Free EMRs to Bail Out US Healthcare

Kevin, M.D. has an opinion piece in the USA Today blog giving a quick synopsis of why only 13% of doctors have adopted electronic medical records for their practices. The major reason seems to be the high cost for both software and hardware necessary to implement EMR in individual clinics and offices. The numbers presented are staggering, and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson believes the government should be paying the bill. We’re fairly skeptical of the state being in the business of building EMRs, but perhaps there’s a solution that doesn’t have to be political?
PracticeFusion, for example, offers a free EMR service that is hosted online and requires no additional infrastructure, nor expensive IT people to support it. It might not be the answer for everyone (on the other hand, maybe it is!), but the fact is that a lot of software is free and is being practically used in a host of industries. Having found success with the initial release, PracticeFusion this week will be making available version 2.0 of its EMR suite (shown below). Ryan Howard, CEO of PracticeFusion, tells Medgadget that the new EMR version is based on Adobe’s Flash technology, and it includes features for patient demographic, diagnosis and medication management, vital gathering, SOAP note creation, along with integrated video-based training. In addition, Practice Fusion supports Mozilla Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 8, Google Chrome and Apple/Mac Safari 3 browsers.

According to Mr. Howard, PracticeFusion is now being used in 45 states, by nearly 2,000 users, and it is one of the fastest growing EMR communities in the US. Our hope is that PracticeFusion succeeds and creates a viable model that avoids yet more bureaucracy and the associated costs related to having the government run things.
More from Kevin, M.D. in USA Today…
PracticeFusion…
Flashback: Practice Fusion Wants to Disrupt EMR Market