Why is EHR Software So Difficult to Modify and Improve?

This is a guest blog note by Dr. Bob Miller who is a pathologist and the Director of Pathology Informatics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has extensive experience with LIS software development and instrument interfaces for anatomic and clinical pathology, and for the blood bank -- as well as experience with both best-of-breed and integrated EHR systems.The recent blog note entitled Hospitals Need to Pressure Their EHR Vendors to Improve Software Functionality is a reminder of the many complexities of EHR software development. Unpacking the details, however, requires a look at both the EHR players and the characteristics of EHR systems themselves. Contemporary EHRs are large and complex systems that health care organizations are working hard to deploy and optimize. EHR vendors, on the other hand, are seeking to develop systems with the broadest market appeal while ensuring that their proprietary interests are protected and ensuring that the myriad details of US health care reimbursement and arcane requirements for quality reporting and other federal initiatives are appropriately addressed. In contrast to many other industries, healthcare is in the early phases of adoption of sophisticated information technology. The current focus of most EHR customers is successful system deployment and not new software development. For multiple reasons detailed in his 2015 bookThe Digital Doctor, Robert Wachter suggests that achieving op...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Lab Information LIS Definitions and Strategy LIS Vendor News Pathology Informatics Source Type: blogs