One of my regular physician readers, Brian, left the following comment on my post about the mythology of the Perfect EMR.
The reality is that we are now comparing EMR to our iPhone 4s’s. Our consumer technology is so far ahead of hospital technology that it is jarring and annoying to use work tech. This is what I want: “Siri, give me a differential for elevated amylase. Thank you. Now order CBC, Chem 14, TSH and free T4. Good. Now I will dictate. The patient is a 41 year old man with abdominal pain…”
Certainly we could have a long discussion about the difference in consumer technology and popular healthcare technology. However, I couldn’t help but wonder how many doctors have tried out Siri on their iPhone in order to get healthcare information. I bet this is pretty common. Although, I wonder how good the answers are that Siri gives.
If you’re a medical provider that’s used Siri for accessing health and medical information, I’d love to hear about your experience. I bet there are probably also a bunch of funny experiences trying to use Siri for medical info. I’d love to hear those as well.
Are there ways that “Siri” like technology could and should be implemented in EMR and EHR software?
A medical Siri-like application has been available for a while now and tested at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Please check http://www.val9000.com
Here is a YouTube video that demostrates it in action.