“This year I’ve spent a lot of time in doctor’s offices and I see what a giant mess the electronic health records (EHR) industry really is. And I don’t think Apple’s going to solve the problems facing the American healthcare industry,” Peter Cohen writes for iMore. “Apple’s telling us that iOS 8’s Health feature will give us a way of sharing important diagnostic information with our doctors. But it’s predicated on a huge assumption: That our medical providers are affiliated with an institution that’s willing to buy in to this particular data stream.”
“Because of my own health issues and those in my family, I deal with a lot of medical specialists. All of them use electronic health records (EHR) systems, because they’re required to (especially if they expect reimbursement through Medicare and other social insurance programs),” Cohen writes. “But getting these different medical providers to talk to each other is a byzantine process at best, thanks in part to a complete lack of interoperability between different EHR systems, federal and state restrictions, and pure administrative incompetence… A couple of months ago I was seeing another specialist. When I checked in they asked me if I’d brought a medication list with me. I pulled out my phone and showed her the list. ‘Do you think I can put that on the photocopier?’ she said. She was totally serious. She wanted to photocopy the screen of my phone.”
“I’m extremely skeptical that even Apple, with all its marketing acumen, its meetings with the FDA and even wins like the Mayo Clinic, is going to be able to make a dent here with iOS 8 Health,” Cohen writes. “What Apple is facing is nothing less than a Gordian Knot of EHR systems, healthcare IT, defensive corporate culture, administrative ambivalence and incompetence, and government bureaucracy.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In healthcare, especially in administration (doctors’ offices, health insurance workers, etc.), we see people who are faced with an overwhelming morass of stupidity, incompatible overcomplexity, and stifling bureaucratic red tape, who therefore naturally mentally shut down and focus instead merely on eking out ways to deal with their own little job responsibilities. This gets them through the day (usually barely), but only compounds the morass. (It’s also, ironically, one of the most unhealthiest ways to suffer through the day.)
In the U.S., at least, the whole thing needs to be blown up, modernized, unified, and replaced, but, of course, those entities who are currently making tons of money off the “system” will erect considerable roadblocks to at least preserve the status quo or, optimally for them, further increase their cash flow.
Good luck, Apple.
The author used a nice classical analogy, Alexander the Great slicing through the Gordian Knot. I think an even better one would have been Hercules cleaning up the Augean Stables.
Thank you, I enjoy learning something new every day.
As do I. Well then, have you any tidbits about Da Nang?
If you ever go to Danang go see the interior of Marble Mountain, it’s absolutely gorgeous. It has shrines and temples cut into caves inside the mountain. The only problem was having to be led in by Marines sweeping the road and trail for mines and seeing the area while carrying M-16’s. It’s hard to pay homage to such an ancient site while wondering when you’ll be shot at.
Thanks, I spent an absorbed hour with that, and seeing how they restored it, although one might suppose leaving the bullet holes would have increased tourist interest considerably
There’s always that 1% screwing things up. But we all know war is hell, on everyone and everything involved.
Interesting that the shrines were all Buddhist, reminded me of Steve Jobs
And in a communist country.
I can scarcely comprehend that you were there in an incendiary scenario, defending me and the rest, when I was three.
We were all attempting to keep the dominoes upright.
While I appreciate your fondness for historical literature references, the main point is the mess the law has created for millions of people.
We got the change, without the hope for something better.
Yes, we can’t.
Beautiful and spot on!
And of course, ‘NeoCon’, you pretend your gang of thieves and fools have anything useful to offer.
Shot by Both Sides. 😛
Your fear is greater than your hate. Chew on that.
Righto. What I was thinking was that the two stories (Alexander and Heracles) both represent a difficult problem and its clever solution.
Journalists like to use the problem part of the story as a metaphor, and leave out the solution part. They aren’t in the business of solving problems, but in magnifying them.
So, considering them as parables in full, Alexander had little patience with intricate puzzles, and so sliced the knot asunder. Heracles gave it more thought: he tore out the barn wall, diverted two rivers so that the manure washed out onto the fields as fertiliser.
Your indictment of journalists is spot on.
Not only are they incapable of solving problems they are slaves to the politically correct Democrat party masters.
