Healthcare NBIC

Tablet PCs and EMRs: Survey

On the day of Apple's tablet computer introduction, Chris Thorman of SoftwareAdvice.com has posted a survey asking"Which Tablet PC Will Rule the Halls of Healthcare?"

The results should be enlightening. I've seen early-adopting docs who use tablets as naturally as paper clipboards, but you can imagine how hard it must be to bring new gear into the examining room. There's been plenty of pushback to adding tablets into clinical settings: they're often hard-to-use, underpowered, proprietary and un-secure. Evangelists for electronic medical records and tech futurists are absoltely sure these things are the wave of the healthcare future, but that future has been on the horizon for decades. 

EMRs: Don’t Wait for the Government

The billions earmarked for electronic medical records (EMRs) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) could provide the tipping point for doctors to spend the money, time and aggravation needed to automate their offices.

A new report from SoftwareAdvice.com, Don’t Wait for the Government to Start Your EHR Implementation, advises physicians to install the new gear now because "it’s nearly certain that you will qualify for ARRA incentives" to pay for the effort, and besides, the potential savings are bigger than the stimulus bump.

I'm an EMR skeptic, and there seems to be a lot of clauses, criteria and certifications attached to the money, but analyst Chris Thorman thinks docs will get the money back from the feds, "more than likely."