Electronic Medical Record

User Experience is Hot HIT Topic with Good Reason

User experience in the world of healthcare IT has never been a hotter topic. It seems not a day goes by that I don’t come across an article, blog, tweet, or outright rant regarding the state of user friendliness, especially with regard to EMRs. (Who can forget the American Medical Association’s note earlier this year to Farzad Mostashari, peppered with complaints about physician usability of EMRs?) I see plenty of negative coverage around the topic – plenty of folks like to have a soapbox to stand on, after all.

I don’t, however, see enough coverage devoted to businesses and providers working to make the backlash better. Surely there are unsung heroes out there in the world of HIT UX that are at their drawing boards right now, attempting to take the sting out of those extra clicks, and listening with bated breath to providers’ complaints and praises.

I came across one such story in New Orleans a few months ago, where, like many of you, I tried to successfully drink from the fire hose (bottled water, actually) that was HIMSS13. I was able to sate my thirst for good UX news at the PointClear Innovation Awards breakfast, which honored a select group of the company’s clients for their work in the realm of user experience.

McKesson took home top honors this year, and while I had some knowledge of their work in the area, I didn’t realize how great of an emphasis they have placed on making sure their healthcare IT solutions are used in the most optimal way for the best possible patient outcomes.

“The big dynamic we are trying to tackle is around critical decision makers,” explains Bobby Middleton, Executive Director, Enterprise Intelligence Product Management at McKesson. “Through experience with our customers and continued research, it is becoming very obvious that our healthcare leaders are often put in a position to make critical decisions without pertinent, relevant and timely information.

“Our Enterprise Intelligence solutions are all geared around providing the right information to the right person at the right time,” he adds. “Our User Experience research is being used to make sure the targeted offering we are delivering via these solutions help a specific set of critical decision makers make the right decision. It is going great so far, and really allowing our technology teams to connect with their end consumers.”

I wonder if we’ll start to see more positive publicity of efforts like McKesson’s, especially as Stage 2 draws closer, more and more providers consider switching to more mature EMRs, and next year’s predicted influx of the newly insured start to clamor for greater digital engagement options and price transparency. One less click or toggle may just make all the difference when it comes to quality patient care.

Cash for Care a Trickle-Down Effect of EMR Dissatisfaction?

By now we’ve all heard about or read of the group of dissatisfied EMR users – hospitals and small-practice physicians who bought into the notion of government incentives – and a better way to deliver healthcare with the added benefit of more efficient processing and payment collection from patients and payers – but aren’t seeing the ROI they initially anticipated. Say what you will about this group, but one thing is for sure: Investment in healthcare IT systems like EMRs have led some physicians to turn to hospital employment, others to close up shop, and yet others to turn to more unique business models such as concierge or cash-only practices.

On the flip side of this change in healthcare delivery is an increasing demand from patients to know just what their dollars are paying for, no matter whether those dollars pay into a monthly insurance premium or directly for services rendered. I wouldn’t say we’re yet at the point where this demand is a trend, but I do believe that as more and more mainstream media outlets cover the debate over healthcare costs and price transparency, more patients like you and me will learn how to ask for costs up front, how to shop around, and most importantly, how to determine if what we’re paying for is worth it.

Entrepreneurs didn’t take long to catch wind of this, and as a result we’re seeing a number of consumer-friendly healthcare businesses pop up. Take Healthpons, for instance. I came across mention of this company a few weeks ago, and was intrigued by its Groupon model for healthcare services. The company offers one line of service for providers, and another for patients. According to its website, Healthpons offers a free portal that allows physicians to market their services at a cash price so that patients can quickly search for said practice and service by city, state, zip, specialty or symptom checker; purchase services and set appointments online. Patients, in turn, can use the portal to search for providers, find the one with the best price, and use a Healthpons discount to pay in advance and make an appointment at the same time.