Simply put, the party of SOME of the people …
Ahh, but smart money knows better …
Slaves to who? Oh I know: The 1% who own and dictate the news provided to the peasantry.
Sorry ‘NeoCon’, but your gang’s buffoonery is obvious, as is their’s.
“Smart” doesn’t enter into either equation. But lots of money certainly does.
So you are saying money is exclusive to dumb people? You may want to think that view through.
This had NOTHING to do with the ACA. This is what happens when the “free market” takes over an industry without any regulation or centralization. Imagine the internet without standards.
Meanwhile, the best way to fix our current mess is a “single-payer” system… Like every other civilized country on Earth. If the fight over Onamacare was vicious, imagine what will happen if the insurance industry feels threatened…
Great idea – just swell; a single, monolithic government monopoly over the most important aspect of human existence; our health. Excellent.
Did you ever consider you may not WANT the government to know about every aspect of your life that can affect your health?
Your sexual proclivities?
Your recreational activities?
Your diet?
The amount of alcohol you consume?
Any other vices you have?
The amount and type of exercise you do?
Whether you own a gun?
The ACA is already written to require that health care practitioners log this kind of information. There are numerous codes that relate to factors that may (or may not) relate to your injuries and illness.
For example, if you have a broken arm, the code is not just that your arm is broken but also HOW it was broken. It’s not a stretch to imagine that once rationing kicks in (as happens with all socialist medicine schemes), that a broken arm occurring while you are working will be treated at a higher priority than a broken arm coming as a result of say, skateboarding or waterskiing.
So yes, it’s possible that a single payer system might deliver a common, efficient, reliable database (although no where in our current government bureaucracy is there any evidence that this is possible), why should this be the driving reason for single payer?
Single payer is an impossibility and can’t work anymore than if the government were to outlaw private tech companies with the promise that a single government agency could produce a better cell phone than the free market could ever accomplish. Who would believe this possible and yet we have people in this country who think a government department can provide better medical care than the free market.
Do people not know what is going on at the VA TODAY?
Hmmm, It works for the rest of the civilized world, and even some parts that are a bit sketchier. Have a look at infant mortality rates around the world! The USA is 29th, while Cuba is better, for example. A major illness, which none can foresee, should not cost you your house. At least the USA could join the 20th century, if not the 21st.
bank owns the house anyway…miss three payments and you’ll find out.
Infant mortality rates is a very interesting statistic. What very few people know is that the way the statistic is calculated is by the number of deaths of infants divided by the number of live births. What is interesting is that there are no standards as to what constitutes a live birth. So in the US, any child born who takes a breath is considered a live birth. So a severely premature infant with a serious birth defect (who will die) counts as a live birth. In other countries, that very same birth would not be counted as a live birth. In fact, in a few countries, only infants that survive the first day are considered live births.
When you make adjustments for those factors, the difference between the US Infant mortality rates and other countries changes dramatically. Then there are other confounders. Infant mortality is a terrible statistic to use to compare the health care in one country with another.
Free market … what a joke. At a high level, large corporations find ways of eliminating competition by colluding with one another to divide markets. Look at what’s happened with the ISP industry. I have one choice for cable internet, and that’s Comcast. Look at Microsoft in the 90’s. The term “free market” may sound like a real thing to you, and it may sound pretty. But it isn’t always a reality, and it isn’t always good.
If you produce food in vast quantities in this country, we as a populace have (through government) required that certain health standards be met that are rightly higher than what a company would meet in a “free market”, and for good reason.
Private companies are not inherently ethical or conscientious beings, they are driven by profit. The life and death of human beings shouldn’t be in the hands of the free market.
And someone necessarily is going to know my medical history. I honestly would rather the government know than a private company. The government has never harmed me with knowledge it has about me, nor is it in the government’s interest to do so. It doesn’t stand to gain. Whereas a private insurance company could and most certainly would use such knowledge against me in its quest for profit.
“Oh, sorry, we don’t cover the way in which you broke your arm, didn’t you read the fine print? Thanks for your monthly payments by the way, sucker. Free market you say? Guess what? Our competitors are doing the same thing, and even if they didn’t this isn’t their turf, so where you gonna go? lol”
And as to your mention of the VA: there’s a reason why the “free market” isn’t out there providing health care to wounded veterans as the VA does. There’s no money in it.
