Futuring the EHR: Features Which Should Be In Most EMRs/EHRs (But For Some Reason Aren’t)

By HAYWARD ZWERLING, MD I have been in the health information technology field since 1990 when I began creating ComChart EMR. It was a labor of love which ultimately evolved into a small business. From 2004 until 2012, ComChart EMR had amongst the highest KLAS rating of all EMRs in the small ambulatory care group. From 2011 until 2015, ComChart EMR was certified by the ONC for Meaningful Use Stage I. Unfortunately, the technical requirements arising from Meaningful Use mandates and changes in market conditions required that I stop selling ComChart EMR in 2015. As a result of the 2.5 decades I spent creating ComChart EMR, I have learned a lot about which features are useful in the exam room and how to design an EMR so that it facilitates the user ability to provide medical care to their patient. As Judy Faulkner, Founder and CEO of Epic said, “Good software is art.” To this, I would add that it is only possible to create a well designed EMR if a practicing physician is intimately involved in both design and programming of the EMR. Now that many of my former ComChart users have had to leave ComChart EMR for one of the large commercial EMRs, I have come to realize that some of these large EMRs lack features which were in ComChart EMR and which the former ComChart physicians wished were in their new EMR. In an attempt to improve the quality of these large, commercial EMRs, I have created the below list of features which, in my opinion, should be in all /most EMRs.This list i...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Tech Uncategorized Source Type: blogs