EMR Interviews

PracticeIT's free EMR Lite with the critical functions that Docs need.

Nick Harrington — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:45:00 GMT

This is our interview recorded with Rich Steinle, CEO of PracticeIT talking about their free EMR Lite product "with all the critical functions that Doctors need".

Click the play button below to listen to this interview.

Robert Gleeman: This is Robert Gleeman with EMR Update. I am talking today with CEO of PracticeIT, Mr. Rich Steinle.
Rich, thank you for being with me today.

Rich Steinle: Thank you Robert, it is good to be with you again.

Robert: We talked a while back and did an audio interview before and in this case we wanted to catch up and see what has been going on new at PracticeIT, because I recently did an interview with Mark Anderson and he mentioned that you do sell a Lite EMR and this is being discussed intensely right now at EMR Update, what have you got new for me Rich, what is going on?

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Rich: Since we last talked, one of the biggest things we have been doing is listening to doctors. I mentioned last time to you that's a commitment of PracticeIT's. And what I believe that we have learned is when you talk about an EMR Lite, what we have learned is that I don't think doctors want necessarily less functionality or less help. They just want to know that you have the critical functions that they need to run their office.

And so we call that either an ante or a table stakes, but the things that are important to them and you have to have them, so we haven't found doctors not interested in software, but what we have found and what we believe is that software is not what is winning in the industry alone.

And so what I mean by that is when you convince a doctor that you have the critical functions that they need, then what we see is, well then what is causing the adoption problems. And if you look into the industry and you study the statistics and Mark Anderson and his report are the source of a number of these, just one source, but you learn in the physician practices that we are serving of under 10 doctors and particularly the one to three that you have paltry adoption rates in the eight to 12% range.

Then you look at the people that have adopted and it gets worse. And it says that up to three quarters of them aren't even using their EMR, after a year of adoption. We don't think that software wins the day. The industry is known just abhorrently poor customer service and support and when we talk to doctors what we hear is, that no comes alongside me and helps me put this into my practice.

There are too many options out there for software to be the answer. You can get just about anything from anyone and so we have taken it a step further and said if that is the problem, if they don't have a partner, if doctors don't have a partner that is serving them, then what we are willing to do is say, well then we will build our company around that and that is all you will ever pay for.

And so PracticeIT has taken the bold step of saying you can have the software. We will give it to you and you never pay for it. It is not a pricing scheme, you don't pay for it later, we don't hide it in anything. Most of the companies in the industry charge you for the software whether it is on a monthly basis or a large upfront fee and then they charge you for their service contracts or their training.

PracticeIT is willing to say the risk of adoption, the poor adoption of these in the industry, the reason they are not helping doctors is because they are not being served well. And so that is the only thing that we are going to ever charge you for is we are going to give you our people and our service model and we are going to come alongside you, let you adopt it at your pace, we are going to make it unlimited and include everything in that service fee and we are going to give you the software.

Robert: And the software will reside in your practice's office on a server?

Rich: No, it is a hosted solution ‑‑ that hasn't changed, so typically our competitors are out there charging a monthly fee for that, but then they also charge all the training and service fees along with it. And we are saying no, everyone ought to be able to have one of these, we would like to commoditize the EMR if you will. It ought to be as resident and basic in a doctor's office as the stethoscope, as their printer, their fax machine.

Doctors ought to be able to have one of these and companies ought to make it easier for them to have. And so we are going to come alongside of them, give them the software that has all the critical functions which gets back to the EMR Lite conversation, but then we are going to come alongside of them and make them successful.

Robert: Now I understand that not only do you give the critical functions, but you have gone a few steps further into areas where even the EMR heavies don't go.

Rich: One of the things that we are really trying to do Robert is not make Lite a cop‑out in the technology. And so want to be really careful and communicate that that we are not trying to take them out by saying, well we will just drop off early as far as the software goes.

And so as an example, some of the lighter systems stop at, we are a charting system or they go into e‑prescribing and have some simple SOAP note or something. And what PracticeIT has done is say: no, doctors really do deserve and want the full integrated functionality.

And so to that end, we have integrated a complete practice management system into our EMR for seamless integration all the way from the front desk through charting and then all the automated clearinghouse, billing services included. We have also gone a step beyond even with some of the industry leaders in the full EHR have, which is a full bidirectional automated laboratory interface.

Robert: Ah, that is unusual.

Rich: Yes, so that is not very present in a lot of the lite systems and it is even not present in some of the leading full EHR packet. So again, we are working hard with our physician advisers and saying, we don't want to shortchange on the software, we are just making the case that that's not what is making the industry successful. As a matter of fact, the lack of what we are offering which is the high‑touch high‑availability service is what is making it fail. And so that is where we have decided to put the focus and we are getting a phenomenal response from the physician community.

Robert: How can someone find out more about this, how can they sign up?

Rich: Well, they can always visit our website at PracticeIT.com. And there are lots of ways to contact us there. They can call me directly and I will be happy to chat with them or any of the folks that we have here at PracticeIT, because at the end of the day what we are selling is those people and how we do it.

Robert: What would be a good phone number to call you there to get more information?

Rich: 866‑PRN‑4111.

Robert: OK, great. What else can you say to the readers, the many many doctors that read EMR Update about PracticeIT, why should they give you a call there, Rich?

Rich: We have created this company in the face of really almost the unmanageable level of choices that doctors face today to directly respond to their needs. It bothers me that more than eight to 10% of small independent physicians can't have a viable option or don't see a viable option in front of them given the 300 to 400‑odd choices that they these days. And the fact that they come back from reviewing those choices more bleary eyed than encouraged is a disappointment to me.

And so I think that really my message to them is that we have tried to hear that and we have spoken with the physician community. We believe they need key software functionality. We are going to offer them this and we are delivering that, but more than that we have heard that they need a partner. And we come alongside them and we will guarantee their success that way.

And the best way I think to communicate that to them would be to maybe talk to some of our satisfied physician partners right now. And if they give us a call, we can put them in touch with those folks and they can get a firsthand experience of what that feels like, and the difference I think PracticeIT can make.

Robert: That is excellent Rich Steinle, CEO of PracticeIT. Thank you very much, Rich.

Rich: Thanks very much Robert.

Richard Steinle, CEO of Practice IT can be contacted at the numbers below:

Toll Free: 866 PRN 4111
(866) 776-4111

PracticeIT, LLC
9600 Great Hills Trail, Suite 350W
Austin, TX 78759

Donald Schoen, CEO MediNotes Corp. talks about the recent acquisition of Bond Technologies

Robert Gleeman — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:56:00 GMT

This is my interview with Don Schoen, CEO of MediNotes Corporation where we discuss their recent acquisition of Bond Technologies.