So the government has not harmed you? That’s great.
Obvious you are not in the VA system or applied for tax exempt status as a Tea party group.
Yet you trust the government for healthcare?
This does NOT compute.
Do you feel better that Google already has all that info on everyone?
And single payer DOES work in other countries, contrary to what the people who wanted to defend the status quo prior to ACA would have us believe.
Your assertion that ACA requires healthcare practitioners to collect information about guns is bullshit. In fact, the ACA has provisions prohibiting this information from being collected. You are ill-informed.
Keep drinking the administration kool-aid.
I am a retired doctor and the author is correct .In my opinion the real reason for this mess is hospital IT departments who routinely receive seven time the hardware costs per networked machine in service contracts and therefor have a vested interest in systems that do not work well .
I do think that Apple is up to the challenge and there are EHR’s out there that run well on Macs and IOS devices .
Ironically the hospital I worked at was at one time considering the Newton as an input device(15 years ago)
If Apple does cut the Gordian knot the rewards to Apple and Healthcare will be enormous . billions are spent each year on redundant testing of patients simply because systems don’t tok to each other .Privacy and data protection is the pivotal issue -so why did we end up with Windows based systems ?
why did we end up with Windows based systems? I believe your second sentence answered the question. By the way, my doctor uses an iPad. He’s good.
Yes, at my last employer the IT department routinely charged our department $60K for a machine that I could have assembled with off the shelf parts from Frye’s (a local PC parts retailer) for well under $3000. Their labor rate was calculated by dividing total IT annual salaries by the number of potential person-hours available in a year. Thus, sloth and bloated bureaucracy were rewarded with ever higher labor rates.
Hence the pejorative Microsloth, a bloated techno-monarchy boasting many gibbering minions and sycophantic sympathisers, all antithetical to human progress in favour of personal gain.
Substitute Democrat for Microsloth.
Dino-mite!
Stop the partisan crap, anonymous cretin. Few of our “representatives” in Congress are doing their jobs, regardless of political party. In fact, it is the mindless, extreme partisanship of people like you that have driven the country into gridlock.
“NeoCon”…right.
Anonymous cretin?
And your avatar is not?
Fight fire with fire, eh? Well, I can appreciate that approach.
No, I don’t think I’m the problem, rather the solution.
In 2014 Fall elections vote OUT ALL Dumb Democrats following the incompetent President off the cliff.
Retain courageous Democrats that speak out for the good of the American people, bucking party masters remaining SILENT for one reason — POWER.
Unfortunately, it is power to the Democrats OVER power to the people.
Decoder: ‘People’ means EVERYONE not just those who register Democrat.
Hey mocking avatar, have a great day …
Please do stfu, you hypocritical toady of the propaganda talking point sheet of the week. You have no mind of your own, just the usual hate attitude you’ve been trained to exude. Predictable, boring con-job as per the protocol.
You are a small man if you think you can take away my right to free speech.
Babble on brainless …
Here is your Fall assignment.
Vote for ALL Neocons and teabaggers if you want to change the world.
Because Dumbocrats have got NOTHING. Pot smoking brain dead and reality detached since the 1960s.
We need RESPONSIBLE realists to CHANGE the country and offer real HOPE.
Got it?
You, sir, are a total ass
Yeah, how so?
Name calling is SOOOOO … juvenile.
When you grow up and engage specific points I have put out and articulate disagreement … only then will we talk again.
You sir, have a great day.
“Why do we end up up with Windows based systems?”
For the same reason we end up with Dinosaur Democrats in power.
Down vote in 3… 2… 1…
Glad to oblige, arsehole.
How nice.
Glad I made your day.
It’s a start ..
We ended up suffering ( I work in healthcare ) Windows because Microsoft and it’s partners pushed their shit into every crevice they could find, because Apple specifically stated in the EULA the OS X was not to be used for medical devices or equipment, and because a generation of IT Specialists were created that thought knowing Windows was knowing computers.
Because of thus, devices that used to be built on UNIX have transitioned to software largely built upon Windows and in some cases Red Hat LINUX.
