5 ms·
It does seem obvious that such a device may be good for EHR and such. Timing will be the problem. This year is the big push for implementing EHR. The systems
by jhancock 17y ago
It does seem obvious that such a device may be good for EHR and such. Timing will be the problem. This year is the big push for implementing EHR. The systems that will get implemented are ones in existence from numerous commercial vendors and there is one solid open source solution, VA's vista.
Most doctor's offices already have scheduling and billing systems. The gov's incentive funds are oriented to purchase existing approved EHR systems. Its a difficult process to get a new app approved for the gov incentive funds.
So the shiny new tablet, as cool as it may be will most likely not be the compelling peice that makes the sale. The compelling piece is integration with the doctor's already existing scheduling and billing system and that which is approved for gov funds.
- stcredzero 17y agoIf Apple or someone else can do for doctors what iPhoto has done for snapshots, then they've got it! Host EHR software in the cloud. Just make something which doctors and assistants can just buy, which will generate forms or integrate with existing systems in some fashion. Granted, many of these systems are archaic. Perhaps too many of them will be too crusty to be capable. What percentage of the scheduling and billing systems can use Microsoft or Adobe forms for input? Here, a completely closed ecosystem in the vein of the iPhone with its App Store can be a tremendous boon. This will help assure Docs that their hardware doesn't have malware installed. If Apple builds in some form of Hypervisor executable DRM, all the better. The doctors could deduct the cost of such a tablet as a business expense. If it does media, magazines, is a passable e-book reader, can be a home automation and FrontRow remote, then I think Apple could sell tons of them!
- markkanof 17y agoSo basically if Apple can come up with a system that can interface with all existing records systems used by doctors and hospitals and can act as a complete personal media device and home automation control then they would sell a ton of them? Seems a bit of a tall order even for Apple. A lot of hospitals have homegrown records systems or a whole collection of interconnected commercial products. The physicians have also gotten used to the existing systems, and in many cases have been involved in customizing the system to their specific needs. If the Apple hardware is nice (which it probably will be) then that is a good first step, but it will require the involvement of a lot of third party developers to create better medical record systems.
- wglb 17y agoI am thinking when you say Host EHR software in the cloud that you mean hosting the data. What are the implications of HIPAA in the cloud, given that Amazon says that S3 is not valid for credit cards?
- absconditus 17y agoLet me shed some light on the subject by explaining what is actually happening currently. CCD/CDA documents (XML documents containing clinical information) are being pushed as the new standard for exchanging medical information (mostly by IHE which is in turn being backed by HITSP). These documents are stored in an XDS repository. Currently these repositories tend to exist at the IDN level (large groups of hospitals and physician offices). The real question is how we are going to get these repositories exchanging documents with each other. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_of_Care_Document http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_of_Care_Document http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_Document_Architecture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_Document_Architecture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrating_the_Healthcare_Enterprise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrating_the_Healthcare_Ente... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_Enterprise_Document_Sharing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_Enterprise_Document_Shari... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HITSP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HITSP
- wglb 17y agoThanks for the good links. But I am still hazy on how this set of documents and the storage of them is impacted by HIPAA.
- nradov 17y agoIt's the integration with existing systems that's the real problem. Industry standards in that area are still incomplete and not fully implemented by all vendors, so usually integration requires a lot of custom work. Hosting EHR software in the cloud doesn't solve this.