Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Any Oncologist or specialist or there using AC?

It can be done in the MS Access environment pretty easily in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WSWYG) environment... you just have to learn a little bit of VBA coding and talk to Jon about linking it to the main program. In that way you don't have to write a complete EMR, just a small applet. Going to a MS Access based EMR sure beats shelling out up to $100000.00 a license! The AC EMR, though, allows for the common doc to get there for a fraction of the gallery price.

The program that I've used for 20 years (since the days of DOS) has done well for me. In my area, even though I run a solo practice, I'm the only computerized oncologist that I know of.

This said, I am using the oncology part of my EMR hardly at all nowadays. The issue that you may force you to rethink your EMR choice is that before Congress is a bill called the " Oncology Improvement Act " which may require oncologists to participate in a souped-up P4P program in order to get paid at least 5% LESS than what you are getting paid now. It's to keep Medicare "budget neutral", which means that as drug prices increase, you'll need to own an enterprise-level CCHIT-certified EHR which YOU'LL have to pay for to allow them to find excuses to pay you LESS.

This is one reason, aside from the fact that oncologists in 2008 were singled out for a 10% pay cut, why I've severely limited my oncology practice and may end it once and for all in 2009. Solo and small group oncologists will be DOA in the near future. You'll be scr*wed and will be forced to either join one of your competing large groups, go into general medicine and increase your patient load by a factor of 2 or 3, or simply retire.

This said, let me show you some pics on how an Access EMR looks like. Here is how you can set up the form to pick the chemotherapy protocol-

































Here are the printouts for in-office chemotherapy-
































Here are the printout for hospital chemotherapy-












































Although at my how-to-write-your-own-EMR program website I go into many tips and tricks, I don't plan on going into the chemotherapy section just yet.

My database fits on a thumb drive which I plug into hospital computers, using the MS Access program already installed in just about every computer. The INOVA hospital that is my secondary hospital, though, now has changed over partially to a Novell interface where they turn off Windows, forcing me to use a laptop again. It sometimes seems like I'm always going against a head wind...

Al
Oncologist, Virginia
www.msofficeemrproject.com