July 2009

Guest Article: Why Doctors Hate Electronic Medical Records

Most of us in the healthcare IT believe the ARRA (stimulus) bill is a Good Thing for the industry in general. Many existing companies will be able to sell more products and many new companies will be formed to create electronic medical records solutions. I was talking to Dr. Bill Cast last week about EMRs [...]

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Reminder: Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in healthcare unconference in Houston next week

I grew up in Houston and normally it’s not exactly the best place to be in the middle of Summer (it’s pretty hot and humid); however, this Summer is different because we have the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in healthcare unconference taking place next week. This is a conference/unconference about Free and Open [...]

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Conducting market research for your healthcare IT app

Many of you out there are looking at the ARRA (stimulus) bill for ways to sell your healthcare IT wares to healthcare providers. One of the weaknesses of most tech-focused companies is that don’t spend enough time on market research to figure out where to sell their products. That’s primarily because it’s not always easy [...]

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Ingenious use of tech: Training Med Students in Second Life (virtual) Hospitals

Discover Magazine asks Can Training in Second Life Teach Doctors to Save Real Lives? While many in the tech world are looking at the ARRA Stimulus Bill’s money being spent on EMRs and giving the world the thousandth version of a medical records system it’s great to see some creative technologists are using their brains [...]

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Guest Article: Selecting or Designing iPhone and Mobile Software for Physicians

I get a lot of questions asking for advice on how to build mobile software and one of the most popular questions is about how and where to save data on a mobile device (because of HIPAA and privacy rules). I reached out to Adam Kenney, a software engineer pMDsoft who leads a team of [...]

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Guest Article: Status of CCHIT and certification for ARRA

Many people have been e-mailing me asking about the status of CCHIT and ARRA certification. Jim Tate, President of EMR Advocate, is an experienced project manager in the implementation of both EHR and Practice Management systems and consults with EHR vendors regarding interface and functional specifications, marketing strategy, documentation and CCHIT certification. Many of us [...]

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Federal standards body is looking for some health IT usability experts

Last week I was approached but one of the federal government standards bodies that is putting together some advice and standards around healthcare IT usability. They are seeking usability experts to join people like me on their advisory council. If you’re a healthcare IT usability specialist and would like to be nominated to join the [...]

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Guest Article: Can Twitter help stop or slow down human virsuses?

Chris Thorman, who blogs about medical software at Software Advice, gave me a call recently and talked to me about Twitter’s potential use in tracking disease outbreaks. As evidenced by Twitter’s front-and-center role in the “Second Iranian Revolution,” the micro-blogging tool has emerged as a serious communication channel. Chris talked to me about how he [...]

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Top 50 Blogs to Help You Further Your Healthcare Career

With all the attention being paid to healthcare these days (given the Stimulus bill and HITECH Act provisions) and with the assumption that a ton of money will be poured into the healthcare sector at any time there are lots of folks wondering how to get into the health tech field. I found this posting [...]

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Join me and others from CDC, FDA, HHS, & NIH to discuss HealthIT Adoption via Social Media

I’ve been invited to moderate a panel at next week’s Driving the Adoption of Health IT Through Innovations in Social Media conference in DC. It will be held on July 16 from 8a until about noon at the Amplify Public Affairs office at 919 18th Street, NW, DC. If you’ll be in the DC area, [...]

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