Add in the fact that Apple has played with enterprise computing but never seriously moved on it- even after Apple was flush with cash they were running many of their computing services on Solaris despite having their own servers and a server OS.
You nailed it, DE! Great post and well-reasoned.
I agree. When my doctor asked me for the previous history of medication and report, I showed him from my iPad and he got very angry. I had to go another day with hard copy.
You need a new doctor. My doctor uses an iPad all the time.
Had a talk with my doctor about this yesterday, actually. He hadn’t heard of HealthBook or the Health app, but he was excited to hear about it and is desperate for some standardization in his industry.
See my comment below.
Maybe this is Apple’s chance to revolutionize. They could offer the compatibility layer between the different EHRs! Imagine it, being part of the apple ecosystem automatically enhances your health care service due to seamless compatibility and communication between providers, no matter what their EHR system is. You could “share” your health data through a share sheet, and when you do so there is a drop down list of EHRs that you can format the data into. You just ask the provider what EHR they use, then select that and push it out. I know I’m oversimplifying it, but this is doable.
I think this might be where IBM joins the party. With Apple doing hardware and device OSs and IBM doing big data and systems integration. The key is probably in a set of data format standards with which any compliant system can interact. Should be interesting.
In the end Apple will end up doing the hard work, IBM gets one shot (Motorola Rokr) and then Apple takes over.
When employees decided to shove the iPhone down IT’s throat, IT had to live with it. It will be the same with healthcare.
Doctors and hospitals will kill you.
Stay away from them.
yeah, might as well just drive straight to the cemetery.
Or the seminary
only if you’re sedentary.
Better sedentary than supine
lol, better over-the-hill than under it.
an aside: one time, around the early seventies, all the doctors in New York City went on strike…a review of that period noted that the mortality rate went down.
CMS mandated the conversion to ICD-10 by October 1, 2014.
Few healthcare providers know all the alphabet soup initiated by WDC in the form of all the bureaucratic acronyms and fewer yet by far know how to deal with it.
Since they don’t know all these things, they need a truly professional consultancy firm to advise on how to deal with this stuff.
Meanwhile the physician is often told what to do and just muddles along without enough time or training to deal with all the IT system requirements.
The is a big consequence of this IT complexity mandated by the US government bureaucracy that is not well recognized.
Smaller community type hospitals are being shutdown or bought out by larger institutions that can afford to meet the IT, & personnel challenges that come with mandates and complexity.
What do you think is going to happen to the rural hospitals with a 50 or 100 bed hospital who can’t afford to staff up to meet requirements or get the IT infrastructure in place?
Sorry to say, but ICD-10 WON’T happen by the stated deadline. Not even close. The AMA is resisting this. And medical practices are WAY behind adopting the Hi-Tech mandates tied to ACA. ICD-10 will take years before it’s adopted as a working standard.
I have complete confidence in Apple developing outstanding medical/health apps for their hardware. These types of apps that will allow users to better understand and manage their own health.
However, the chance of these apps talking to the software of the healthcare industry is almost nil. Moreover, with the new federal requirements for electronic health care records that are part of the Obamacare legislation, the chances of iOS devices successfully talking to the equipment used by your doctor is even less than nil in the future.
Our US healthcare system is only getting more complex, complicated, and expensive. But it is definitely not getting better. So if you want to stay healthy, you will need to manage your own health.
You think this kind of idiocy is unique to the US?
In the UK, the last (Labour) government instigated an IT system for our NHS (National Health Service), that was intended to link all hospitals and doctors surgeries across the UK, allowing all records etc to be easily accessible by any health professional at any time.
After years of development, and £11Billion spent, it was scrapped because nobody could make it work.
Eleven BILLION Pounds!
The sheer incompetence of government beaurocracy knows no bounds.
Interesting point. Not to defend bureaucracy too much, it does seem that people have trouble designing things in groups. There are many examples such as the one you cite about some organization spending billions for a computerized database system and getting nothing. There is something about a single mind being able to organize concepts in harmony that doesn’t transfer to large groups. Hence the phrase “designed by committee.”