I chatted with Healthpons co-founder Patty Everette, to learn more about the business:

How do you qualify providers to participate in the program?
We have a system, similar to an insurance company, to review and verify credentials of all providers. This is why we are in a pre-launch phase to validate providers prior to posting their information.

How many providers have signed up?
We have validated about 6,000 providers and many more have enrolled.

The website mentions the patient portal will go live in all 50 states in 2013 – can you give us a more exact timeline?
June 2013 is our target launch. All validated providers will be posted, however, there are certain geographic areas that have a higher concentration of providers, such as the Southeast, Northeast and California. Each month we will continue to add providers as they enroll and are verified.

What types of providers is healthpons best suited to (primary care docs, dermatologists, cosmetic surgeons, etc.)?
The first provider registered was an ENT. We have pediatricians, surgeons, primary care, orthopedic, ENTs, family medicine and more. It is best suited to any provider willing to provide reasonable cash prices, willing to share content and to help people become more informed about what they do and how they are qualified to do it. Our focus is on transparency – and developing relationships.

How are you going to avoid the Groupon problem of too many vouchers sold, and providers subsequently becoming overrun with customers they are inadequately staffed to handle (typically resulting in poor customer service and no repeat patients)?
Our business model is not like Groupon. We make money primarily from any upgraded, subscription-based services or advertising.

All providers control the number of visits they can sell per service. We provide a guide to each provider as to what is recommended to sell. The consumer can see the provider’s availability prior to purchasing a visit. Also, we will monitor their sales and service comments to ensure quality and service is maintained.

I know there is more to share as Healthpons is developed with great depth. We have used multiple panels of providers and their office managers to preview our systems as we have developed. We took an idea we had and asked providers what they thought – what they wanted – then we asked our customers (patients) what they would like to get out of our platform. We bridged the concepts to bring doctors and patients together for an online network marketing experience to de-mystify medical services and pricing.

“If You Could Tell Your CIO …”

In the first part of this blog series, I outlined the increasingly important role CMIOs are playing in the hospital ecosystem. They are bridging the gap between the world of clinical and IT, bringing a spirit of impartiality to HIT implementations that often makes the acceptance of impending workflow upsets a little bit easier to swallow.

This second part will focus on the specific challenges CMIO panelists at a recent Georgia HIMSS luncheon were particularly vocal about:

* Taking an EMR implementation from grumbles to growth;
* Data and its potential impact on establishing or refining best practices;
* Patient engagement; and
* “If You Could Tell a CIO.”

From Grumbles to Growth
All the panelists shared their “secret ingredients” for EMR implementation success. Roland Matthews, MD, physician champion at Grady, stressed that the hospital chose to implement an EMR not for the Meaningful Use incentives, but to ultimately improve quality over the long term. Despite recent EMR backlash, Matthews is a firm believer in the benefit they will ultimately bring to patient care.

That being said, he believes that simpler, easier-to-use systems are the best choice when it comes to gaining full adoption amongst clinicians. His statement echoes the increasingly loud call from clinicians for better user experience. Involving all departments in the selection and implementation process from the very beginning is also essential, according to Matthews, and serves as a testament to good leadership.

The best user experience won’t take physicians very far, however, if infrastructure is too unreliable to sport it. While he didn’t claim to speak from personal experience, Matthews also pointed out the latest and greatest EMR may never be used to its fullest potential if the platform on which it stands is down half the time.

Steve Luxenberg, MD, CMIO at Piedmont Healthcare, made sure to point out the full value of an EMR can only be realized if clinical and IT work together to maintain, optimize, and grow the product from within.

This takes us to conversation points about extracting data to create or refine best practices in an effort to drive quality initiatives.

Digging Out Data to Increase Quality
“It’s not an EMR for the sake of an EMR,” Luxenberg emphasized. “It’s about the data we can pull out, interpret and impact outcomes with.”

Daniel Wu, part-time CMIO at Grady, echoed Luxenberg’s comments: “The EMR has opened a door to allow us to collect data as we’ve never been able to do before.” The panelists all agreed on this point, and now it seems as if they are tackling the issue of interpreting the data to enable better outcomes and quality.

