Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is one of the most popular terminology in Healthcare industry from quite a long time now and before I touch on 10 things one should consider before EMR implementation, let me elaborate an EMR.

From the name itself one may understand EMR is an electronic record that keeps patients information, medical investigations and history. To add on more I would further define EMR as patient record that can be electronically exchangeable and readable from anywhere around the globe and trustable when you as a doctor visit that record for further investigation.

But as an implementation decision maker, the curiosity would be to understand how I evaluate and what kind of facilities I should look forward to from the EMR vendor.

Here I go with my 10 findings about EMR implementation:-

1. Records should be securely exchangeable over the web.

2. HIPAA act guidelines on privacy, security, transactions and code sets should have been followed to develop an   EMR solution.

3. HL7 protocol should be implemented for message exchanges.

4. Choosing the right delivery model for your need example Software as a Service (SaaS) or traditional ASP model.

5. Portability of the records is an important factor for implementing EMRs. One should not always depend on   internet for accessing medical records instead they may carry the record in plug and play media as well.

6. The architecture of EMR software should be extendable so that it may accommodate frequent changes in the medical  world.

7. Collaboration between practitioner, other clinical staff and patient should be there for ease of patient’s usage.

8. Patient should be taking control of their data so that privacy of medical records are maintained.

9. Apart from demographic and diagnostic information EMR solution may also take care of patient drug reminders, patient bills and claims info.

10. Last but not the least; by investing in an EMR solution, one should get high returns on investment by reducing paper work and making seamless process integration.

I hope this gives an insight of Electronic Medical Records and 10 things that anyone may consider for evaluating and implementing EMRs.

I am Debanjan Purkayastha leading Healthcare Competency Center at e-Zest and this is my first post on Healthcare. Like many loyal healthcare professional I also think healthcare as a domain is having huge potential and can provide high returns on investment to the companies focusing in it.

When I joined e-Zest I was surprised to see that within a short span of time almost 30% of the business at e-Zest were coming from Healthcare sector. And the kind of project e-Zest had developed ranges from PMS (Practice Management Systems)/ HIMS (Healthcare Information Management System) to PDA based Point of Care (PoC) applications that are used in clinical trials. e-Zest being in healthcare from many years it is important to maintain the focus on core healthcare services and I feel great when I find an intelligent team that is highly motivated and is diligently doing the same.

However moving forward in Healthcare I feel the time has come where we should focus on services like web 2.0 and consumer driven collaborative models. Concepts like practitioner consumer networking and consumer driven collaborative model are in the rise.

When I say collaborative model I mean collaboration between consumers, doctors, hospitals, and insurers so that they may work together and provide better results in preventing and treating health problems. And when I say Consumer driven, I mean the patient as a consumer decides what data to be seen by doctors and other staff in a clinic. Undoubtedly the technologies that help create such platform are XML, Web services, and service-oriented architecture (SOA).

However for the success of Consumer Driven Collaborative model there are three essential components as described by Dennis Schmuland MD FAAFP, Director of Microsoft’s Health Plan Industry:-

“1. There must be appropriate incentives—for patients to take responsibility for their own health and wellness, including lifestyle choices, and for physicians to focus on quality outcomes.

2. Actionable information, programs, and tools must be within easy reach to help the consumer get healthy and stay healthy and help the physician deliver the highest-quality and most cost-effective care. Offering consumers incentives toward living a healthier lifestyle—including proper diet, exercise, and preventive medical care—won't be effective if information and trusted guidance about those lifestyle choices and cost-effective care is not readily accessible and easy to use within the context of their daily lives.
Similarly, even with incentives to focus on long term wellness, physicians need complete information about patients' histories in order to better predict—and prevent—potential problems before they occur.

3. Care and a common care plan must be coordinated among providers and the health coach, particularly when patients are seeing multiple physicians for different problems or procedures. For consumers to effectively make choices about providers and treatment options, they must be confident that the entire community with whom they are working will be able to collaborate in providing care.”

Day was bright and sunny with a wicket that suits both batsman and bowlers. Time was 12:30 pm when two captains went to the field and toss was won by e-Zest. e-Zest selected batting and was quietly sitting in the pavilion. They know exactly about the challenge laying in front.

Soon the field was set for the match and umpires were on the field. Then comes the turn of the two openers to take guard. Ashish was opening the innings with Binoy all set on opposite side.

First five balls of the over were quietly judged by Ashish. But then came the storm on the ground with Ashish hitting a huge six with a dashing pull on the last ball of the first over. Binoy on the other hand was quietly taking singles and doubles to move the score board ticking. Ashish in his knock of 28 had hit four glorious sixes on consecutive overs to set a perfect start of e-Zest innings. On the fall of Ashish’s wicket Sandeep Patil accompanied Binoy with his small but quick knock of 7 runs. Binoy on the other hand was playing a perfect sheet anchor role with doubles, singles and occasional boundaries to move the score board in the right pace. Sandeep Patil was followed by Amol with a brief score of 4 runs. After Binoy getting run out with a score of 28, e-Zest were already heading for a big score. Then came Rohit (skipper) who played a useful knock of 16 runs with runs flowing all around the field. Rohit was well accompanied by Prashant Gaikwad, (vice captain and wicket keeper) out on 4 and Vishant not out hitting 4 runs on last delivery of the innings to take e-Zest score to 111 in 12 overs.

While chasing the score Agribuys were set to a revised target due to slow over rate and was made to chase the score of 112 in 10 overs.

In the bowling department e-Zest used 4 bowlers and restricted Agribuys with a total of 63 (allout) in 7.3 overs for a convincing 49 runs win. Binoy's (4 Wickets) 3 wickets haul in 1 over turned the table towards e-Zest. Binoy got great support from Narendra Singh Rajput and other bowlers like Hemant (2 Wickets) and Rohit; Narendra's 3 wickets and a run out at the crucial point had shuttered all the hopes of the opposition.

At last one can surely say that e-Zest played like a champion team and is now one of the dark horse in the tournament. Cheers e-Zest.

Brief Score Board:

Batting

O Ashish Gupta                                                  28

R Binoy Kumar                                                    28

1 Sandeep Patil                                                  7

2 Amol Pandey                                                   4  

3 Rohit Dekhane(C)                                             16

4 Prashant Gaikwad(VC and wk)                            4

5 Nitin Kale                                                        0

6 Hemant Kapadnis                                              0

7 Vijay Aneraye                                                  2 (Not out)

8 Vishant Sarodia                                                4  (Not out)

9 Narendra Singh Rajput                                       DNB

Total: 111/8        Overs: 12             Extra: 18

Bowling

                Name                    Overs                    Runs                      Wickets

                Rohit                     2                            23                           0

                Hemant                  1                            12                           2

                Narendra                2.3                          16                           3

                Binoy                     2                            12                           4

Result: e-Zest Won 

Man of the Match: Binoy Kumar