIMSS virtual conference. I must admit that I mostly wanted to attend to interact with people. One of the more interesting things I found while interacting with some of the vendors was the price that the various vendors paid to be able to exhibit at the HIMSS virtual conference. I should have known the price would be high, but it was quite astonishing to me.

With one vendor in particular we talked about the price they paid and my quick back of the paper calculation showed that for the same price of having a “second floor” exhibit at the HIMSS virtual conference that vendor could advertise on EMR and HIPAA for about three years. That’s right. 2 days at a virtual conference or 3 years on a website targeted to EMR.

Yes, this post is kind of a way to talk about advertising on EMR and HIPAA. However, I think it also gives some interesting perspective for EMR and EHR vendors that are trying to market their product. Certainly there are lots of channels that could be used, but I think advertising on this site is one of them.

I must admit that the pricing HIMSS is charging has made me think about what I charge for advertising on EMR and HIPAA. However, I don’t see me drastically changing my prices. My goal with advertisers has always been to try and provide them value for the dollars their spending. I figure if I do that, then they’ll keep renewing and life will be good. Luckily, they have been renewing and life is good.

Now I just wonder how many years of advertising an EMR vendor would get compared to the cost of a booth at the HIMSS annual conference. Reminds me of the open source EMR Medsphere Bus picture from HIMSS next to the Cerner Semi Truck.

It’s that time again to recognize the new additions to the EMR and HIPAA advertising fold. Plus, a couple EMR and HIPAA advertisers have renewed and so I want to thank them as well.

New EMR Advertiser:
InterSystems – This is a really interesting company that works to integrate all your various healthcare application even across large geographic boundaries. Their software powers RHIO in Rhode Island and Long Island and they just recently announced that the Swedish National EHR will use InterSystems Healthshare™ software.

I’m also happy to have renewed EMR and HIPAA’s relationship with Medscribbler. I’m glad that I’ve been able to form some long term relationships with Medscribbler and appreciate their support in keeping the lights on here at EMR and HIPAA. A few other advertisers and renewals are in the works, but that will have to wait at least until next month.

Thanks also to all those who have signed up for the EMR and HIPAA email list, rss feed and those that are following me on Twitter.

We’re in a really exciting time for healthcare IT and electronic health records in particular. I’m glad to be apart of it. I hope I can continue to add value to those who read this site. If there’s something else you’d like me to cover please let me know. Luckily, most of you aren’t shy about telling me when they disagree. I love it when you do. Those are the best chances for myself and others to really learn. Let’s keep the running EMR commentary going.

Over the past 6 months, this blog has grown beyond anything I thought was imaginable. Being a blogger definitely has its ups and down, but overall I just love being able to share my perspectives on what’s become the incredibly interesting area of electronic medical record.

Along with the growth in visitors to EMR and HIPAA, I’m also glad to welcome a couple new advertisers. You may have already seen their ads in the sidebars, but I’m really proud to have this group of quality advertisers on EMR and HIPAA. Here’s a quick look at the latest additions:

DigiDMS EHR – This EHR company calls themselves “Your Virtual Medical Practice Secretary.” Originally started in 2001 and built for a specific doctor’s office, they’re a rather new EHR company that can benefit from having built on some later technology. A young energetic group that I’ve really enjoyed working with. Take a look and see what their EHR has to offer.

EMR Consultant, EHR Scope, EHR TV and Speech Recognition – This family of websites is a really nice addition to the EMR and HIPAA advertisers. I’ve known the owner of these websites for almost the entire time I’ve done this blog and he’s a stand up doctor who really cares about the EMR industry. That’s really reflected in the quality of the tools he offers.

Welcome to these new advertisers! Looking forward to continued growth of EMR and HIPAA.

It seems like it’s becoming a monthly occurrence where I welcome new advertisers to EMR and HIPAA. I hope that trend continues. Considering the interest in EMR and EHR software, advertising those EHR companies online is becoming more and more important.

So, I’d like to welcome two wonderful new advertisers to EMR and HIPAA.

• EMR Jobs – Not much need for explanation here. The people behind this EHR/EMR/HIT job board are really laser focused on being the best EMR and EHR job board out there. Lots of people currently looking for EMR jobs so go check out their EMR job listings.
• Medscribbler EHR – This is a really unique company that can do some amazing things with a tablet PC and their EHR software. Check them out to see what I mean.

Thanks again for advertising on EMR and HIPAA and please check them out to see what they have to offer you. If you’re interested in advertising your EHR company, consulting company, healthcare law firm, billing company, etc, then you can find more details on the Advertise EMR and HIPAA page.