We talk about what this means to existing Bond Technologies customers, the support model and how MediNotes will manage on-going customer support for their two product streams. We also talk about on-going dvelopment and how MediNotes is going to manage two teams of developers.

Click the Play button below to watch our video interview.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

MediNotes can be reached by Toll Free number 1-(877)-633 6683 and email info@medinotes.com

MediNotes Corporation
1025 Ashworth Road, Suite 222
West Des Moines, IA 50265
Fax: 515.327.8856

Thanks for watching!

Robert Gleeman

For more detailed information & press about MediNotes Corp. contact:

The following press releases accompany this interview.

MediNotes Completes Acquisition of Bond Technologies

Company establishes separate national sales forces for best of breed EHR and its newly- renamed integrated EHR/PM Solution

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa - March 17, 2008 - MediNotes Corporation, a leading provider of certified electronic health record (EHR) systems, announced today that it completed its acquisition of Bond Technologies.

The two companies announced on Feb. 25 that they had signed a letter of intent for MediNotes to acquire Bond Technologies, which offers the industry’s most advanced integrated, award-winning .Net-based EHR and Practice Management (PM) solution. Following the merger, MediNotes renamed that solution from Bond Clinician™ to MediNotes Clinician™. It also created separate national sales forces to market MediNotes Clinician™ EHR/PM solution as well as MediNotes e, its best-of-breed interoperable EHR. MediNotes is the only healthcare IT vendor offering physicians the choice of either a stand-alone EHR or an integrated, single-vendor EHR/PM system.

“The merger positions MediNotes to become an even stronger force in our industry by offering solutions that meet the needs of small to large physician group practices,” said Donald G. Schoen, president and CEO of MediNotes. In addition to investing in the further development of MediNotes Clinician, which includes e-prescribing, patient portals, patient kiosk and image management, MediNotes will continue to develop and support MediNotes e and its users.

About MediNotes Corporation

MediNotes Corporation has been a leading provider of electronic health record (EHR) solutions for more than a decade. With product offerings to fit any sized medical practice, MediNotes offers an integrated EHR/practice management (PM) suite, as well as a best-of-breed EHR solution that allows MediNotes to meet a physician practice’s evolving needs. Installed in more than 4,700 sites nationwide, MediNotes EHR solutions are utilized daily by more than 22,500 medical professionals. MediNotes solutions offer physician practices industry-leading technology and product reliability, coupled with superior U.S.-based service and support to meet their dynamic technology needs. Their certified products include MediNotes e version 5.2, a CCHIT Certified® product for Ambulatory EHR 2007. MediNotes Corporation is headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa with a satellite office in Tampa, Fla. To learn more about MediNotes and its family of products visit www.medinotes.com or call 877.633.6683.

MediNotes to Acquire Bond Technologies

Physician practices of all sizes benefit from an award winning, ASP.NET integrated EHR/PM application provider or best-of-breed offerings

ORLANDO (HIMSS) – Feb. 25, 2008 – MediNotes, a leader in electronic health records (EHRs) with more than 20,000 users nationwide, announced today that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire Bond Technologies. Bond’s integrated award-winning .NET-based EHR and practice management (PM) solutions include e-prescribing, patient portals, patient kiosk, image management and more. MediNotes’ strategic addition of complementary healthcare technology solutions includes a full range of integrated, single-vendor and best-of-breed EMR and PM solutions to enhance patient care and workflow, as well as the patient experience. The announcement was made at the HIMSS 08 (Booth # 4363) Annual Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Fla.

“Physicians want the best technology now, but need assurance that the solution they choose today can evolve to meet their needs,” said MediNotes CEO and President Donald Schoen. “When this acquisition is complete, MediNotes’ will have the ability to provide a full range of scalable solutions ranging from a best-of-breed interoperable EMR offering to a fully integrated, single-database, .NET-based EHR and PM solution with image management, e-prescribing, patient portals, patient kiosks and many other popular features. Instead of the cookie-cutter approach some vendors employ, we help practices leverage their IT investment by allowing them to develop the ideal configuration to address their current needs with a cost-effective migration path to fully support change and growth.”

Augmenting its specialized product lines with Bond Technologies’ award-winning practice management software and small to large-practice EHR solutions, Bond Clinician™, MediNotes will create a one-stop-shop to meet the needs of all types and sizes of physician practices. The company will continue to provide MediNotes e, its popular stand-alone EHR.

According to Travis Bond, President of Bond Technologies, who will serve as MediNotes Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, “Bond Technologies’ passion has been to create the best technology for the healthcare industry. This acquisition will leverage MediNotes’ national presence and U.S.-based customer service expertise to serve physicians across the nation. I look forward to the challenges of taking on new markets and meeting the opportunities of improving healthcare IT.”

About MediNotes Corporation
MediNotes Corporation has been a leading provider of electronic health record (EHR) solutions for more than a decade. With product offerings to fit any sized medical practice, MediNotes offers an integrated EHR/practice management (PM) suite, as well as a best-of-breed EHR solution that allows MediNotes to meet a physician practice’s evolving needs. Installed in more than 4,700 sites nationwide, MediNotes EHR solutions are utilized daily by more than 22,500 medical professionals. MediNotes solutions offer physician practices industry-leading technology and product reliability, coupled with superior U.S.-based service and support to meet their dynamic technology needs. MediNotes Corporation is headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa with a satellite office in Tampa, Fla. To learn more about MediNotes and its family of products visit medinotes.com or call 877.633.6683.

About Bond Technologies
Bond Technologies, a leading developer of clinical software, offers the industry’s most advanced, integrated Electronic Health Record and Practice Management software available today. Bond Clinician™ EHR/PM Digital Medical Office of the Future infuses the workflow with an easy to use Microsoft ASP.Net application, allowing physicians to experience an innovative, intuitive, and intelligent EHR embodying every element of the practice of medicine at an affordable price. Bond’s Clinician has been awarded many top industry awards including the TEPR 2007 Pediatric Documentation Challenge and the AC Group’s 5-STAR rated EMR solution for the last four years. Visit www.bondclinician.com for more information.

MediNotes e Receives 2007 CCHIT Certification

Software Complies with 100 Percent of Updated 2007 Certification Criteria

ORLANDO, Fla. (HIMSS) – Feb. 27, 2008 – The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT®) today announced that MediNotes’ product, MediNotes e is CCHIT Certified®, and meets the Commission’s ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) criteria for 2007. Ambulatory EHRs are designed for physician offices and clinics where most Americans get their healthcare. CCHIT – an independent, nonprofit organization – is the Recognized Certification Body in the United States for certifying health information technology products.

In the second year of the program’s operation, the criteria and testing have been significantly enhanced. The Commission added 96 criteria to the 151 original requirements from last year. As a CCHIT Certified product, MediNotes e has been tested and passed inspection of 100 percent of a set of updated criteria for functionality, interoperability and security.