Matthews insisted that collecting the data is really all about quality, and suggested that the EMR should guide standards, which the panelists referred to in the same context as best practices.

Wu made the point that if providers don’t control what designates quality care, or best practices, then the government will come along and regulate it for them. (I’m fairly certain this echoes what Farzad Mostashari has tweeted about in the recent past.)

Luxenberg again emphasized the impartiality CMIOs must take when dealing with clinical and IT staff. He noted the CMIO’s role is to bring the two groups together for consensus on what best practices are and how to put those into the EMR, and added this becomes more challenging when working in a multi-facility healthcare system.

Patient Engagement
Patient portals were on the tips of all the panelists’ tongues when it came to patient engagement. Julie Hollberg, MD, CMIO at Emory, is in the middle of rolling out a portal right now. Her team is finding the most challenging part of that implementation to be educating Emory patients on what benefits the portal offers. Luxenberg was a bit lukewarm with regard to patient portals. He’s seen several come and go and has found that only a certain set of patients is apt to use them.

Wu, who has helped implement Epic’s MyChart at Grady, was firm when he said that patients have the responsibility in their court now. Patient kiosks are helping in that effort, too.

What Would You Like Your CIO to Know?
Wu’s big point was that if CMIOs and CIOs can’t communicate, each is doomed to fail. He said it with a smile, of course, as his CIO, moderator Debbie Cancilla from Grady, was standing right next to him.

Other insights included:

* Keep IT simple for the clinicians.
* Just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should.
* Always keep in mind what’s best for the patient, and what’s the simplest way to get that done.
* It’s always a good idea to have IT folks shadow clinicians and vice versa. The CMIO’s job is to help facilitate this type of partnership.

How have CMIOs brought your clinical and IT teams together? Please share anecdotes and more best practices in the comments below.

Breaking up with Your EMR is Hard to Do

In light of this week’s “holiday,” I thought I’d take a look at the current love/hate relationship the healthcare industry seems to have with electronic medical records and Meaningful Use.

Thanks are due to @mdrache and @EHRworkflow for their inspiration for the title of this week’s post:

The nay sayers seem to have become especially vocal lately, which may be due in large part to the passing of time. Those that have implementations under their belt now feel qualified to talk about the efficacy of the solutions they selected. Negative EMR press may also have bubbled up to the service in light of the recent RAND report, which backpedaled on previous predictions of cost-savings associated with healthcare IT adoption. That study broke the ice, so to speak, and perhaps made providers more comfortable with voicing their discontent.

In any case, if current healthcare IT press is any indication, EMR technology currently on the market has often left providers dissatisfied for a number of reasons. No doubt this dissatisfaction will be a subject of many show-floor conversations at HIMSS in a few weeks. I wonder how EMR vendors are preparing their responses. What will be their top three talking points when it comes to EMR benefits? It seems Meaningful Use incentives have lost their luster, and in fact have left many providers disenchanted with healthcare IT in general.

John Lynn posted a very telling reader comment over at EMRandHIPAA.com from a provider who used his Meaningful Use malaise to create a new independent practice business model. Is this an indication that more providers may “revolt” against Meaningful Use and the trend towards hospital employment? If so, what will the private practice landscape look like in three to five years?

Just how easy is it for providers to truly “break up” with their EMRs? We’ve all read the multi-million-dollar rip-and-replace horror stories – talk about a bad breakup. And then there are the providers that stay in dysfunctional relationships with their EMRs because they can’t afford a new one, instead developing copious amounts of workarounds potentially at the expense of clinical care and accurate reimbursement.

As of last summer, KLAS reported that a whopping 50% of providers were looking to replace their ambulatory EMRs, compared to 30% in 2011. A recent Health Data Management webinar noted more than 30% of ALL new EMR purchases are made to replace an existing EMR.

