I like I’m sure many of you have been a bit overwhelmed by the amazing outpouring of love that’s happened after the passing of Steve Jobs. It was weird for me, because I knew that Steve Jobs health wasn’t good but I was still a bit shocked to see on Twitter that he’d passed away. Certainly a major loss for his family, but the effect will be felt well beyond them.

I’ve been touched by a number of posts throughout the healthcare IT and EMR blogosphere. Here’s a roundup of a few of the Steve Jobs posts I found.

Jim Tate did a post that considers what if Steve Jobs had developed an EHR. Here’s one section:

For the past 5 years I’ve kept hoping that Apple would develop an EHR. One that when someone first used it they would say: “Yes, this is how it should be”. Whatever he developed and released to the world didn’t even need an owner’s manual. It just worked in a very human way.

I know I’ve written about the possible Apple EHR as well and what it might look like. As I read Jim’s post I couldn’t help but wonder if the reason Steve Jobs didn’t take on a project like an EHR was because our regulations and reimbursement don’t work in a human way.

Dr. Liu on Kevin MD wrote a post about Steve Jobs as a physician mentor. I love the idea that Steve Jobs was his mentor even though they never met. He offered this heartfelt thought:

I as a doctor I’m incredibly sorry that medicine has not yet evolved to the point that a cure exists for the rare type of cancer Jobs. I’m sorry that he is so ill at an incredibly young age, in his mid 50s, when many people begin to contribute even more to society with all of the knowledge and experience they’ve acquired. The future might be a little less bright without Jobs leading his team at Apple on creating products and experiences none of us truly knew existed until he showed them to us.

It is such a shame that he died so young. In fact, I’d say that might be the hardest part of it all.

The self professed Mac Fan boy, John Moore from Chilmark research, paid a tribute as well. He highlights some of the key things that Steve Jobs did with Apple products:
-Design aesthetics combined with functionality rule
-Supporting a renegade
-Systems rather than parts
-Supporting innovation

Yep, Steve Jobs will be missed in healthcare and well beyond.

As we all know, few EMRs are a breeze to use.  In fact, many have such awkward, counterintuitive UIs that they ought to be thrown back into the pond.

On the other hand, superstar consumer apps like Facebook and Amazon have hooked people by the millions with intuitive, logical interface designs that simply addict users.  (And let’s not forget Apple, whose gift for consumer design has vaulted it from has-been to trend setter for the world.)

One CIO, Dale Sanders of the Cayman Island Health Authority, has taken these  examples and run with them, making what seems like a very strong argument in favor of the these giants’ approach:

In Facebook, we have a perfect framework for longitudinal documentation, collaboration, messaging, and scheduling between a patient and members of their entire care team, including family and friends.

We also have a framework for easily integrating data from other sources to enhance the value to the patient’s healthcare – there’s no equivalent of HL7 interchange going on in Facebook.  It references data located in other sources and systems. Can you imagine Facebook surviving if it required itself to house all the data that it presents?  Facebook takes great advantage of referencing and pointing to data in the source systems.

In Amazon, we have a perfect and familiar metaphor for ordering tests and procedures; tracking them; assessing their costs; rating them and seeing how other clinicians rated those orderables and referrals; and adjusting orders based on the behaviors and ratings of other clinicians, etc.

What makes his thoughts more interesting is that he actually marks up screenshots of key Amazon and Facebook pages, commenting directly on aspects he thinks EMR vendors could adopt.  It’s a thought-provoking exercise:  I recommend you check it out.

News came out this week about a Dell EMR, which is really just a branded version of eCW and possibly some other EMR companies. However, no doubt Dell’s ability to sell software is going to be a nice marketing tool for the EMR companies with which they interact.

Neil Versel posted about some rumblings about Apple joining the EMR fray. There are some EMR vendors that are optimized for some of Apple’s devices. In fact, I’ve even seen some action towards some iPhone specific EMR companies. Also, I think it’s reasonable to think that Apple may come out with an Apple tablet soon and healthcare has always been a tablets favorite market.

Either way, it’s interesting to see all these big brands joining in with others already in the healthcare space. Are they chasing after the $36.3 billion in EMR stimulus money?