My previous post about imagining an EMR that didn’t include billing certainly has driven a lot of conversation. Actually, that was the purpose of the post. I indulge in great conversation with multiple perspectives. It’s the beauty of blogging and of life.

However, please don’t let that post confuse you. Billing is an absolute essential part of an EMR software. There’s a very good reason why most EMR software out there amounts to little more than a big billing machine. The demand for healthcare software was initially to solve the challenges associated with medical billing. Markets are great at satisfying demands and that’s why the EMR software is the way it is today.

This means that EMR vendors CANNOT ignore billing. Rightfully so, doctors want to get paid for their work.

Of course, the point of the previous post was to try and expand the conversation beyond billing. Basically, the goal was to try and imagine an EMR software world where patient care was the focus instead of billing. What kind of good could we accomplish if this was our goal?

This follow up post was prompted by this somewhat disturbing email I received:
“I have built just such an EMR product for the iPhone and iPad. I am struggling with financing it because everybody wants billing. They really don’t care about the quality of the EMR.”

I’d make one qualification. No one cares about the quality of the EMR, if you don’t satisfy their billing needs too. Reminds me of HIPAA. No one would purchase an EMR that didn’t meet the HIPAA standards. However, once they hear it meets those standards, they move on to other things like the quality of the EMR.

EMR and EHR has been getting a ton of traffic related to my posts on the iPad EMR. It’s a really interesting discussion that I think people that love technology and EMR will enjoy. I have no doubt that the interface that the iPad is helping to promote and develop is going to have a major impact on healthcare. Not that everyone will have an iPad in healthcare, but that the technology behind it will be copied and we’ll see lots of interesting documentation methods for EMR software.

Dr. Larry Nathanson, MD from BIDMC seems to disagree with me in his writeup about his experience using the iPad in an Emergency Room. However, what I found most interesting about his writeup is his comments about the challenges of the iPad.

The first was how well it will hold up in a clinical environment. The iPad doesn’t seem to be the most rugged device and clinics like to abuse devices (from my experience). The second was the challenge that plagues all tablets: difficulty entering strong passwords. between the numbers, symbols and mixed case, it’s harder to enter these passwords on a device like the iPad. Is biometrics the solution to that?

What do you all think about the iPad and EMR? Will we see an iPad only EMR develop into a real power player in the industry?