To me, these numbers beg a number of questions. Were first- and perhaps even second-generation EMRs just not mature enough for providers’ needs? Did providers simply not do enough due diligence before making their purchases? Will these impending replacement EMR purchases stick? If you have updated EMR breakup statistics or a crystal ball, please send them my way.

Finding the Silver Lining in EMR Investment

It’s been a week of doom and gloom news as far as healthcare IT goes. Apparently, providers aren’t seeing the ROI they’d hoped for from EMRs, and as I’m sure you’ve heard, RAND researchers have found that, despite predictions to the contrary some years ago, healthcare IT does not actually save money. Couple these with the 2% hike in social security tax everyone is seeing in their paychecks this month, and it’s easy to understand why the healthcare community might be a bit grumpy.

I’m here to propose that providers try to look on the bright side when it comes to recouping some of that EMR investment. Telemedicine programs may hold a ray of hope for providers looking to find additional value in their EMR. These programs, in my opinion, have gained a strong foothold in the healthcare industry – providers, payers and patients are certainly showing interest, especially given the industry’s stance on readmissions these days; the government seems supportive; and vendors are always eager to provide more product to willing customers.

Here are just a few of the telemedicine highlights I’ve come across in the last few weeks:

* A proposed bill in the House backed by the American Telemedicine Association – The Telehealth Promotion act of 2012 – would potentially expand telemedicine programs in Medicaid and Medicare programs, federal health employee plans, the VA, and others

* The federal government has set aside $1.9 million as part of its Telehealth Resource Center Grant Program in the hopes of expanding its current network of 14 centers to 20.

* The FCC will offer qualifying healthcare facilities up to $400 million annually as part of its Healthcare Connect Fund, which seeks to accelerate development of broadband networks in rural areas.

My thinking is that we’ll see these telemedicine initiatives grow as physicians become more scarce (at least in non-metropolitan areas), coordinated care programs increase, payers look to play a part in wellness programs and preventing readmissions, and everyone continues to look for ways to drive down costs. And from what I’ve read, I don’t see how a hospital or physician’s practice can successfully or meaningfully (pardon the pun) participate in a telemedicine program without an EMR.

Which brings us back to the bad news above. EMRs in recent years have mostly been designed with Meaningful Use measures in mind, not telemedicine, and so might not be adequately equipped to integrate data from teleconsultations. This is where vendors come in. If BCC Research’s prediction of the telehospital market growing to $17.6 billion in 2016 is true, they’ll come in droves. They’ll get to that value by working with hospitals and physicians that want to further their telemedicine programs, and will likely be looking for ways to increase the functionality of their EMRs as a result.

As many of us head to HIMSS in a few weeks, it will be interesting to see if providers really are as disgruntled with HIT expenditures as the media would have us believe, and how much play is being given to telemedicine in the educational sessions and on the show floor.

What is your opinion? Do you currently participate in any sort of telehealth program? Do they have the ability to make EMRs more useful? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Sebelius’ ACA Highlights Need a Dash of HIT Benefits for Parents

As a mother of young children, I have the pleasure of trying to squeeze in routine, pediatric dental appointments during Christmas and summer breaks. This time around, I had the added pleasure of taking my daughter to a new dentist – one within the same group she’s been going to for all of two years, but at a different location. Though I had her dental records transferred from the previous office, I still had to fill out a plethora of new patient forms upon arrival at the new location. Needless to say, the smile I gave the receptionist as she handed me a sheaf of papers asking me for redundant information was somewhat thin.

I passed the time flipping through the pages of a recent Parents magazine, and imagine my surprise when I came across an interview with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius regarding the Affordable Care Act and its implications for women and families. I thought it was a good idea on the part of Parents editors to have Sebelius explain – succinctly and briefly – the highlights of the ACA, especially pertaining to preventive services and the supposed affordability of health insurance once health insurance exchanges get up and running in 2014.