“For 2007, the Commission raised the bar from the previous year’s criteria. Ambulatory EHRs now must include electronic prescribing, demonstrate an ability to receive lab results, and show enhanced patient safety, quality, and security features,” said Mark Leavitt, M.D., Ph.D., chair, CCHIT. “Investment in 2007 certified ambulatory EHRs gives providers even more powerful tools to improve quality, safety and efficiency while protecting the privacy of health information.”

The CCHIT Certified mark — a “seal of approval” for EHR products — provides the first consensus-based, government-recognized benchmark for ambulatory EHR products. By looking to products with the CCHIT Certified seal, physicians and other providers can reduce their risk in selecting an EHR product, allowing them to focus their evaluation on the special needs of their practices.

“The CCHIT certification is a testament to MediNotes’ commitment to evolve our product offerings to meet the highest standards of our clients who prefer a ‘best-of-breed’ approach in deploying technology in their practices,” said Donald G. Schoen, CEO and president of MediNotes. “Coupled with our recently-announced intent to acquire the award-winning EHR/PM of Bond Technologies, for practices that prefer a fully-integrated, single-system approach, we are clearly executing an ‘evolve’ strategy in becoming a single-vendor resource for practices of all sizes.”

CCHIT’s certification compliance criteria and its design for a certification inspection process have been thoroughly researched, taking into account the state of the art of EHRs and available standards, and comparing certification processes in other industries and other countries. The inspection process is based on real-life medical scenarios designed to test products rigorously against the clinical needs of providers and the quality and safety needs of healthcare consumers and payers. One script, for example, recreates a scenario of an elderly man with poorly controlled diabetes, hypertension and other chronic conditions in order to test EHR functions such as potential adverse drug reactions, disease management and treatment plans.

About CCHIT

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT®) is an independent, nonprofit organization that has been named by the federal government as the Recognized Certification Body for health information technology. Its mission is to accelerate the adoption of health information technology by creating a credible, sustainable certification program. The certification requirements are based on widely accepted industry standards and involve the work of hundreds of expert volunteers and input from a variety of stakeholders throughout the health care industry. More information on CCHIT and CCHIT Certified® products is available at www.cchit.org.

“CCHIT®” and “CCHIT Certified®” are service marks of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology.

Kirk Voelker, MD talks with Nick about EMR/u, that Smoking Shot, Placebo/Sham and his practice

Nick Harrington — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:34:00 GMT

As I was in Florida I took the opportunity to spend a few days with Kirk Voelker and his wife Chris (not forgetting the muts Sara, Toby and Vito).Kirk Voelker started emrupdate.com in 2002 while researching an EMR for his own practice Lung Associates of Sarasota, FL. This started as a simple message board and links using Microsoft Frontpage and the basics of web-site publishing. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Kirk Voelker, MD.

In exchange for my interview for his QuitDoc Smoking Treatment Network to be published this month, Kirk agreed to give me an update on what he's been doing since we last met. I also had a cunning plan to have Kirk commit to more posting at EMR/u. Let's see how I get on.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Laser Treatment investigations

Kirk mentioned in our interview his investigation of the Laser treatments (FDA reports here) being used for Smoking Cessation. I originally thought, ok, something complementary for helping folks to quit smoking. (in the same vein as Alan Carrs The Easy Way to Stop Smoking which didn't do me any harm -- some of its messages probably helped)

After our interview Kirk explained that because no actual trials have been completed into this treatment, these operations can continue operation still claiming they have some scientific benefit for Smoking Cessation. With the aim to prove and publish his trial findings -- that Laser Treatment is a sham -- he's currently running a double blind placebo/sham with 60 QuitDoc patients.

The "Laser treatment" uses one of two different laser frequencies aimed at around 40 "points" around the body from fingers, ears, scalp, etc. The two frequency lasers and the dummy LED light (looks identical) are color coded and used blind to "treat" different patients. Kirk recounted one female patient who had described an epiphany -- a golden aura and feeling of intense happiness -- when the laser had been applied to her scalp. She claimed that she knew she would never smoke again. After the patient's departure her name / color was checked and found to be a "treatment" using the sham LED light.

Dr. Voelker is on his way to removing this scam from Smoking Cessation treatments. I'm also interested in his Stop Smoking Foundation mentioned during the interview. Maybe we should invest in the future of America's children.

Our Site Statistics

We we're trying for a one-hit recording, and clearly I didn't do enough preparation for the interview.
I completely failed to answer Kirk's question accurately detailing our site hits or pageviews;
I did quote between 1,000 and 2,000 Visitors per day, but should have included the following:

Pageviews for all visitors

105,099 Pageviews

February 1, 2008 to February 29, 2008 Daily

30,284 Visits

Av. 976.90 Visits / Day

Our thanks to Kirk Voelker, MD for taking the time to be interviewed again for our web-site.

Thanks -- Nick Harrington

Interview with Mike Patel, CEO, Meditab Software and T.J.Wilkinson, Medetron

Robert Gleeman — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:44:00 GMT

This interview is provided as a YouTube presentation and text transcript.

To play the YouTube movie, scroll down and click the play symbol on the Blue title screen.

Robert Gleeman: This is Robert Gleeman with emrupdate. I'm talking today with Mike Patel, CEO of Meditab Software, Inc, in Oakland, CA. Mike's phone number is (510)686‑8417. Mike Patel, thank you very much for being with us today.

Mike Patel: Thank you for inviting us.

Robert Gleeman: Mike, the reason that I wanted to talk with you is an associate of yours, T.J. Wilkinson, in his very first post on emrupdate, said that the Meditab software was the best software he had ever seen in his entire life. Now, I know we all love our own software. But, what is it about Meditab that encourages people to say things like that? For instance, are there tabs in Meditab? What does the name mean?

Mike Patel: We, basically, have a history of developing outstanding software. And, the way we came up with the Meditab name was when the Tablet PC's were initially coming out, I had a friend that used to work for a company called Pace Blade, and then, Motion Computing.

I was reading all of the hype and then I actually convinced him to let me play with a Tablet PC that was in a plastic engineering mold. Then, I said, well, we really have to take advantage of this thing. And, so the way the name actually was derived from Medicine on a Tablet PC.

Robert Gleeman: Ah hah! I would have, I would have guessed otherwise. I'm glad I asked you that question. And, Mike, do you have a background in medicine? Do you come from a family that has doctors? Well, how did you get into EMR?

Mike Patel: We actually got into EMR through our pharmacy business. I'm actually a pharmacist by trade.

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Robert Gleeman: Ah.

Mike Patel: I was a Pre‑Med student and then because of health issues with my parents and needing to support the family, I switched majors and became a pharmacist. Then, we purchased our own pharmacy back in '97.

