iPhone Running Electronic Medical Records!

Sounds like they wanted to write-off buying iPhone's on the company card.

The beauty of the iPhone is that it can load just about any web site nicely. The fact that their EMR system works on the iPhone is a hat-tip to the Apple guys, not the LifeRecord folks. Any web-based EMR would run equally as well on the iPhone browser.

Don't even get me started on the copyright infringement they are into. Their web site mimics the Apple web site (or at least the design from a few weeks ago). Their application uses brushed metal throughout. The "i" in the LivePractice icon is the Apple podcast icon.

They also claim to offer the ability to video conference with other doctors via their application. That's great, except it's using iChat, which comes free with every Mac.

It's great that they think Apple's design is superior and elegant, however simply stealing their design directly is shameful. There is nothing innovative about their product.

Applaud the effort, but pretty much any standards-based web UI that doesn't use Flash (at the moment) will work on the iPhone. That doesn't make it an "iPhone Application". It means that the iPhone is a capable web browser and should work with sites similar to how any small laptop or computer would.

Viewing a chart and using it are two entirely different things. The "EMR" must contain all aspects of charting and not just viewing of radiographs and chart notes. This clearly does not address the ability to view lab results, faxes, or other materials that might be contained in a printed chart. Furthermore, part of making a medical record is documenting the encounter. This would be very painful, if not impossible to do using the iPhone, especially in "real time" when you are rushing from patient to patient, and time is of the essence.

@Skeptic - iPhone apps are just webapps, but there is a clear and obvious difference between one that is just another website that happens to work on the iPhone and one that was specifically designed for small-screen/touch-based input+slow EDGE speeds. I vastly prefer viewing the latter on my iPhone because I don't have to scroll and zoom all the time to see the entire page, and it loads in a couple seconds and not in one minute.

Given that the iPhone supports WiFi and most (or, at least, "urban") hospitals are embracing wireless access points, accessing medical records on the iPhone via 802.11b/g would be considerable faster/easier than the EDGE network. "The First and Only EMR to run on an iPhone" quote is possible only because existing EMRs are designed for 640x480 or 800x600 screen resolutions.

It still seems like a ridiculous use of a medical IT budget. Two local hospitals have equipped nurses and doctors with HP TabletPCs for charting and medical records. The larger screen and convertible keyboard are both better for onsite charting and notes. I can't imagine using an iPhone for quick/easy/thorough EMR.

Empowering physicians with access to medical information on the fly is a great step forward. Life Record seems to have had the foresight to use the web as a platform to make information available. What I want to see is an application that provides a solution to all of the fragmentation in the medical archiving process. By integrating medical information, healthcare providers will be able to provide better care.

I know that specific areas of this EMR were developed explictly for the iPhone. When accessing from a PC the screens are very different than when accessing on the iPhone.

On EDGE it works fast, on WiFi it's instant - at least that is my experience.

You've been blogged!

http://healthcarereformnow.blogspot.com/2007/07/emrs-meet-iphone.html