Splendid observation, John. It may seem obvious but it bears repeating. Personal creativity and political consensus are diametrically opposed concepts, their practitioners sworn enemies. Alexander the Great and Steven Jobs did not form focus groups — they consulted the Oracle, the Muse, to access higher awareness. Why fool around with feeble human opinions when you have access to the thoughts of the gods?
Honestly, has anything actually creative ever come from that political correct buzzword: collaboration?
No
Right to the point. Collaboration is actually a dirty word, after the Dutch, Norwegian, and French capitulation to the Nazis in WWII. Democracies can never cleanse the word of its atrocious linkage to crass and abject betrayal..
The Dutch?
Some of this is covered in Paul Verhoeven’s 2006 film Zwartboek (Black Book)
And yet the Dutch Royal Family spent the war in Canada.
There will always be collaborators in any conflict. The difference is whether it is a government collaboration or a personal one. Vichy France would be one example of government style. Individual’s activities are harder to quantify.
“A camel is a racehorse designed by a committee” is ever true.
Look at the Los Angeles school district they pick Apple/iPads but the existing IT department, Microsoft, Dell, HP and others aren’t going to stand by and let that decision stand, and they have attacked it at every opportunity and have been successful at watering down the original decision, that fight goes on across the country.
The situation here in the UK is just as bad. Most NHS (National Health Service) facilities, from the local doctor’s surgery, to major hospitals, are still running antiquated Win XP systems—and they’re paying a small bloody fortune to M$ for “extended support” (a lot of government and civil service departments are in the same boat).
Our lords and masters—a.k.a. Her Majesty’s Government—have also seen fit to sell off patient records, suitably anonymised (so they say) to the highest bidder. Despite writing to my GP and demanding that my medical records remain confidential, I have yet to receive any assurance that my wishes will be complied with.
There is a glimmer of hope: it was recently announced that the James Cook Hospital, here in the North East of England, is deploying iPads as an aid to patient record management et al. Would that the neighbouring North Tees Hospital, where my father-in-law has been mired for the last couple of weeks, were similarly forward-thinking.
If anyone can straighten out this shite, it’s Apple.
=:~)
It’s funny because as I’m reading this, the Pet Shop Boys “Opportunities” just came on the radio.
What if Apple’s invasion of the enterprise started with the health care industry?
I don’t think Apple wants to change healthcare as much as they see an opportunity to thrive there. The way to change any institution is to grow something to take its place.
In other words, no one should be forced to use Apple’s approach, if it is really good people will fall all over themselves to adopt it.
Let the free market solve it. Vote with your wallet.
The free market created the Tower of Babel we currently have. No coordination and proprietary software with non-standard formats or formats that are not widely complied with by industry.
The government market created its own Tower of Babel.
Politicians, government unions, teachers, et al.
More money to them, yet much LESS in return.
lol, free market created the Tower Of Babel and not bureaucracy…what an amazingly stupid observation. Just. Fscking. Amazing.
The government mandated no standard and let market forces determine what would happen. That would be a free market. Thanks for being amazed.
I’m beyond amazed, it has exploded into full-blown stunned.
I work in Healthcare and the lack of rule making has created a tower of babel at worst and very limited interoperability at best. Has the FDA mandated a high level of interoperability we would not have this problem.
The free market fixes everything argument is bullshit.
no, you’re bullshit.
you have absolutely no concept of what free enterprise is. If you work in “healthcare” it is a “spaghetti code” of mandates, rules, committees and “guidelines” all brought to you by government.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion and I respect yours. But we should talk about facts. There is a system that is much like what you describe where a central planning department mandated rules. This is the Department of Defense. Twenty years ago, I was involved in trying to create an integrated DOD medical system. Billions of dollars were spent and it failed miserably. There still is no good system integration.
The idea that a group of individuals can mandate a working process that satisfies current needs and predicts future needs for such a large system, such as our health care system, is flying in the face of years and years of real world experience. Not just in health care but everywhere.
The beauty of the market place is that it doesn’t try to predict the future, it allows the system to adapt to current needs in a fast way. The problem with health care is that there is no market system except in cosmetic medicine where customers pay for services out of their own pocket. There things are actually pretty efficient.