And, we developed software to automate our pharmacy because the software that was there is, you know, to do a simple task you had to do twenty clicks. I kept calling the software vendor to make changes, and eventually, it became a joke to them. So, I said, well, forget you guys. I'm going to go and develop my own software.

Robert Gleeman: And, when did you start Meditab?

Mike Patel: The initial development we started was back in '98, '99. The company was started sometime in early 2003, formally. Initially, we did all of the work through the corporation that owns the pharmacies. We developed our own pharmacy system to help our pharmacy become more efficient and to help us manage medications for patients that are in retirement homes.

Robert Gleeman: Now, you have a product that you call IMS, Intelligent Medical Software. This is your EMR and billing version of the software for a standard medical practice?

Mike Patel: Yes. IMS stands for Intelligent Medical Software. And, it is a complete package to allow you to run your medical office. It not just looks at EMR and scheduling and billing, but everything associated with a medical practice. And, that is the reason people love our software. It flows well, and everything that you need to do in an office, we have a module available that can handle that. We were probably the first company that I know of that had a completely integrated fax server with the product.

Robert Gleeman: Interesting.

Mike Patel: The fax is a very, very important piece that performs many tasks in a medical office. The IMS product actually can cater to multiple specialties. It is so deep. It's powered by about 800 tables in the back end.

Our current medical director's name is Dr. Guarav Tyagi. He actually has been instrumental in our template design. We have templates that cater to about 22 specialties. And, we can say we have probably great knowledge and expertise in about nine or 10 of them where we know we have a significant advantage over competitors in our market.

It has to be a complete solution because, otherwise, what we find is that, you know, if you have two or three products you're integrating, then, well, it's not my fault, it's their fault.

Robert Gleeman: One doctor said I only want one neck to strangle when he was talking about vendors.

Mike Patel: Yeah. That's right. That's the way it should be.

Robert Gleeman: I notice also that on your website are some very nice testimonials that go into very great detail. It sounds like you have a unique approach also to service after the sale.

Mike Patel: Yes. We strongly believe in service above all else. If you take care of a customer when they have a problem, that customer has no need to ever go look for another piece of software. And, they will remember that for life. Furthermore, they'll tell their friends about it.

Robert Gleeman: You talk about software as a form of medical instrument.

Mike Patel: It is. In fact, our software, it's more than a medical instrument; it's a necessity nowadays with the reimbursement levels as they are. And, a good software can make your whole office hum. It can make your whole office just flow beautifully.

Robert Gleeman: Who's this guy, T.J. Wilkinson? Why does he think you have the best software he's ever seen in his life?

Mike Patel: Am I allowed to have him answer that?

Robert Gleeman: Yeah.

T.J. Wilkinson: Hey, Robert.

Robert Gleeman: Hey, T.J. Do you work there? Are you an installer for them? What's your connection?

T.J. Wilkinson: I work for Medetron.

Robert Gleeman: Oh. OK.

T.J. Wilkinson: Gene Powers is our President. And, I came to the product through Gene installing training, implementing Medinotes. And, I just fell in love with the product.

Robert Gleeman: Well, your first post in which you said, "This is the best software I've ever seen in my whole life, impressed me so much that I looked at the website and I said, you know, it does look pretty good".

T.J. Wilkinson: [laughs] You know, Robert, every doctor that we show this to ends up loving it. I mean, everybody thinks it's phenomenal. It is, by far, the best put together software I've ever worked with. And, I've worked with a lot of software over my years, both in Pathology and Forensics, and then, in Medicine. And so, it includes everything. It's easy‑to‑use. It's intuitive. It just makes sense.

I mean, I won't name another product. But, I worked with another product. And, I end up telling the client, well, you know, it really doesn't work well this way, or we can't use this here. With IMS, and with the other related products, they work together. I don't have to struggle to make something work in an office.

Robert Gleeman: I like that approach because I don't like to struggle with my software. I'm an old guy. I have resisted computers. Give me a break.

T.J. Wilkinson: [laughs] Yeah. And, you know, a lot of times EMR software or Practice Management software makes you change your practice to fit the software. And, here we don't have to do that. It's flexible enough and configurable enough and adaptable to what the office is already doing. We don't have to re‑invent the wheel, and we don't have to make people crazy in the process.

Robert Gleeman: Now, if someone wants to call Medetron and have you come out and help them with this, what is the phone number over at Medetron?

T.J. Wilkinson: (415)824‑0600.

Robert Gleeman: And, who should they ask for over there?

T.J. Wilkinson: They can ask for me. That's fine. Or, they can ask for Gene Powers, our President.

Robert Gleeman: OK. OK. Well, T.J., I really appreciate your help in getting this put together.

T.J. Wilkinson: Oh, you're very welcome.

Robert Gleeman: And, I hope that what we can do is bring this software to the attention of our readers as a real contender that they need to look at.

T.J. Wilkinson: Yes.

Robert Gleeman: And, if we can do that, I will have been successful.

T.J. Wilkinson: Fantastic. You might want to mention, just off the record, between us, you may want to mention to Mark Anderson that you've done this. I think Mark looked at it recently and was very impressed.

Robert Gleeman: I will do that.

T.J. Wilkinson: Good.

Robert Gleeman: And, that says a lot because Mark is, to me, the single most knowledgeable guy on EMR in the world.

T.J. Wilkinson: Yes, he is. Yes, he is.

Robert Gleeman: And, if he's impressed, everybody should look at this.

T.J. Wilkinson: Absolutely.

Robert Gleeman: It's a must look‑at.

T.J. Wilkinson: Well, thank you, Robert. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.

Robert Gleeman: Well, thank you, T.J. and, thanks, Mike.

Mike Patel: Ciao.

Robert Gleeman: And, we'll get this out just as soon as we can. Like I said, we only needed ten minutes. My job is so hard, so hard.

T.J. Wilkinson: I understand.

Robert Gleeman: OK. Thanks, again.

T.J. Wilkinson: Thank you, sir.

T.J. Wilkinson: Bye‑bye.

Mike Patel: Ciao.

Interview with Bruce Hrenyo, President, Tangible Solutions, Inc. VAR for e-MDs

Robert Gleeman — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 05:21:00 GMT

Our interview is presented as both a YouTube presentation and an outsourced transcription of our discussion. To listen to our interview please click the Play button on the YouTube movie displayed below.

Robert Gleeman: This is Robert Gleeman with emrupdate. We're talking today with Bruce Hrenyo. Bruce Hrenyo is the President of Tangible Solutions. Tangible is a VAR, a value‑added reseller, for e‑MDs.

Bruce, when did you start selling e‑MDs?

Bruce Hrenyo: We started with e‑MDs in 1998 or so. We were actually e‑MDs' first VAR. We went out on a hunt for products to represent and capabilities that were interesting to us. We did a fairly extensive list and cross‑analysis with a number of the products that were available at that time. We came across e‑MDs and started using their product and reselling their product.