I just wanted to take a second to thank those EMR and HIPAA advertisers. They keep the lights on (and my wife happy). Check out our advertisers and the services they offer:

EMR Experts
myEMRChoice.com

Their support is sincerely appreciated. If you’re interested in becoming an adveritiser, check out more details on the EMR and HIPAA advertising page.

I also wanted to mention how amazed I am with the number of people who have signed up for the EMR and HIPAA Email Subscrition. The list is like a who’s who of Healthcare IT and I couldn’t be more humbled that so many people are reading what I create. The numbers following the EMR and HIPAA rss feed are just as astounding.

Hopefully, I can keep informing, entertaining and provoking conversation related to Healthcare IT. Technology is my passion and I love how technology can improve so many things. Thanks for reading and please feel free to teach me something in the comments if you ever read something you think needs to be corrected, clarified or praised.

</group hug>

The other day I was discussing the EMR and EHR advertising market with a friend who’s an EMR vendor. This EMR vendor observed that a look at the various medical magazines shows a complete lack of EMR vendors advertising in them. He said, that previously the magazines were chock full of advertisements for EMR and EHR companies. However, now those same magazines don’t have the same advertising.

I think the obvious conclusion is that the current economic downturn is responsible for this lost of EMR and EHR advertising. My hunch is that EMR companies also found that the magazines weren’t effective advertisements too. The funny part is that it has never been a better time for advertisements on my site. I have a number of EMR and HIPAA sponsors and the ads that Google displays on my site have been paying better than they’ve ever paid before.

It seems like now is a ripe time for EMR and EHR companies to begin advertising their product online where they have measurable statistics on the effectiveness of their advertising dollars.

I never thought when I started this blog that it would do so well. I mostly just started it as a labor of love. It still is a labor of love, but I was really happy when a number of advertisers were interested in advertising on EMR and HIPAA.

Thanks to Medical Software Associates and emrexperts for advertising on EMR and HIPAA. I really appreciate your financial support of this blog and my wife appreciates it even more.

If there are any other advertisers interested in advertising on EMR and HIPAA, please leave a comment on this post or email john [at] emrandhipaa {.} com Visitors to this site stay an average of 4 minutes and 40 seconds and visitors are almost exclusively interested in EMR and health care related topics. A very nice targeted market for EMR vendors, EHR vendors or I would think it would work really well for pharmaceutical companies too.

I don’t think I want to know the answer to that question literally, but sometimes I wonder when sales and marketing people from an EMR company come to this blog and place comments like the following:

A free practice management software solution for medical practices

[EMR Company] is a free practice management software solution for medical practices. It is the only software a clinic would ever need as it supports all internal clinic functions including scheduling, registration, billing, EMR, reporting and all external interactions with payers including claim submission, ERA and eligibility verification. The software is built to allow communication with external agencies such as billing, transcription, appointment scheduling vendors. Since it has extensive functionality, website has free tutorials and free customer service to help customers become proficient with the system.

With an integrated database and automated workflow, [EMR Company] increases productivity, velocity and accuracy within the clinic. It is deployed as hosted solution eliminating the need to purchase expensive hardware or backup solutions. All communication is encrypted to protect patient information. [EMR Company] is unique in that it does not use a web browser; instead it has the familiar, intuitive Windows based interface. [EMR Company] automatically self-updates with the latest version, which are generally released every 2 weeks. Since it is not browser based, [EMR Company] can directly interface with compatible desktop products such as scanners and mobile charge capture software.

[EMR Company]’s business model is truly unique – it does not charge for its software modules (except optional EMR module – $35/month), customer service and setup. However it supports itself by charging a small fee for each payer transaction, typically less than what you would pay your clearinghouse to submit claims electronically.

For more details go to [EMR Company]

Some EMR vendor (who I’ll leave nameless) tried to post the above comment on my post about EMR forums. I don’t mind a signature from an EMR company with a link to their website if they’ve provided at least some sort of decent comment about the post. However, outright advertising their company on my blog comments is crazy. They obviously don’t understand that I can remove/mark as spam any comments like that. Plus, comments use the “no follow” tag and so they aren’t getting much SEO benefit from it either.

I don’t expect this to stop, but expect that more and more people will do this in the future. Don’t. It doesn’t do any good. If you want to advertise on my site contact me or leave a comment. It doesn’t cost that much and you’ll be getting highly targeted referrals from people researching EMR.