If anyone can sort this out IBM and Apple can.
The world knows how to do healthcare, America doesn’t. EHS is not a magic potion but it will decrease costs. In France, the government insurer tellers all hospitals what they will pay for outcomes, it’s up to the doctors and the doctors and the hospitals to be profitable out of that. It works. If France can, why can’t the USA?
Based on 2002 UN WHO data (pre-Obamacare) in France, which is ranked #1 in the world by the UN World Health Organizaton, total per capita expenditures are 1/2 that of the US. In the US, we pay more in Government expenditures than TOTAL French healthcare cost per capita, then we go on to double the Government expenditures with private expenditures (insurance and individual out-of-pocket). For all that money, the US, at the time, excluded 1/6 of its population from the health insurance system and earned a rank of 37 in the world, right behind Costa Rica, but ahead of Slovenia.
But, as John Mc Cain so overtly promised, “we’re not France”. I guess he meant we’re proud to pay twice as much for a system that covers only part of the population. But I have hope, as Winston Churchill said “America can always be counted on to do the right thing, as soon as they have exhausted all other alternatives.”
Did Winston mean the two times they saved their Limey asses from the Hun?
There is an open-standard interface between EHR’s that has been created by a company called Mirth. The EHR company NextGen has bought Mirth and is planning to have the standard in place before the end of 2015. It will allow EHR’s to communicate with each other and exchange data to keep one master medical record.
How about Apple buys them?
Why don’t you contact Apple to let them know?
Why are we even talking about this.
Doesn’t anyone remember, this was all fixed when our great messiah, with the stroke of his pen and his minions surrounding him, signed the ACA it into law. This shouldn’t be an issue any more.
All hail Obama, all hail Obama, …
Now that’s spot on.
Appearances, buzzwords and looking good in the media is EVERYTHING in a Democrat world.
Solving the real problems, eh, too hard. Move on.
May I have a double latte, please. Oh, and how fresh is your grass?
In all fairness, the original draft of that ACA was significantly better in this regard. Unfortunately, the elected representatives did what they always do — representing their special interests, they transformed that initial draft into a monstrosity that is now ACA.
There is only one thing worse than a single-party dictatorship: it is a two-party quasi-democracy. Unlike the vast majority of the truly-democratic world, where all sorts of opinions and platforms get their time of day, in America, the outcome can only be one of the two: either there is no compromise (when the two parties are so belligerent as to completely scuttle any effort at adopting a bill), or the compromise is so watered down that it becomes meaningless.
There is a reason why America has the worst health care system in the developed world, paying far more than any other developed nation for that privilege: that reason is two-party quasi-democracy it is so proud of.
Very thoughtful comments.
Party aside, I just wish they would get it done RIGHT.
Not implying party, but common sense for all to work together for the greater good.
To get it done right requires thinking of others (the people) instead of companies that pay for influence and get their way.
Well said and totally agree.
The influence peddlers are the problem, because as you correctly pointed out, the selfish interests are everything to them.
Mention the greater good and they are incapable of understanding.
The first step would be to eliminate gerrymandering. And maybe reconsider the wisdom of a system where a geographically huge state state with not enough population to make a good township in the civilized world has the same representation in one of the houses of the legislature as a single state with a population larger than most countries and an economy larger than even more. When the country was founded, there were 13 colonies, all roughly the same population and area. Things have gone seriously astray from that. And states rights died the first time the national defense needed all the states to provide troops and they failed to produce (1812?). Now the concept is just a curtain to let the Congress hide from their duties.
Like the current Republicans in Congress? Who seem vote (run into the wall and shoot themselves in the foot all the time).
At least they VOTE.
Unlike the do nothing SENATE that has a pile of bills passed by the so-called do nothing Republicans in Congress collecting desk dust.
Voting on something that has no chance more than forty times is the sign of madness. The House Republicans are like those Republicans in Kansas Mad and stupid.
The bills passed by the House make more SENSE that not passing anything at all.
Ever hear of both chambers passing bills and working out disagreements in conference?
The do-nothing Senate stays far away from that position for one reason. The bills passed by the House are common sense and would gain wide public support.
The do-nothing Senate fears this most of all. Hence, WHY they are not even brought up for a vote.
