If your EMR is open source, then it's not too hard to allow users to make their own custom screens and so forth.
For close source EMRs, that is a bit trickier. Synapse now has a custom tab which can be programmed by the user. Basically Synapse looks for a special file, and then compiles it into its own code at run time so that users can design their own tab with whatever widgets they want, and for all intensive purposes, it becomes part of the Synapse client.
What are other EMRs doing?
Graham http://www.synapsedirect.com/ Synapse - the EMR for smart users
>>users can design their own tab with whatever widgets they want, and for all intensive purposes, it becomes part of the Synapse client.<<
That sounds nice! Can you give a useful example, perhaps something you use?
Chris Wilkerson, D.C. Carson Doctors Group TabletPCs in Medicine Editor-in-Chief www.MedicalTabletPC.com Home: www.Digital-Doc.com
Chris,
If it's something I already use, then it's part of Synapse already!
Here's a small demo.
Nice, so the end user can make a command button that could execute applications, etc.?
link "Tablet News" http://www.medicaltabletpc.com return
button "Azureus" [ call "C:\Program Files\Azureus\Azureus.exe" ]
Graham,
You should elaborate on how your program (Synapse) integrates with PaperPort. That is a nice feature too!
Are the user customizations durable? That is, when a new version of Synapse is installed do the modifications continue to work? If so, it's a nice feature that not all applications are able to claim.
Ron Rudnicki
www.org.buffalo.edu/RTU
This is a really interesting idea. Do you allow this integration to pull information from the main Synapse database and do SQL commands to update it? (I think we talked about the SQL stuff somewhere before).
It seems like this type of thing could be useful with a bit of integration into Synapse, but it might be necessary to build a decent API to ensure that they don't screw up the core Synapse product.
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RonRud9:Are the user customizations durable? That is, when a new version of Synapse is installed do the modifications continue to work? If so, it's a nice feature that not all applications are able to claim.
As long as the custom tab source code is available, it will work.
I'm thinking that the user can select a tab from a list of available tabs as a preference so that it will load each time. The tabs will be written by consultants, or users, or us.
techguy:This is a really interesting idea. Do you allow this integration to pull information from the main Synapse database and do SQL commands to update it? (I think we talked about the SQL stuff somewhere before).
The user should be able to replicate any existing functionality of Synapse. So, yes. But they can't execute direct SQL because Synapse is n-tier. The Synapse-server is the only tier that executes SQL.
techguy:It seems like this type of thing could be useful with a bit of integration into Synapse, but it might be necessary to build a decent API to ensure that they don't screw up the core Synapse product.
Well, if they screw up, they can just remove that tab from their preferences.
But yes, they will need to be careful that they don't pollute the global name space, or overwrite unintentionally any existing functions. They would use the same API that I do.
digital-doc: How does Synapse integrate with PaperPort. That is a nice feature too!
How does Synapse integrate with PaperPort. That is a nice feature too!
I still use PaperPort for .pdfs that I dont want to junk up the patient's medical record (Insurance forms) and it serves as a bridge to the patient's old files before I went Live with Synapse.
A patient's paperchart has lots of things that "dont really need to be there" and serves to junk up the chart. Medicolegally, you need to keep this fluff, but for the 0.5% chance you'll ever need it, it shouldnt junk up the patient's chart. So I put it in their PaperPort folder (each patient has their own folder).
Please see the screenshot(s) to get a feel how PaperPort works with Synapse.
PaperPort is still fun but Synapse's Powerful Document Management and MetaData makes PaperPort all but defunct for real medical documents.
Open Sourcing a few Tabs ! - not the whole program.
Kind of a novel idea.
We can put some Rebol code on SourceForge for some Custom Tabs and users can modify them for themselves.
:)
Let's face it. Users often want something that the EMR company may not consider useful, or worthwhile to roll out. This allows users to hire a consultant etc, and customize their EMR to their own specifications.
I'm now thinking it should be something that all EMRs should do .. because basically every doc's requirements differ.
How do/would the other vendors here approach this? Matt, Brendon, DrWinn .. Opus ??
I'm a little lost.....nothing new. You'd have to see our app, I guess, to see how much the user can do in customizing it.
If a user wants to run an executable, and even pass it an argument or two, I could have a control built in about an hour that would allow any user to put it into Medtuity and call any executable. Nobody ever asked for that functionality but maybe I'll put it in. You mentioned PDFs. We can import PDFs, bitmaps, jpgs, Doc, rtf, HL7 and other file types. We don't need a tab to do that. I need a more concrete example, I guess. We have a powerful forms feature. We have pt instructions. We have agents that can write letters, scripts, call up other content, etc, etc. We have lots, all editable by the user....so perhaps that is why users aren't asking for the ability to create a new tab, if that is the point. They just add functionality to content that they can already create or alter.
Give me more direction, if I need it.
Synapse and Medtuity are evidently much more flexible than most of the EMR vendors, different implementions but both cool. PatientOS has this too (http://www.emrupdate.com/forums/p/11684/75555.aspx)
To Matts point though cool functionality is only cool if it is valued by the users.
Now to truly test how modifiable the applications are we need a new requirement, something that is
a) Deemed useful by the users.
b) Deemed far too complex for any EMR to do - unless they were 'truly modifiable'.
c) Must be possible...
Custom controls and fields is not going to do it - needs to be something much more advanced that no one has seen before.
Greg
http://www.patientos.org