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Opportunity for HIT Vendors to Do Good

Yesterday, I found an email from Health and Human Services (HHS) in my inbox highlighting a new initiative where the “Obama Administration and Text4Baby join forces to connect pregnant women and children to health coverage and information”. The goal of this partnership is “to promote enrollment in both Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)”. Having more babies and children obtain insurance coverage is obviously a worthy endeavor, and if it can be accomplished by simply sending informative text messages to pregnant women, even better. Of course having insurance coverage doesn’t always translate into having access to an actual doctor, particularly for Medicaid enrollees. In an unrelated coincidental turn of events, it just so happened that I have had the recent opportunity to spend time with large numbers of Pediatric practices, most of which were small independent practices in middle-class suburban areas. The main goal of these conversations was to elicit doctors’...

Big Bad Legacy EHR Products

IBM "cloud" computing - circa 1975 There is no self-respecting innovator in Health Information Technology (HIT) who has not spoken or written about the horrific state of Legacy EHR products, which are slowly but surely being deployed in more and more health care facilities as a result of Meaningful Use incentives and changing reimbursement models. A couple of months ago I saw an EMR in a small practice. They’ve been using it for 15 years and it was a DOS based system with the ubiquitous neon green text glaring on a black and sometimes blue background. Aha! That must be a Legacy EMR, and sure enough the doctor was looking to replace it with a more modern product, but which one should he get now? After all, the last thing you’d want is to have him buy yet another Legacy EMR. According to dictionary.com , a Legacy system is a “computer system or application program which continues to be used because of the cost of replacing or redesigning it and often despite its poor competitiv...

Electronic Parking Lot

I was headed to a meeting downtown yesterday, and finding a place to park in the city is always a challenge. Luckily, there is a little old lot right next to the office building, which is a bit more expensive and does not accept any ticket validation, but it’s very clean, well lit and convenient. Up until last year the lot was owned and operated by a “mom and pop” type of business. You pulled in, found a good spot and by the time you grabbed your stuff and stepped out of the car, an elderly gentleman was standing there writing your receipt. You gave him some cash, took the little pink receipt and went about your business. When you were done, you came back, got in your car and drove away. No automated barriers, no buttons, no credit cards and no hassles. Yesterday, my little parking lot was different. The first thing I noticed was that the parking spots were numbered, with big white digits imprinted on the freshly resurfaced asphalt. The second thing I noticed was that it was a bit hard...

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