Robert: Why did you pick them?

Bruce: We wanted to work with a young, vibrant company, and at that point it was actually version 1.04 of their product. We were also starting, and we believed in a technology called ASP, and we created a technology called "Happe: Hosted Application Environment" We wanted to work with a company that would allow us to have a diversity of delivery mechanisms for practices. So, they make available the traditional LAN‑based installation as well as, through Happe, we have an ASP solution. (continued after the YouTube movie)

(Please visit the site to view this media)

We look at a VAR as a third part of the cycles. When you deal with a vendor, you have an opportunity to look at other products that maybe a software vendor does not provide. And again, we look at it as a solution when we present an EMR product to a practice.

We start with: are they satisfied and interested in e‑MDs as a solution series? And then from there we actually start to tailor into a more diverse solution to solve their problems, whether that is a LAN‑based installation or a hosted‑based application. As well as we bolt on other technology: we do automated check‑in kiosk systems, electronic claims, electronic eligibility, that kind of stuff.

Robert: We have come to know that EMR is a very service‑intensive operation. Do you have a lot of service people that go out there in the field with the customers?

Bruce: Absolutely, and the way we actually deploy our trainers, our trainers are actually in the field. So we use a lot of the same technology that we would put into doctor's offices: VoIP, Voiceover IP phone systems, as well as other types of technologies, remote access, remote control and so on.

We actually place our trainers out in the field. Though we are based in Charlotte, NC, we have trainers up towards the Virginia border line, we have trainers in Ashville, we have one down in Columbia, South Carolina. Our accountant is based out of Greensboro, North Carolina.

Robert: Why do the e‑MDs customers seem to be so happy?

Bruce: I think e‑MDs itself has a very good product, a very solid product. With e‑MDs embracing VARs out in the field, we're able to be closer to the individual problem so if a problem does arise we can actually get in our car and drive and visit the customer. We also have local training centers. That just gives us an opportunity to work more closely with the individual providers, help them develop templates, help them develop business workflows.

We believe it's more than just, "Here's a product and work with it." You have to try to embrace that product, you need to try to extend the features of that product into your practice and that's where we feel VARs step up to the plate differently than directly software sellers.

E‑MDs is a great company, {I've been) with them a long time. In our case, they're based out of Austin, Texas. They may or may not know the nuances of Charlotte, North Carolina, or a rural community here in the Carolinas where we would know those rules and nuances, how to work through issues, local technical issues.

Robert: e‑MDs supplies a lot of medical content in the form of 800 different templates. Do you also have access to those templates?

Bruce: Absolutely, e‑MDs ships the majority of those templates with the product. They also have newsgroups in which they have some of those templates, provided on those news forums, as well as we actually have a couple of providers that we work with that will help some of our other provider customers develop templates for them. We do have a tremendous amount of flexibility to make the product work with each of the providers within a practice and then create an environment that allows them to follow through with that workflow.

Robert: Speak directly, heart‑to‑heart, to those 6,000 doctors out there and tell them why they should call you.

Bruce: We find providing technology, providing solutions to practices, an important help for them and that's what we're here to do. We're here to help them go through technology. Very often I do the same thing for my provider, I go to my internal medicine doctors and let them help me understand medicine. We do the same thing on technology, we're here to provide a solution.

I have a quick story of ‑‑ sometimes the solution doesn't need to be fancy. We had a practice that, when we brought them on to an EMR, had some difficulty routing the patients through the practice. We didn't invent some super‑technology carrier or any of that type of stuff. What we wound up doing was we made a little grease eraser board. We laminated some sheets so the provider circled the provider's name, "follow up in two weeks," and handed that to the patient.

Sometimes as simple as a piece of paper helped route those patients through the practice. So solutions don't need to be technology, they don't need to be expensive, they don't need to be fancy. Sometimes they're as simple as a piece of paper.

So that's what we position ourselves to do, is providing solutions for practices and helping them navigate and manage and take a lot of the technology pizzazz out of it and try and help them understand it.

The overwhelming majority of technology that we offer to practices, the solution we offer to practices, is technology that comes from providers. They'd ask us to look into a set of technology and so we use that opportunity to research it, see how it would fit, make sure it works, understand it and then we move that forward with other practices.

Robert: We were talking today to Bruce Hrenyo from Tangible Solutions. Bruce, thank you very much for being with us today.

Bruce: Thank you! I appreciate this opportunity.

Interview with Dan Montzka MD, President IntelleMED, Inc.-- EMR for Ophthalmology

Robert Gleeman — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 05:13:00 GMT

Today I'm talking with Dan Montzka, a board-certified practicing ophthalmologist, founder and president of IntelleMED.

This presentation is published below as a YouTube podcast but is also available for download as an MP3 from this link. To listen to our interview, please click the Play button on the YouTube presentation below.

I start by asking how Dan got into this field. He's not a programmer. Dan left a large multi-speciality practice and started a new practice on his own. He was Interested in efficiency of using an EMR, but didn't feel the current offerings were suitable for the things he was trying to do in practice.

IntelleMED is based on one of the Microsoft Office applications called InfoPath, used generally for the generation of templates. They got so far using templates, but eventually called in some programming to complete their application. Microsoft Infopath stores everything in a standards-based XML format, but eventually you need some database to give you a data-centric EMR. IntelleMED use the Microsoft SQL Server database within some of its modules.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

IntelleMED is used as an in-office Server application but could quite easily move to and ASP application.

What drew me to IntelliDRAW was the use of lots of color and dots --- a bit like a Christmas Tree. I ask why an ophthalmologist would need to draw?

Ophthalmologists document using drawings and diagrams -- this is a really time consuming thing that they do.

It can take several minutes for a detailed diagram. There may be a small amount of revenue from the documentation, but they really want an accurate description of what's happening for the patient. When getting started Dan noticed big limitations in existing drawing packages.

Ophthalmologists need a very detailed and specific drawing in a short amount of time. This is what IntelleDRAW provides.

The IntellMED Charting system is granular in nature. What does IntelliMED mean by granular?

Data is specific. Location, severity or status of a leision can be documented specifically. Individual findings -- thay can then be edited.
Especially in ophthalmology and retina patients are older and present with multiple abnormalities. An ophthalmologist finds that a granular system is far better.

I ask about the Smart Pick-List for charting findings. Dan explains that it's difficult to have a template created that was just "disease specific". Instead they use a template that is more "problem-list" specific,using a unique set of smart pick-lists for any patient.

I ask how was the response to the announcement of IntelliDRAW at this past meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Dan explains "Really kind of exciting. Everyone who saw it, came back for a second look with their partners or with other contacts. This was really how they wanted to do drawings compared to other Icon based drawings. This is quite different from the usual Drag-and-Drop onto a drawing backgrounds. You're spending more time looking for the right icon, than drawing. An IntelleDRAW diagram is created in layers from your documentation. Basicallty you press a button and the system gives you a proposed drawingt which is then edited by layer.

