Home Forums Discussions General Discussion What is going on at AC?

Announcements and postings here have described the Clinical Advisory Board (CAB), a group formed to facilitate communication between AC users and management. The CAB generally meets monthly by phone conference. Last week, eight of the physician members of the group travelled to Boston for a one day face-to-face meeting with people from AC and Pri-Med.
My impression is that many AC users are hungry for information about what is going on with our EMR (especially with regard to product development), and with the company. I am therefore sharing some things that I learned; hopefully this will be of interest. Most of what follows is factual, but some is interpretation that represents my own personal opinion.

1. The Amazing Charts company (now a division of Pri-Med) has changed significantly over the past 18 months. The group has grown substantially in size, with major changes in organizational structure and processes. These changes should significantly facilitate development.

2. One goal is a shorter and more consistent interval between releases. The backlog created by regulatory requirements (MU2 and ICD10) and integrated practice management is finally being cleared. The MU2 certified version (7.1) has been released. (In response to the ongoing "should I upgrade" question: one CAB member described the install of 7.1 as his "easiest, fastest" one to date. I won't fully recommend it until I have tried it, but we plan to upgrade soon. The version seems to have some worthwhile improvements).

3. Later this year, version 8 with integrated practice management will be released. This release also is focused on fixing a few of the longstanding complaints with the current program.

4. A prime development target for next year (2015) is fixing annoying issues that have been present for years.

5. Regarding practice management: the feature list of the AC version with integrated PM looks very good. This will be an AC product; you will deal exclusively with AC for set-up, training, and maintenance issues.

6. Expanding training opportunities for AC users is another priority. This will take a variety of forms.

7. AC is working on a second, cloud-based EMR. This product will be developed as a separate parallel product to AC. It is based upon the concept of the "problem oriented medical record". It has been demo'd to a group of AC users at a regional meeting. Their response was reportedly very positive, as was the reaction of the group at the CAB last week. The first-generation product will be marketed to Direct Primary Care and Concierge Medicine practices to establish an initial toehold in the market.

8. John Squire and the rest of the company are soliciting and incorporating user input into the planning process. They are seeking user input from the CAB, from everyone here on the user board, and from the community as a whole. The proof of this commitment will be seen in upcoming releases. Even then, we will not get all that we want to see in our EMR, but it appears that suggestions and gripes are being heard, prioritized, and addressed.

Thank you Jon for the update and all your work!!!!!!!

Thank you for the information update.

I am very happy with what we have -- barring some obvious improvements that we have all discussed. It is a very usable EMR.

I'm even happier with what we don't have -- local hospitals use Cerner and EPIC -- both grotesque monsters of unusability and barriers to effective communication (to say nothing of outrageous wasters of resources and time).

Providence hospital system in Portland positively bubbled and glowed when they changed to Centricity a few years ago -- but it was such a disaster they changed to EPIC at a cost of unknown $milions, and if anything, it is worse.

If only EHR's were designed for patients and physicians, and not for bean counters and lawyers. If....

I agree with all of that, Tom.

As a disgruntled Epic user, I agree also

Man, this EPIC sounds like it should be renamed to EPIC Fail!

Great summary Jon!

Regarding the new cloud based EMR, it looks interesting. Apparently they will use parallel development, so that it can use things from AC and AC can benefit from changes made for it. Initially it will marketed to the niche market of Direct Primary Care/Concierge, but expanded from there.

I have been playing with the 7.1.x and will probably install it next week.

EPIC cannot have a more appropriate name
E=Eternal. P=Pain. I=In C=Cranium

My only question -- and I suppose it is rhetorical- is why don't the doctors revolt against EPIC and Centricity? Are we such sheep as a profession?

Is that how medical students and residents are trained now? To meekly accept the dictates of the Overlord CEO's? Afraid of not being a "team player" or of "being disruptive?"

Isn't CAB a great option for presenting our "top 10" or "top 100" most asked for fixes? There are some things we have discussed ad naseam and have not been changed, that create a great deal of dis-satisfaction!

This is Chris Conrad, I'm the relatively new (April) Product Manager here at Amazing Charts. In reply to your question on the top issues. It's not that you haven't been heard, it's just that we've been so consumed with ICD10 and MU2 we just haven't had the opportunity to address these concerns. As Jon mentions above in the opening thread, version 8 and most of 2015 will be focused on that very thing. We have been grooming the list of the most frequently requested features to be incorporated into our quarterly releases for the foreseeable future. I'll be publishing a list of these enhancements as they get completed and when I can be certain they will be included in the coming release. The list is long and we know priorities can change, so to ensure we are working on the most appropriate enhancements for next year, those which deliver the greatest value to the majority of our customers, look for a survey sometime in the near future where we'll be asking everyone for the top 5 features they would like. We'll publish the results of that survey along with the plan on how Amazing Charts plans to respond. In the meantime please be assured that we had read and cataloged every request that we've received for the past couple years and continue to do so. I receive suggestions every day from the Recommended Improvements option off the Help tab. I can't respond to every request but do so on occasion. I also watch the Wish List forum on this board and get emailed with every new post. Your suggestions are very important to us; in addition to our strategic objectives they form the backbone of our product roadmap. As your Product Manager I represent you, your voice. I can't speak to what's happened in the past but rest assured that you're being heard today.

Chris Conrad
Amazing Charts Product Manager

I would agree that many things have not changed, but give it a few months to see how things go.

I have to second Chris' comments above. The team seems very dedicated to fixing many of the long standing issues. They ARE acutely aware of many of the issues we have suffered through.

Time will tell whether they can deliver, but they are coming from the right place.

Hate to be jaded, but...

"Show me the money!"

There are so many features that need to be improved, a short survey is not going to be helpful, and will only serve to delay action (classic stall technique). Why not refer to the list that has been out there for a long time, and see which problems can be fixed easily? Start with those and move forward.

Thank you SO much for this update!!! Any little bit of communication is helpful.

Also, we are very interested in the "Problem Oriented Medical Record" option for Amazing Charts. Is there any chance we could petition ourselves to be a part of the demo group??

Thanks again,

Samantha