Electronic Medical/Health Records

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Would you be interested in free commercial EMR software for medical students?

  • Yes please!

    Votes: 10 76.9%
  • No, I don't have the time/interest.

    Votes: 3 23.1%

  • Total voters
    13

passatdream

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I have a quick question for all you US medical students out there, I hope you do not mind me impinging on your forum in this way.

As you may already know, Electronic Medical Records (EMR) or Electronic Health Records (EHR), which is becoming the buzz word for them these days, are going to become very important in the future of US healthcare, perhaps to the point where they will become mandatory in the next ten years.

I write as a member of staff at an EMR vendor that is one of the 22 EMR/EHRs recently certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT), an organization given their remit by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

(See the CCHIT website for further details)

MY QUESTION: The EMR software that my company sells costs several thousand dollars - would you be interested in using this software completely for free, no strings attached, while you are still a medical student, to enable you to get to grips with the technology now that is soon going to become part of your daily work routine as a doctor?

The EMR software in question (and all of the EMRs so far certified by CCHIT) comes under the category of "Ambulatory EHR/EMRs for the office-based physician or provider". It is typically used in clinics/offices with 1 to 50 providers.

Is this the kind of scheme that would interest you, or do you think you would not have enough time or interest in EMRs as a medical student to make this worthwhile?

Please let me know. I hope I have posted this in the correct forum and that no one feels I am overstepping the mark as a commercial vendor posting here. I am not trying to sell anything, honest! Just trying to get some info to see if there would be a demand for this. Thanks for your time :)

PS - If you are interested, make it known on this thread, and if and when we provide our software for free, you will be contacted here by private message to be the first students to benefit from this scheme.

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passatdream said:
I have a quick question for all you US medical students out there, I hope you do not mind me impinging on your forum in this way.

As you may already know, Electronic Medical Records (EMR) or Electronic Health Records (EHR), which is becoming the buzz word for them these days, are going to become very important in the future of US healthcare, perhaps to the point where they will become mandatory in the next ten years.

I write as a member of staff at an EMR vendor that is one of the 22 EMR/EHRs recently certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT), an organization given their remit by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

(See the CCHIT website for further details)

MY QUESTION: The EMR software that my company sells costs several thousand dollars - would you be interested in using this software completely for free, no strings attached, while you are still a medical student, to enable you to get to grips with the technology now that is soon going to become part of your daily work routine as a doctor?

Is this the kind of thing that would interest you, or do you think you would not have enough time or interest in EMRs as a medical student to make this worthwhile?

Please let me know. I hope I have posted this in the correct forum and that no one feels I am overstepping the mark as a commercial vendor posting here. I am not trying to sell anything, honest! Just trying to get some info to see if there would be a demand for this. Thanks for your time :)

How steep is the learning curve? Then factor in the fact that different hospitals use different systems. Just because you use one at one hospital in town doesn't mean you'll use the same system in another hospital in the same town.
 
DNP student said:
How steep is the learning curve? Then factor in the fact that different hospitals use different systems. Just because you use one at one hospital in town doesn't mean you'll use the same system in another hospital in the same town.

Thank you very much for your feedback.

Apologies, I was not clear enough in my first post. To clarify:

The EMR software in question (and all of the EMRs so far certified by CCHIT) comes under the category of "Ambulatory EHR/EMRs for the office-based physician or provider". It is typically used in clinics/offices with 1 to 50 providers.

However, relating to different hospitals/doctors using different systems, hopefully with time that will not become so important. The company I work for, and the CCHIT certification initiative, are working towards interoperability - so that all EMRs will be able to work alongside each other and communicate seamlessly back and forth. This is extremely important in my view, as not every EMR is right for every doctor. The ideal would be for each doctor to choose the EMR that works/charts best for them (you cannot force an EMR software onto doctors, each one needs to choose the one that is right for them, otherwise they will not use it to its full potential), which then interoperates with the EMRs used by other doctors (creating one, national Electronic Health Record - to me, the only true meaning of that term). This has to happen if EMR adoption is going to really kick off (it has been stalling for many years now - although the US government did say in 2004 that they want Electronic Health Records for all by 2015.

As for the learning curve for the EMR product my company produces, without wanting to give away the name of the vendor right now, it is fairly steep. However, it is an extremely powerful electronic charting tool that provides great flexibility for doctors, and in the long run putting in the time learning to use this tool pays off many times over. We feel that medical students should be able to self-learn the software with no problems, the only question is whether or not you busy med students would have the time to do so!

If you are interested, make it known on this thread, and if and when we provide our software for free, you will be contacted here by private message to be the first students to benefit from this scheme.

I am going to edit the original post now to make things clearer. Thanks again!
 
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Miami_med said:
Let's let the free market decide if this is a good idea.

All in good time. For now, this is just a little bit of preliminary research.

Remember to post on this thread anyone who is interested (i see 5 have voted yes so far) so that I can get back to you by pm if and when this free software for students scheme is first implemented.

Thanks!
 
I'm interested. There seems to be some down time here and there where I can learn.

Thanks chocomorsel. You'll get a pm from me if and when our free EMR for students scheme comes into being. You will be the first beneficary! :)

Anybody else interested? Also feel free to ask any questions.
 
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