The IntelleMED products are:

IntelleCHART
IntelleVIEW
IntelleFILE
IntelleDRAW

Do Doctors typically use all the functions together? Some have their own viewing packages which they can work with separately. What we provide for is that very detailed examination done very quickly.

I ask why is Ophthalmology so different from other types medicine? Patients are older, with multiple issues and a different focus. Can this product be demonstrated over the internet?

IntelleMED recommends a tablet with active digitizer screen for the best experience for detailed drawings. I was "drawn" to the color -- must be the holiday season. Dan explains that they're also using Microsoft "Ink" technology. This gives a very smooth drawing experience unlike the grainy experience of older drawing systems.

What is Dan's key message? Take a look at this system -- The most important thing for an Ophthalmologist is how this will it affect their clinical efficiency. They are very busy. They need to continue to see same number of patients they were seeing when just using paper. They can start running IntelleMED software very quickly and continue to practice medicine wihout delay.

Thank you Dan Montzka M.D., President and founder of IntelleMED.

You can download this interview as an MP3 from this link.

Interview with Rich Steinle, CEO of PracticeIT -- Doctors' Bill of Rights

Robert Gleeman — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:08:00 GMT

Today I'm talking with Rich Steinle, CEO of Practice IT head-quartered in Austin, TX.

To listen to our discussion please scroll down to the YouTube frame and click Play.
You can also listen to this interview directly upon YouTube here.

The following is a general abstract from parts of the interview.

Practice IT are a Medical Technology and Services company -- serving MDs with innovative technology and they say, unparallel customer support. They provide both their own home-grown & developed EMR package and also provide Diagnostic technmologies with some exclusive partnerships.

Rich Steinle says that they really do focus completely on the Doctor.

I ask Richard how does PracticeIT reach the Doctors. Rich explains that they have a multi-pronged strategy. First with a direct sales force actually visiting and demonstrating software in their offices. Our sales representatives are on the road in the field in the offices. PracticeIT can provide dedicated infrastructure if there isn't one already in place, or use a Doctors existing resources, provided they're good enough. Additionally dedicated servers at our data-center provide secure redundant EMR data backup.

Click the following YouTube to play our movie.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Security of data - backup is key to the Docs data. Access form home/office and remotely BUT with security. Data Center is redundant.

What is the Doctors Bill of Rights -- formed in co. philosophy. We're not new to this market, but can bring a new level of service to the market. Don't beleive Docs need to become technologist. Puts down in bullet form what Docs should expect from Practice IT.

•    Non-invasive technology that lets you focus on patient care.
•    Exceptional personal service from a vendor you know and trust.
•    Features you need at a price your practice can afford.
•    Code and bill accurately for your services.
•    Efficiently and securely collect, store and measure your data to prove tangible results.

What about hand-holding? We have a physician services team dedicated to the Doctor. Personal installs with the Doctors, training and there as people with names known by the customer for additional on-line help -- remote assistance or follow-up visits.

Respect for Doctors -- Doctors on staff.

Service to the customer is the main thing. If you look at the landscape it is littered with products and services. Doctors don't lack for options or services. But they are underserviced by a personal approach to service. The EMR decision is a big thing. We can implement this right in the way we've designed this more and more doctors can take use of this technology. We believe they have a right to practice as Doctors as they always have -- but with the EMR tools to automate what they're doing.

You can also listen to this interview directly upon YouTube here.

Robert Gleeman talks with Divan Da've, CEO of OmniMD about their breadth of EMR offerings

Robert Gleeman — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 06:20:00 GMT

Divan Da've* CEO, OmniMD believes that the EMR vendor should do it all. EMR, Patient Management, Document storage, Prescriptions, Patient Portal and more, with these applications supported across a range of devices including PDA, Tablet PC, local area network, wireless and Internet.

* Correctly pronounced as "Divahn Dahvey"

Talking with Divan Da've this philosophy comes across along with a strong long-term committment to EMR.

Click the play button below to listen to our interview.

To comment on anything discussed by us please visit the following forum thread.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Divan Da've is also a fairly prolific contributor to articles and other interviews.

Try a quick Google search here to read his other articles.

You can also listen to our discussion by podcast here.

To comment on anything discussed by us please visit the following forum thread.

Robert Gleeman and Jeff Mongelli, CEO Acentec, Inc discuss the recent Acermed & Medinformatix fallout

Robert Gleeman — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:02:00 GMT

Jeff "Monk" Mongelli is CEO of Acentec, Inc. one of a few select Medinformatix resellers. Mr. Mongelli first broke the story of Acermed at emrupdate.com and here follows-up with some background to the players in this big EMR news story.

Jeff Mongelli has been selling Medinformatix for over 6 years; also a former VP of Sales at Acermed, he still beleives this to be one of the best combined EMR and Billing solutions. You can catch up on Jeff's emrupdate.com postings here. Acentec, Inc of Irvine California can be reached from their web-site http://www.acentec.com/forms/index-4.html or at 1 (800) 970-0402

My thanks to Jeff for keeping our Doctors researching EMR solutions, on-the-ball and up-to-date with these important EMR developments.

To listen to our discussion click the play button below:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

You can also download our discussion by podcast from the following link.

To comment on this discussion please reply under this main EMR forum thread.

With kind regards,
Robert Gleeman

Medical Journalist and Sponsorship Agent for EMR Update.
EMR progress is a matter of fact.
EMR Update supports your right to know.
email me
VOICE: 650-968-6359
SKYPE: robertgleeman

Richard Yonis, President of AcerMed, "Clears the Air"

Robert Gleeman — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 03:43:00 GMT

Following all the debate and discussion about AcerMed (here, here and here) I was called by Richard Yonis the President of AcerMed, Inc. who wanted to set the record straight and "clear the air" on a few issues.

Richard Yonis and I discuss the current company status, the support position for existing and recently acquired customers and what happens next.

There aren't many Presidents who would take the time to have such a detailed discussion -- when clearly busy with managing their company at a crucial time. My thanks to Richard Yonis for sharing the latest news and status of AcerMed Inc. I personally want to wish Richard every success in his next venture. I think he'll be back sometime soon.

Click the Play button below to listen to our interview.

If you would like to comment on this interview please visit our related forum thread here.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

You can also download and listen to our interview as a Podcast by clicking our link.

If you would like to comment on this interview please visit our related forum thread here.

EMR Podcast: Interview with Joe Persky of Automed Software Solutions

Robert Gleeman — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 06:23:00 GMT

My interview this week is with one of our valued sponsors Joe Persky of Automed Software Solutions.