Being that I had just wasted 15 minutes of time filling out duplicate paper forms, I felt that a sidebar on the benefits of healthcare IT might also help out harried mothers like myself. Bullet points would include:

* Do your mental health a favor and avoid filling out paper forms in waiting rooms while your children “entertain” others with their shenanigans/arguments. Do business only with “digital” docs – those who utilize electronic medical records, enable sign-in via the Web before you arrive at the office, and are willing to communicate via email. Those that offer telemedicine services (provided your insurance will cooperate) are an added bonus if your family lives somewhat off the beaten healthcare path.

* Healthcare will become more affordable once consumers start making an effort to patronize providers that have a reputation for high patient satisfaction and quality scores. Get engaged via websites like Healthgrades.com to start sifting through local MDs’ scores and reviews.

* Assuming you’re a connected parent – one that routinely uses a smartphone and/or tablet, ask your healthcare provider about apps specific to any wellness or illness issues your children may be experiencing. I certainly wouldn’t mind switching out my children’s Toca Boca screen time with educational health games and stories.

These were just a few of the items running through my mind when my daughter’s dental hygienist asked if she had x-rays last time around, adding that those hadn’t come over yet from the other office, and the process of looking them up was overly complicated.

As Seth Meyers says on SNL, “Really?!”

Christmas Scavenger Hunt Inspires EMR Wish List

Happy holidays, dear readers! I hope my latest blog post finds you well, resting comfortably away from your usual place of employment, and not tied to a device despite being “on vacation” or attempting to take “time off.”

My family and I are a bit further South than usual, visiting family in Jacksonville and engaging in a time-honored tradition in nearby St. Augustine – the Holly Jolly Trolley. Never was there a better excuse to turn Christmas lights into a 3-D psychedelic experience.

We turned our annual light-seeing drive through the Blackhawk Bluff neighborhood into a Christmas lights scavenger hunt, checking off images from our list as we came across them during our drive. Suitable for the younger crowd, our checklist had images of traditional holiday décor – snowmen, stars, candy canes, candles, etc. The gingerbread man gave us the most trouble, and eventually we had to settle for seeing a gingerbread man windsock.

Driving home I got to thinking about what a similar hunt would look like, say, at HIMSS next year. Gather a group of providers, give them a list of EMR attributes and set them loose in the exhibit hall to find as many as possible within a certain amount of time. I wonder how many vendors/booths they’d have to stop at before they checked everything off the list.

For that matter, it would be interesting to turn the check list into a wish list – pinpoint a number of features providers most want in their EMR and see which vendor offers the most in one package. This would then of course lead to a comparison of price and customer reviews, but that’s another blog entirely.

What would such a check list / wish list look like? Based on the major healthcare trends that have come to light over the last year, I’m willing to bet these features (however pie-in-the-sky they might be) would be included:

Guaranteed security / protection, especially with regard to mobile EMR applications
Innate knowledge of ICD-9 to ICD-10 code translation
Ability to connect to any HIE at the click of a button
CPOE
Pop-up that suggests, on a patient-by-patient basis, how best to digitally engage with that particular person based on their preferred method of communication
Suggested protocols culled from evidence-based medicine analytics

What other features would likely be included? What vendors already offer a majority of these features? Do they exist, or will tomorrow’s start up be next year’s true game changer when it comes to success in the EMR marketplace? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

“Fat Finger Syndrome” Not Just a Google Problem

In trying to keep things light this week, I’ve taken inspiration from two very different sources – NPR and Homer Simpson. A recent Morning Edition piece on “Fat Fingers Blamed for Mobile Ad Clicks” highlights the problem many smart phone users face - large fingers on a small screen usually result in the occasional misspelling, accidental click on a field or image, or unintended dial.

The story concentrated on “Google’s launch of a new type of mobile ad that aims to combat the ‘fat finger’ problem. As the smart phone market grows, mobile ads have become more important to the tech giant, which makes most of its revenue through advertising.”

Listening to the piece, which started off with a hilarious sound bite from the Simpsons, made me wonder if EMR developers face this same type of problem when developing their software for mobile devices. What sort of consequences do providers face as a result of unintended clicks or incorrect data entry?

