The thing that seems weird to me is that even the long-term, heavy-duty AC champs like Bert and Sandeep don't seem to be able to crack the aft cabin door and get any real answers from the folks who really write the code. Are they on Mars? Couldn't they they just give us a little teaser? Security is tighter than the NSA. Where is Edward Snowden when we need him?
For my part, delays of 5-30 seconds every time you change a window or save or open a new file are simply a non-starter. That, plus all the rest of the frustration of "modern" medicine will add up to my changing occupation to garbage transfer station attendant, or something similar.
Electronic medical records will not truly be "meaningfully useful" until it works like Amazon or Google -- any information you want is immediately available across all hospital and clinic databases. My cardiologist friend in Sweden says their record works like that -- nationwide. I don't know if that is really true, and since he doesn't do family medicine, I don't know if primary care is so transparent, but he tells me it is.
Of course, in USA with HIPAA, privacy issues (for the doctors, not the insurance companies), proprietary EMR's and all the rest -- that is a dream that can't be realized unless we get out of our box. I don't know what that would require -- but it won't happen in my practice lifetime, and it reduces the effectiveness of EMR to marginally helpful in a single office, and useless for tracking patients as they travel around.
Presumably, the EMR could also help us switch to an "outcomes based" reimbursement system -- but everything I see along those lines relies on claims data, and is no better than the 1970's paper systems.
When I read articles about EMR, it is either totally geek-speak, or MBA-speak, but never doctor-speak. Doctors don't matter to EPIC or Cerner -- and now I'm beginning to wonder about AC.
The few patients who seem to like these systems only really want one thing -- easy, and especially, FREE access to their doctors and their medical records so they can have a private email conversation at any time about any subject, and get their bronchitis treated without coming in to the office.