Automed have been a long-time supporter of emrupdate and are one of our small band of Value Added Resellers champions.

Joe Persky and I talk about his approach for implementing EMR solutions and how the packaged approach delivers a quality service and good price for their EMR customers.

Click the Play button below to listen to our interview.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

You can also download and listen to our interview as a Podcast by clicking our link.

My thanks to Joe Persky for taking the timeout to record this interview and I hope he can answer any questions that appear on our related Forum thread.

Joe Persky can be reached by phone: 516.369.7091 and fax: 866.797.3134

If you would like to comment on this interview please visit our related forum thread here.

Interview: MedcomSoft's C.E.O., Dr. Sami Aita

Robert Gleeman — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 16:25:00 GMT

Interview: MedcomSoft's C.E.O., Dr. Sami Aita, discusses "industry challenges related to clinical automation and proper data collection".

By Robert Gleeman, Medical Journalist for EMR Update, robert@emrupdate.com

Dr. Sami Aita, who prefers to be called "Sami" by his employees

In our telephone interview, I started out by mentioning to MedcomSoft's C.E.O., Sami Aita, MD, that I noticed that everyone I encountered at MedcomSoft calls him "Sami".

"Yes," he laughed, "that's my real name!"

"But don't most doctors insist on being called ‘Doctor This' or ‘Doctor That'?" I asked.

"Yes," he answered, "but to me, a title, whether it's ‘Doctor', or ‘Chairman', is only a title and it has no importance."

But you are a medical doctor?

"I'm a M.D., yes," he confirmed, "I'm an emergency doctor."

A great accomplishment for anyone, yet you went on to start an EMR software company.

"Yes," Sami continued, "and I'll give you a bit of the story about how it happened. Before moving to Canada, I was one of the founders in Paris, France, of the Emergency and Homecare Center, S.O.S. Medcins 92, which was highlighted in the recent feature film by Michael Moore, "Sicko". I went on to create similar systems in Canada, and I tried to computerize the medical records of these emergency medical systems. We didn't find any software at the time that would help us do the emergency ‘triage' for patients, so I decided to put together a team to build the software for the emergency center. From there, we went on to create a practice management system for Canada. Then in 1994, we decided to put all our energy into creating a new generation of electronic medical records."

MedcomSoft is a publicly-traded company, isn't it?

"It is," he answered, "we went public in 1998 and we are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange."

How's your "burn rate"?

Sami explained, "We have no issue there at all. Our sales growth has been phenomenal in the past two years as you might have read in our latest press releases, and we have always had access to funding when we have needed it, which is one of the advantages of being a public company. Without ‘cutting corners' or limiting our focus on customer satisfaction, we can carry forth our mission and lead the company to profitability in our current fiscal year, which started July 1^st."

Your EMR is known for MEDCIN, the codified medical language designed as a standardization tool. Let's talk about MEDCIN.

"I think there are a lot of misconceptions still in the EMR marketplace regarding MEDCIN," he said. "Many people see MEDCIN as just a codification system, but it is more than that. If you wish to capture medical data to the sixth level of granularity, there is no other system other than MEDCIN that will allow it. Six levels are considered the maximum in granularity, or detail, of a medical state. MEDCIN will allow you to codify everything numerically. What MedcomSoft has done is bring that MEDCIN vocabulary to a second level by doing the cross-codification of all lab results coming from U.S. Labcorp or Quest Labs-bringing lab results to the standard vocabulary of MEDCIN. Also, we have cross-codified all drug brand names to the MEDCIN standard, a project we have done with Medicomp (publishers of MEDCIN) and GSM, publishers of the drug database that we use."

"Now, by doing that," Sami continued, "we have created the first fully homogeneously codified electronic medical record, which opens the door to full interoperability with different EMR brands and systems. Since MEDCIN is ‘cross-codified' to the other medical vocabularies such as LOINC, SNOMED, CPT, ICD, etc., the data we capture with our software is fully compatible with all standards and vocabularies at the same time."

However, the importance is not only codification, because codifying the data is great for the purpose of aggregation and analysis, but the future of health care is really in pulling out specific data in relation to a condition or disease. To do that you need to have the clinical IT links between the data elements and conditions or disease."

IT links?

"Yes", he continued. "So let me explain to you what is a clinical link. If you take fever, for example, as a clinical concept. Fever exists in x number of medical conditions. So each one of these conditions has a link to ‘fever', or ‘fever' has a link to each one of these conditions, and I think there are in excess of a thousand conditions that have ‘fever' as an element that comprises these conditions."

"Now when you look at the link in reverse, asking for all the data elements that link to a condition, you can use these links to pull automatically all the information related to a disease from any patient chart. So when you use a software such as ours that has on one side extreme granular codification and on the other side an engine with 73 million clinical links inside, you are able to automatically extract from the data any element captured in the patient's chart over time, related to a disease, in a sub second, and display it in a spreadsheet format that will show you immediately the progress of that disease over time, even though the data elements were not tagged specifically for that condition when they were recorded."

That will be fascinating to our readers

Sami beamed, "This is really the biggest thing that our software offers, that unfortunately the rest of the market did not grasp until now, because the market stopped at the concept of codification, and there are now multiple proprietary codifications of zero value. The value of MEDCIN is not in the codification, but rather in its 35 years of research producing 73 million intelligent clinical links between the clinical concepts."

Some have called MEDCIN the last, best hope for interoperability.

"It is true to a certain extent, although full interoperability depends more on finely-granulated codification than on the intelligent links that I mentioned previously. We've been working with the MEDCIN vocabulary for about nine years and demonstrated on many occasions how it facilitates interoperability at the highest level."

MedcomSoft has experience here. Sami explains, "As an example we have recently ported a practice of twelve pediatricians that was using another MEDCIN-based system from another major vendor. We were able to take the entire database, capture it, and map it back to our system. In one day the clinic was able to move to our system with all data, scans, and patient files intact."

If two doctors have your system, can they trade medical records?

"Absolutely. A simple matter," he said.

Because, you know, if two doctors across the street are using the same EMR, they still can't trade records.

Sami elaborated, "Because the EMRs of today are built generally with the wrong concept. They concentrate on "neat" functions but produce text as an end product which is not understood by computers. The fundamental building blocks of any patient chart are simply codified cells consisting of codes and values that link automatically to a patient, physician, facility, etc. Any doctor could create these data cells which could be easily understood by another system, could be aggregated in a repository, and could reconstruct for you the medical record. All you need is the engine. This is the technology of MedcomSoft."

"Anybody who has today a system that keeps medical records in text is keeping dead data which will never be able to achieve interoperability or real time clinical decision support nor any extraction of relevant data on demand at the time of care."

