EHR Apps, EHR Early Adopters, and EHR Backlash


I love this approach. The challenge is that this likely has to be built from the ground up with this in mind. Is any EHR on that trajectory now?


I applaud all the early adopters of EMR (yes, if you were an early adopter it was EMR and not EHR). I’d love to hear more from those who were adopting EMR early on. I started with EMR 8 years ago. So, I wasn’t really early in adoption, but I was one of the early EMR bloggers.


I think the concept of EHR Backlash is interesting. The link in the above tweet is to a post I did on EMR and HIPAA that’s been one of my most popular posts ever. I really think it’s a look into the future of the EMR environment. I think most doctors will appreciate that post.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

5 Comments

  • Re: “Each module of an #EHR can, and should be an app of its own”.

    Half way there. We’ll need something to glue the modular apps into usable intramural and intermural workflows. The current best candidates are executable process models, such as found in workflow management systems, business process management suites, and, at a high level, dynamic/adaptive case management systems.

    A couple years ago “clinical groupware” was a popular phrase. I think it should be resuscitated. Three years I ago I predicted (and still stand by):

    “Future extensible clinical groupware will coordinate delivery of EHR functionality to teams of users by combining modular components with executable process models whose usability (effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction) will be systematically improved using business process management techniques.”

    From:

    Usable Clinical Groupware Requires Modular Components and Business Process Management

    http://chuckwebster.com/2010/02/ehr-workflow/usable-clinical-groupware-requires-modular-components-and-business-process-management

  • I think a lot of EHR’s do this but it’s often mistaken for “nickel and diming” the customer. A lot of EHR’s offer a core package, and then a plethora of modules on top of that depending on the doctor’s needs.

    Don’t do in-house X-Rays? Then you don’t need our Imaging/Radiology module.
    You’re not an eye doctor, surgeon, or product-driven practice? Then you don’t need our Inventory module.

    After all, why should all consumers be forced to pay for and subsidize features that they’ll never use?

    But as soon as you expand your practice and have a need for a new module that you didn’t previously, you suddenly feel like you’re being nickel and dimed because you’re being asked to pay the additional fee that you would have paid in the first place if you needed said feature in the first place.

    I suppose I’m probably just ranting at this point, and I have no doubt there are some unscrupulous vendors out there that are truly nickel and diming their customers but I think there’s also a case to be made for modular software, and I also think that modular software suffers unfairly from the above elaborated stigma.

  • Andrew,
    That is a potential problem that’s exacerbated by the fact that many EHR vendors do use it to nickle and dime and mislead customers when it comes to pricing. Although, it’s not always the case if the pricing is structured properly.

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