So nice try making excuses for the do-nothing Senate. Tell the full story for a CHANGE.
amen, Allah be praised.
It is amazing how many people have commented on AC failure to fix the medical record exchange in 1 year where the problem has existed for many decades.
These individuals are as silly as those who flagged ACA as “Death Camp”.
The Apple solution is only the start and it is only possible because of the EHR and just as important, it takes time for the overpaid infrastructure that is in place to retire and move aside. If you expect them to just raise their hand and give-up because Apple is trying to help then you are delusional and need medical help.
Health Kit provides the means for more companies to get onboard and many people like those on this thread to talk about it with their healthcare providers, and also many forward thinking healthcare professional who will embrace the change and they will write articles about the benefits and cost savings and it won’t be long (but measured in multi-years) before more providers will follow best practices that will follow.
Don’t be an Android foooool demand a better product/service and encourage your service providers (all of them being healthcare, home equipment, care manufacturers) to follow your good example.
As a physician and long time mac-user I an attest that we have a very complicated, multifaceted mess with health care. On a tech level: we are entrenched with antiquated PCs and our IT dept (1 guy) has to keep them all running. He is a windows expert- not mac. Until recently we were still on XP. I have always brought my own MBPro with Parallels virtualization. It’s worked fine because I’m pretty geeky about macs and can problem solve the mac side of issues. Our CEO also uses a mac and more often than not he comes to me for a computer question.
The vast majority of EMRs are PC based. There are a few smaller scale versions for Mac but they are way behind in maturity. Keep in mind that practice scenarios are very different- large vs small, hospital vs out patient, primary care vs specialty, including/excluding billing and scheduling…there are not mac options for all these permutations- and thus it will be PC dominated for a while. We have looked into virtualization- the EMR is centralized and can be accessed via Internet on any device- mac, PC, iPad, android phone, but our voice recognition- is dragon pro medical (PC only, for enterprise). Yes, there are mac options- but not same capability.
The communications issues are related to the multiple platforms there are at least 10 in my city of 80k…the EHR companies will promise compatability – but every system requires it’s own interface- with an upfront and maintenance cost. Unlike the govt, we can’t print money and must remain profitable for ourselves and the 50 staff we employ at our office.
I look forward to IHealth/iWatch for myself and my patients. Regardless of its interoperability with my EMR, it’s will engage people with their health and increase awareness and personal responsibility- which addresses a major problem in our country.
I don’t have time to address Obamacare today (I’ve got to go do some dictations), except to say it reflects our govt perfectly– promise everything, pander to various special interests, allow certain folks to profit wildly, and pass the losses back to the taxpayer (and borrow more). My advise: eat right, exercise, keep your weight down, get enough sleep and buy apple products!
In other words, an apple a day keeps the doctor away? 🙂
I think Apple could get it done.
Just like Passbook, where so many people were using it and demanding support from airlines etc. that corporations just had to cave in, bury their own “efforts” and go the path of least resistance.
Because, once a tick-box item “Conforms to iOS8 Healthbook standard” is on contract specifications, contractors will have a *really* hard time making a case for a system that doesn’t conform.
Millions of users voting with their feet is a force very hard to stop.
Apple can focus and successfully penetrate key vertical markets within industries. I’ll remind everyone that Apple got its start in business through desktop publishing, printing and later, color pre-press. The company was willing to dedicate significant engineering resources to sweat the details, digitize and perfect basic print production procedures such as document setup and measuring systems, font hinting and scaling, electronic paste-up, color calibration for monitors and printers, networking, art and illustration and digital photography. It also attracted the best, third-party developers to the platform. The result: Apple devices became (and remain) THE gold standard for graphic arts and back shop pre-press operations in publishing. I am certain it can repeat this success for the medical industry.
The reason Apple will succeed is because there is one common element that all of these health care providers all have, they all touch one person: the patient.
And Apple has something in common with most patients. They use Apple products.
Apple with centralize the records storage with the patient.
Health kit/Health-book sound more and more like a way for talented developers to create software solutions that will actually work across multiple devices in a easy to use fashion. (Neocon the existing special business interest will fight Apple to the end).