"In the near future our system will support ‘intelligent compliance' which would bring up real time recommendations based on best practice or academic guidelines for treatment while taking the entire patient record into account. Things like co-morbidity, risk factors, family history, lab results and current medications which all make the recommended treatment different for each patient."

We talk a lot in EMR Update about granularity. What else should we be discussing?

Sami was emphatic. "What we need in this market today is education, before anything else. The last step, that of clinical links, is one where the industry is still in the dark. If you want to accomplish real disease management at the point of care you need a system that carries these clinical links."

Tell me about the pricing of your product. You're packaging in a lot more technology than most systems. Is it as expensive as it sounds?

"Absolutely not," he proudly stated. "As a matter of fact our complete EMR system including PM sells for $11,500 for the first physician and $6,500 for any additional physician on the same database. It is a full enterprise, secure and stable system that is easily scalable from 1 to several hundred users."

Any parting words for your fellow members of the EMR Update Forum?

Our newest sponsor was generous. "Anytime you want to do any follow-up in any areas which are educational and not commercial in nature, I would love to contribute to the Forum, especially to emphasize the importance of data quality before functionality. I will become more active in an educational role without getting too commercial."

"On the clinical documentation engine you see the MEDCIN vocabulary on the left side that goes down to the sixth granularity of data elements, and on the right side the narrative that is generated upon selecting any data element in any random way. The same documentation engine works with pre-set protocols, templates, pre-filled protocols, previous encounters data, free text, dictation, transcription and embedded picture annotations."

"The flowsheet gives a view on the entire chart and can be filtered by specific section of the chart such as physical findings, symptoms, tests, therapies etc. or can be filtered by disease, by specific data elements on a template or protocol and by dozens of other criteria. Hovering on each cell will show a full description of the cell and value, hovering on a column (that usually corresponds to an encounter) will automatically display the narrative of that encounter. Very hard to describe these unique, flexible and very powerful tool, however I will be more than happy to give you a quick demo if you want to see it in action at the speed of light."

Interview with Mr. Timothy Heffer, president of the AllscriptsTouchWorksTM Eastern Region Users Group (ERUG)

Robert Gleeman — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 01:24:00 GMT

Interview with Mr. Timothy Heffer, president of the AllscriptsTouchWorksTM Eastern Region Users Group(ERUG)

ERUG Pulls the rug out from under “drive-by” poster who claimed unfairness in Allscripts customer service response-priority

By Robert Gleeman, Medical Journalist for EMR Update, robert@emrupdate.com

When asked by a lawyer from Allscripts to remove a first-time poster’s critique of the way technical support prioritizes service "tickets" for users of Allscripts TouchWorks EMR in the Northeastern U.S.A., (posted here, http://www.emrupdate.com/forums/t/8972.aspx), - Allscripts contended it may have been posted by a competitor - we received an email from Mr. Timothy Heffer, president of ERUG http://erugweb.org/ , saying that his group DID NOT post the complaint. In a telephone interview with Mr. Heffer, I asked about how Allscripts users in his group, the Eastern Region Users Group, or ERUG, are doing with the TouchWorks EMR software product, and why he felt compelled to support his vendor for EMR, Allscripts.

I asked Tim Heffer how he came to be a user and leader of a users' group for Allscripts TouchWorks^TM .

Tim replied, “I am the administrator of a cardiology practice with 15 cardiologists, called the Rochester Cardiopulmonary Group at 30 Hagen Drive, Suite 100, Rochester, NY 14625, http://www.rcpg.com/ , and we have been using TouchWorks EMR for five years. If anyone wants to contact me for a reference, just send me an email with your phone number, theffer@rcpg.com , and I’ll be glad to call you with any information you need.”

How many users are in ERUG, and how do you communicate as a group?“

"We have a monthly conference call meeting,” Tim answered, “Allscripts supplies us with the phone number and password. In addition, we have an extensive e-mail distribution list with approximately 200 participants representing 65 or so organizations. This distribution list is used periodically throughout the month when members have questions or wish to solicit information from other members. We have just got our website up and running and hope that it can be a valuable tool for information sharing. We also meet in person annually at the Allscripts Users Conference in Chicago.”

How much help do you get from Allscripts in running the ERUG?

In his typical relaxed manner, Tim laughed and said, “They’ll get involved as much as the user group wants them to get involved. We have had a number of presentations by Allscripts personnel on our monthly calls. Including folks on their management team. We are not very highly-structured here in the Eastern Region, but we are listened to carefully by Allscripts, and they care what we think about their service. They called me about the aforementioned critical post, but by the time I looked, it had been removed from EMR update. I never did actually see it. But at RCPG, we have no complaints about Allscripts tech support and I knew no such letter had come from the group."

Would Allscripts supply you with a forum such as EMR Update if you asked for one?

“They already have an on-line user forum, Tim commented, "but to be honest, I am not sure how much it is used. Most of the various user groups have their own forums as well. I think we are all trying to figure out the best way to use these forums to share information."

Did you use any on-line forums in your EMR decision making process?

Tim said, "Allscripts was much smaller five years ago when we purchased TouchWorks. The information available to EMR shoppers is much better now, and I think EMR Update is part of that progress. This is a winning situation for clinic administrators like me, because EMR is much easier than it used to be. Five years ago, it was difficult to find references in any given geographical area. Now it’s easier and the users themselves are more experienced, so references really mean something. The main goal of a users group is information sharing, and how each group is using the product is always of interest to everyone.”

Can you tell me why you chose Allscripts for your EMR five years ago?

“It’s like they say,” he answered, “once you have used EMR in practice, you can never go back to paper. But thinking back, we liked the modular software concept offered by Allscripts—you don’t pay for—or get bogged down by—software you cannot use. The most obvious benefit is having all patient information in one place and accessible from anywhere to any provider at the click of a button. The days of hunting for a paper chart are gone. We recently purchased the “Charge Module” to use with our billing system. And that was another reason we went with Allscripts, the fact that they are tightly integrated with the billing software we were using at the time, and we still use to this day, IDX. We have purchased four software modules since buying the main EMR, so we feel we have grown with TouchWorks at our own pace, and never saddled ourselves with too much information to learn at any given time.”

Didn’t GE buy IDX about a year ago? How has that impacted your EMR and billing software?

Tim replied, “We did not feel any impact from that acquisition. We had IDX and still do, which is linked to Allscripts, with no third party interface needed. I guess we dodged a bullet in that respect, because it was our choice to skip all the interfacing grief by going with Allscripts and staying with IDX. It just worked out fine for us.”

[Author's Note: When I commented to Tim Heffer that I felt the interview was a bit too short, he promptly shot back, "What's wrong with concise?" I was left with a very distinct opinion, which is this: Listen to your administrator when it comes to buying an EMR. A practice administrator such as Tim perhaps develops a "sixth sense" for avoiding problems. Or maybe it's just the philosophy of all administrators? R.G.]