I just came upon a really interesting part of HIMSS 2010 called the HIMSS IT Venture Fair. Many readers probably don’t realize my interest in Venture Capital, entrepreneurship and investing in general. Especially when it comes to technology investments. So, as you can imagine, this part of HIMSS really interests me. I hope that my HIMSS media credentials can get me in to this. Has anyone been to this before?

We’re about to enter an unprecedented time for investment in healthcare IT. There’s going to be a lot of investment, a lot of consolidation and I expect some really interesting new EMR companies who enter the market that we’ve never heard of before. Chilmark research listed 17 HIT acquisitions in the “white hot market for Healthcare IT.” Yet, this is just the very beginning of what we’re going to see.

Tonight I had a few extra minutes and decided to put together a Twitter list of people that are attending HIMSS 2010. The beautiful thing with a Twitter list is that you can follow a whole group of people that are attending HIMSS 2010 with one click. Plus, for those of you who know nothing about Twitter, you can just go to this HIMSS 2010 Twitter list page and see what all the tweeters at HIMSS are talking about.

Once the conference starts, this will be really fun to watch. Not to mention, it will be a great way to network and find out about the must see items at HIMSS. If you’re planning to tweet from HIMSS in Atlanta and you’re not on the list, leave a comment on this post and I’ll add you to the HIMSS 2010 Twitter list.

Also, in case you didn’t see it on my EMR and HIPAA site, check out the New Media Meetups planned for HIMSS. Everyone is more than welcome. Just make sure you register for the HIMSS New Media kick off event so we know how many people are coming.

Disclaimer: All of this is unofficial. We do not represent the HIMSS organization in any way.

Someone emailed me that this was the growing sentiment among doctors, “Why spend 80 to get 40?”

Then, someone else commented, “Remember … 100% of ’stimulus dollars’ will have made it to the vendor before the providers ever get CMS approval of meaningful use.”

Another person added, “Caveat Emptor”

I’m preparing for my time at the HIMSS conference. I can tell that the conference is going to be incredibly busy. Plus, I don’t want to over schedule my time since I want to make sure I spend plenty of time discovering new things and smaller companies that are doing really interesting things. Specially related to EMR is best, but even the technologies that make EMR better are great too.

Well, I got an email from HIMSS about one of the keynote speakers. When I looked at the subject line I read “Blumenthal HIMSS Address Should Prove Meaningless.” At first I didn’t realize the email was from HIMSS. I then came to the email again and realized that I’d misread it. The email actually said, “Blumenthal HIMSS Address Should Prove Meanignful.”

Well, I couldn’t help the irony of the misread. Blumenthal has a chance on a pretty large stage to make some important statements. I am interested to hear what he says. I have a philosophy to listen to smart people when they talk. That’s why I loved the chance to hear Marc Probst (HIT Policy Committee and CIO of IHC) and that’s why I plan to listen to Blumenthal. In many respects, Blumenthal holds the keys to billions of dollars in EMR stimulus money. Let’s hope he will provide something meaningful, but I’m not holding my breathe.

As a side note, I’ll be covering my time at HIMSS on this site and on EMR and HIPAA. I’m also hosting a couple meetups at HIMSS which I’ll be announcing tomorrow or the next day.

One of my readers sent me an interesting comment about Physician interest in the EMR stimulus:

Personally, I was under the impression that most physicians really didn’t take the time to read such things [like this post about harmful consequences of the Government's EHR stimulus]…that they’d rather be thumbing through Golfer’s Digest or Conde Nast’s Traveler. It’s become quite clear that, when something comes along such as a government program like this that can affect their bottom-line, ears perk up and attention is paid. Now, if only more would speak up and voice their opinions to HHS…

I’ve started to see a bit of a turn myself on this site and EMR and HIPAA by physicians who aren’t too happy with the EMR stimulus. They’re starting to voice their concerns more and more. Some of them are a bit uninformed. For example, they want a “cost effective product that works” and then they ask why the VA system can’t be expanded for civilian use. I’ve talked a lot before about why the VA system has challenges, especially in ambulatory EMR. However, by starting the conversation about EMR, they’ll learn things like this.

I have a feeling that the lasting legacy of the EMR stimulus will be the increased awareness and interest in EMR. Maybe the government should never spend the $18 billion of EMR stimulus money since they’ve already gotten the desired effect of increasing interest in EMR. If after this much increased interest doctors still don’t want to implement an EMR, then maybe we shouldn’t pay them [force them] to do it.