I polled a few friends who work in healthcare IT user experience (coincidentally, a topic that I heard come up quite often during the fall conference season), and they brought up numerous cases – some with dire consequences – of mistaken medication administration because of very similar patient names.

I also came across the ubiquitous drawback of using tablets in healthcare: “The iPad is difficult to type on, [one provider] complains, and his “fat fingers” struggle to navigate the screen,” according to a Kaiser Health News story last year.

But, providers, as they so often do, are creating workarounds. One family practice in particular has “introduced a stylus since some people occasionally suffer from ‘fat finger syndrome’ (some people just have an innate ability to miss the buttons in the questionnaire when they use their fingers).”

How have you, your practice or your colleagues dealt with pleasantly plump pads of the finger? Please share your anecdotes in the comments section below.

Wireless Healthcare IT Could Hold the Key to Preventable Readmissions

As I mentioned in my last blog post, CardioMEMS was the winner of this year’s Intel Innovation Award, presented at the Health IT Leadership Summit earlier this month. CardioMEMS has a number of development firsts to its credit, bolstering its recent claim to innovation fame:

First wireless communication system for the human body
First medical implant completely wafer fabricated
Only FDA-approved, permanently implanted wireless sensor

Essentially, the company has developed a first-of-its kind wireless (and battery-less) heart failure monitoring system. As Richard Powers, Vice President of Information Systems, explained to me on my field trip to CardioMEMS’ relatively new offices in Atlanta, the company has figured out a way to, in the least traumatic way possible, implant a cardiac sensor that monitors pressure and wirelessly transmits that data directly to a patient’s physician via a Web-based portal.

When I first came across the company nearly two years ago, the term “Big Data” hadn’t quite gained the buzzy reputation it has now, so I feel confident in saying that CardioMEMS’ analytics team were a bit ahead of the game – not surprising, given that the company was founded by Dr. Jay S. Yadav, its current CEO and still a consulting cardiologist.

In talking with Yadav, I realized he and his colleagues recognize not only the importance of back-end data, but also the value of simplicity. As Powers pointed out, the sophisticated technology isn’t in the device itself, but comes after on the receiving end. Ideally, physicians will use data transmitted from the sensor to gauge cardiac pressure changes and adjust medication accordingly.

The timing of this technology couldn’t be better, in my opinion, since so much attention is being paid to preventing readmissions, increasing quality outcomes and improving patient satisfaction scores. Benefits of the sensor in clinical trials include fewer hospitalizations, lower cost of care and an increase in quality of life. And I do believe the CardioMEMS team has even figured out the reimbursement angle with CMS, which should make provider adoption of the devices that much more likely.

Pending FDA approval is the only thing holding up a full-court product marketing press, which may, when that approval comes, be aided by partnership with a select provider organization.

I couldn’t leave the CardioMEMS offices, of course, without asking about its plans to integrate into an EMR. According to Powers, integration of the physician portal into an EMR is in fact on the drawing board yet. They are also looking at ways to pull a patient’s EMR data into the CardioMEMS portal. The company is currently working with the Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Tech to look into EMR interoperability.

I’m confident we’ll be seeing some really interesting developments from this company in the near future.

Homegrown Health IT Innovation Takes Center Stage

I’ve had the good fortune over the last few months to be involved in the marketing efforts surrounding the Health IT Leadership Summit happening next week at the Fox Theatre in my hometown of Atlanta. A joint effort of the Technology Association of Georgia’s (TAG’s) Health Society, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the annual event does a wonderful job of spotlighting the strides Georgia is making in healthcare IT, both on the provider and vendor sides.

I’m particularly excited to learn more about the four finalists of the Intel Innovation Award, which will be presented to the winner at the summit. I think it’s no coincidence that Solo Health, last year’s winner, has seen a number of newsworthy business developments happen since accepting the award in the Fox’s Egyptian Ballroom last November.

