Last week I provided a short video commentary on why there is growing urgency for American healthcare to get fully digital. Yes, it was a bit cynical. However, from the volume of hits on my streaming video site I know that it got your attention.
So now that I've got your attention, I'm offering up a second video covering some of the questions you'll want to ask before you buy an electronic medical record solution for your practice. This doesn't begin to address all the questions you need to ask, but these are some of criteria I would want to consider before taking the leap. I hope you find this helpful. For more information, check out Microsoft Health and the articles, audio-casts and videos in my House Calls for Healthcare Professionals library.
At the recently concluded Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2008 meeting, GE Healthcare announced a collaboration with Intel and Motion Computing® to develop a mobile computing technology to eliminate the manual collection of patient vital signs and other data (presumably, stool guaiac results and such). In simpler terms, GE will try to integrate its Centricity Enterprise in-patient electronic medical record (EMR) software and GE Healthcare's DINAMAP® patient monitoring devices with Motion C5 mobile clinical assistant, a device we have covered many times in the past. The technology is already being tested at the UCSF medical center. Here is a tip for younger folks: the DINAMAP is what any 50+ nurse will call an automatic blood pressure machine.