One of my regular readers and commenters, DKBerry, sent me some extracts on an article by Modern Healthcare about HITSP. DKBerry also commented, “HITSP is still operational through 30 April. Despite the extension question to its future is going to hurt its mission IMO.” I think HITSP does face a very uncertain future. Here are the excerpts from the article:

“It appears the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel, or HITSP, has become yet another organization formed at the behest of the Bush administration that is being forced to reapply for its job under the federal government’s new heath IT authority.”

…
“That contract was set to expire Jan. 31, but HHS issued a “no-cost extension” to the contract through April 30, according to HITSP Chairman John Halamka, a physician who is chief information officer at 621-bed Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and at Harvard Medical School, Boston.”

…

“Halamka said the HHS contract extension through April will enable HITSP “to have a presence at the upcoming HIMSS conference (scheduled to run March 1-4 in Atlanta) and support the quality reporting activities being demonstrated in the Interoperability Showcase there.”

In addition, HITSP will host “informational conference calls” over the next few months and its Foundations Harmonization Subcommittee set a schedule of three meetings, the first being today at 10:30 a.m. ET, with two more Feb. 8 and Feb. 17 to wrap up its work.

“HITSP is not done; the lights are on,” said Liz Neiman, an ANSI spokeswoman. HITSP and healthcare IT interoperability are “a tremendous priority for ANSI,” Neiman said. “Absolutely, we’ll be going for any RFP that’s coming out. What’s really important for us is to keep the momentum going.”

I was reading an online forum today and was blown away by something someone said about meaningful use:

The “Meaningful Use” stages can only be met if the systems are easy to use and the data is accessible in a timely matter. This will mean that EHR/EMR systems will need in-depth analytical capabilities or the information accessible by Business Intelligence systems that understand healthcare.

Healthcare organizations that understand this will be able to tap into the upwards of millions of dollars set aside by the government in the stimulus package.

Ok, I can’t really knock the fact that EMR software needs to be easy to use. I think they probably meant to say that the EMR vendor needs to make it easy to enter the data required to show “meaningful use.” This seems like a given that every EMR vendor that wants their users to get EMR stimulus money should consider. Sadly, I think they’re likely to find this a VERY difficult task.

Although, what bothers me about this quote is the idea that you need some sort of in-depth analytical capabilities or some sort of BI (Business Intelligence) system to show meaningful use. Take a quick look at this simple meaningful use matrix or the list of 25 meaningful use objectives. Which of the criteria requires this in depth analysis and BI? None of them. At most they’re a pretty simple report.

Now I’m not saying that meeting the requirements of meaningful use is easy. However, the work around meaningful use is around the entry of the data and ensuring that you’re entering the data for all 25 meaningful use objectives. The hard part isn’t accessing the data once it’s in the EMR.

The hype over the new Apple iPad has been really interesting to watch. You can’t even buy one and everyone under the sun is speculating on how well the Apple iPad will do. Everything from it changing the netbook space to Grandma’s first computer being an iPad to the iPad as a gaming machine.

I’m certain that the iPad is going to be a huge gaming machine. The question I have is will the iPad be a game changer in the EMR world.

For those of you not living in the tech bubble that I live in, the iPad is most simply described as an iPhone with a much larger screen. Now I’m sure the purist out there might point out some other differences, but that’s kind of beside the point. The touch input method is the same as the iPhone and it also uses the cell towers to connect to the internet. It also runs the iPhone OS including all of the apps that have been created for the iPhone.

Back to the original question, will the iPad be a game changer for EMR. My prediction is that we really won’t see many iPad’s in healthcare much at all. Sure, there will be one here or there, but it won’t be widespread and we won’t see an “iPad EMR” that was designed to leverage the interface and technology of the iPad.

So, why would I even bring it up? Well, I don’t see the iPad EMR coming to fruition I do see the input technology that’s in the iPad and that will come out of the iPad having an effect on future input interfaces. Apple’s making a huge bet on touch interfaces with the iPad. the adpoption of touch interfaces and the technology that comes out of it is likely to have a huge influence on future EMR interfaces.

One of the biggest complaints doctors have about the various EMR systems is the challenge of inputting the data. Don’t be surprised if the future EMR input methods are heavily influenced by the introduction of the iPad and the technologies that develop around it.