I thought I’d share a brief synopsis of the finalists (courtesy of their respective websites), and then take bets on who will take home bragging rights!

AirWatch (@airwatchMDM)
“AirWatch is the leader in enterprise-grade Mobile Device Management, Mobile Application Management and Mobile Content Management solutions designed to simplify mobility. More than 4,700 customers across the world trust AirWatch to manage their most valuable assets: their mobile devices, including the apps and content on those devices. Our solutions are comprehensive, built on a powerful yet easy to use platform by leaders in the mobile space.”

In a word, it’s all about security in healthcare right now, as iPad minis, iPhone 5s and yes, even a new Blackberry or two make physicians that much more likely to join the BYOD movement. AirWatch is certainly in the game at an opportune time.

CardioMEMS (@cardioMEMS)
“CardioMEMS is a medical device company that has developed and is commercializing a proprietary wireless sensing and communication technology for the human body. Our technology platform is designed to improve the management of severe chronic cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure and aneurysms. Our miniature wireless sensors can be implanted using minimally invasive techniques and transmit cardiac output, blood pressure and heart rate data that are critical to the management of patients. Due to their small size, durability, and lack of wires and batteries, our sensors are designed to be permanently implanted into the cardiovascular system. Using radiofrequency, or RF, energy, our sensors transmit real-time data to an external electronics module, which then communicates this information to the patient’s physician.”

I first came across this company nearly two years ago, when I heard founder Jay Yadav, M.D., speak at a TAG luncheon, and I’ll be eager to see how their technology has evolved since then. From an EMR perspective, I’m especially interested in where the real-time data goes when a physician receives it. Is it fed into an EMR, perhaps? I’m taking a field trip to the CardioMEMS office next week, so hopefully I’ll find out. I’d also like to get their thoughts on the FDA’s move to regulate mobile health apps, which I assume will impact them in some tangential way.

Cooleaf (@cooleafhealth)
“Cooleaf is the easiest way to enroll in classes and programs for your health while earning rewards. Our mission is to harness the power of classes and programs to enhance the well being of the planet. We founded Cooleaf on the following principles:

There is no “one size fits all” solution in health and wellness
Living a healthy life should be easy
If you live a healthy life, you should be rewarded
If you live a healthy life and get rewarded, you should own those rewards
If you’re guided by experts face-to-face, you’re more likely to achieve your health goals (and enjoy yourself)”

Certainly the most consumer-oriented of the bunch, the Cooleaf website seems like a great way to get employees engaged in wellness initiatives. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few payers start sniffing around as its user base grows, and resource database moves beyond Atlanta-based locales.

Monocle Health (@monoclehealth)
“Monocle Health Data is the only company solely dedicated to providing independent, unbiased healthcare provider ratings and rankings based on both price and quality, for both episodic care and chronic illnesses.

Monocle’s tools – price rankings, quality ratings and analytics-based reporting – are the foundation of true healthcare price and quality transparency.”

As a patient – especially one who is in need of new family physicians – I am especially interested in transparency. How do the doctors in my area stack up against each other when it comes to patient satisfaction, quality and what my hard-earned dollars will get me? As patient engagement efforts continue to take off, so too I think will provider comparison tools such as this.

Only time will tell which of these Atlanta-based companies will win. I’ll follow up in a subsequent post with the victor’s details, and future plans for continuing to change the landscape of healthcare IT.

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User Experience is Hot HIT Topic with Good Reason

Cash for Care a Trickle-Down Effect of EMR Dissatisfaction?

“If You Could Tell Your CIO …”

Breaking up with Your EMR is Hard to Do

Finding the Silver Lining in EMR Investment

Sebelius’ ACA Highlights Need a Dash of HIT Benefits for Parents

Christmas Scavenger Hunt Inspires EMR Wish List

“Fat Finger Syndrome” Not Just a Google Problem

Wireless Healthcare IT Could Hold the Key to Preventable Readmissions

Homegrown Health IT Innovation Takes Center Stage

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