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My colleagues and I spend a lot of time envisioning how technology can help physicians spend more time with patients and their own families, and less time on paperwork.  As part of this process we have asked a number of practices what about the current paper chart would they like to retain while moving to an electronic medical record.

An Introduction to Natural Language Processing

The current format for documenting patient care has served physicians well for 40+ years.   So why are we making physicians change the way they document patient care, from dictation to point-and click data entry, from narrative notes to boilerplate text?

The wired generation.  Raised on cell phones, the internet, social media, and video games, they are distinguished by their use of technology .²  Born after 1980, the first of the Millennial Generation is turning 30.   

I had my first chance to interact as a patient with a dental EMR.  The occasion was the extraction of four wisdom teeth for my 18 year old son by an oral surgeon.  I logged onto the practice site and filled out all the pre-operative paperwork.  The forms were well designed and easy to complete.  I was also able to access all the pre- and post-operative instructions on line.  In all, it was a very efficient process.

Until recently, my experience as a consumer of healthcare services had been on my own behalf, and limited to a comparative handful of mostly minor, acute instances during which I could ask questions directly, review physician recommendations and read the records that were produced in the context of my visits.  Fortunately, I have been limited to pretty benign interactions.  Then I became involved with the care of my aging parents. 

Roughly 10 percent of the entire world population is now on Facebook. Considering only about 30 percent of humans have Internet access to begin with, that’s a staggering statistic. As the rest of the world plugs in, using social media seems unavoidable – even for healthcare providers.

I recently had a conversation with a physician friend of mine during which he shared the experience of their hospital system’s EMR implementation for their ambulatory practices – so far an 18 month project and counting.   This project has resulted in a 12% decrease in physician-generated revenue, 75% of which is attributable to reduced physician productivity – fewer patient visits in other words.  When I asked how they intended to remedy what sounded like a serious problem, he told me, “Nothing.  Our administrators are calling this the &ls

I saw some things two weeks ago at HIMSS that I can’t forget.

Empowerment begins today

Empowerment (n.) how individuals/communities engage in learning processes in which they create, appropriate and share knowledge, tools and techniques in order to change and improve the quality of their own lives and societies. (UNESCO)

Thanksgiving is the traditional beginning to the holiday season, and I love our holidays.  Growing up in a small town in the Midwest with a large extended family ensured that holiday festivities included a certain cheerful chaos as both the favorite relatives and the peculiar ones arrived for annual holiday meals.  We were a diverse group as farmers, lawyers, artists and mechanics joined to renew family ties and celebrate the season.  For as animated as the gatherings cou

MD-IT has long held the belief that physicians’ time is important and worth protecting. Through the many years of schooling, training and preparing, the practice of medicine requires tools and structure to ensure that the vast majority of a physician’s time is spent on patient care, not on data entry. Our products stand as a testament to these beliefs.

I am very proud to announce that
MD-IT is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month and we couldn’t have done it without the confidence of our clients and the commitment of our employees!  

"Do you know what the most important work done in a hospital is?” asked Babs, the head of human resources at Heimlich Hospital.

The Benefits of Structured Narrative Notes:

Efficiency:  Physicians report that EMR data entry can add from one to two hours to their workday, or cause them to see several fewer patients per day.  Structured narrative notes allow physicians to continue dictating, which is preferred by the vast majority of physicians.

A colleague of mine recently attended an IT conference to hear the latest and greatest on EMR implementations by hospitals and large medical groups.  During one panel presentation, a physician panelist said, “My ideal world is one in which I dictate my patient encounters, and all necessary information is magically imported and saved in the EMR.”  (Click here to see an example of a chart note generated by an EMR)

With the HITECH Act, the role of the medical record is being further stretched to serve as data repository for quality reporting, clinical studies, public health surveillance and more. The problem is that many electronic medical records systems are replacing the narrative note with computer-generated notes that, while useful for creating a data repository, are far less useful for supporting patient care. 
 

The ‘gold rush’ of Electronic Health Records is on. Or so says every major media outlet and President/CEO of a healthcare vendor. Now is the time that America will finally get electronic health records that will catapult this country into the future of healthcare delivery. Or is it?

Did you know MD-IT’s original business plan from ten years ago sought to eliminate transcription and replace it with technology?  We found out it wasn’t such a great idea.  That is why we are such vocal proponents today of dictation and transcription as part of the future of electronic medical records.

MD-IT started in 2000 as a software company selling front-end speech recognition combined with basic EMR functionality.  Here’s an excerpt from an early business plan:

No real surprises from the Medical Group Management Association’s (MGMA) annual survey of medical practice administrators. Their top issue is managing the bottom line in a tough economy.