Coming back from HIMSS and really scratching my head trying to think of what incredible new and novel thing(s) did I see, hear about or experience at the conference. Nothing stood out. Here it is just my third HIMSS and I am already getting a bit bored, struggling to find those truly exciting advances that get my juices flowing.
Come on vendors, I can't be getting bored that quickly can I? Was there really nothing new on display at HIMSS this year? Or is it that I am still wet behind the ears and am unable to recognize the subtle differences occurring in the market that for others are truly significant? Tend to believe it is the former for the simple fact that after some 15 years as an IT analyst, (I've put in over the 10K hours Malcolm says I need to be a virtuoso) I have developed a sixth sense, knowing intuitively when there are truly some significant innovations and
introductions taking place in a market. There were none this year at HIMSS'10...
So Many EHRs, So Little Time: Simply amazing that this market can support so many EMR/EHR companies. How they all survive or will survive is a mystery to me and rationalization will occur. Big potential risk here as providers look to purchase an EHR as many of these vendors will go belly-up or be acquired within the next 5 years. Vendor viability is going to a major issue in coming years.
On the EHR front, three interesting stories.
1) SR Soft will flat-out tell you that their solution is not certified nor will it help a physician meet MU ("Meaningful Use") criteria. But what SR Soft does provide is a very streamlined EHR optimized for specialists with high patient thru-put.
Specialists seemed particularly drawn to this solution.
2) MIE was one of many to introduce (or now has) an SaaS EHR. Their WebChart EHR Now is quite simple to use and will be offered at $250/physician/month. One of the features I liked was its ability to automatically track your compliance to all
25 MU criteria and alert you if there are any areas where you may not be fully
meeting MU. This is particularly important as HITECH Act reimbursement is an
all or nothing proposition.
3) One of the most popular iPhone apps is Epocrates. Epocrates is now looking to leverage that popularity by offering an EHR (will go GA in fall of this year) to the 250K+ users of its mHealth app. Certainly an interesting move on their part, big question is: how many of their users actually need an EHR? I'd bet at least 80% of users, it f not more, already have something. Still, that gives Epocrates 50K potential subscribers.
This move also reinforces just how important mHealth is becoming and expect even
more activity with the forthcoming release of iPad.
If Not EHR, than HIE: Everywhere I turned, if I did not see someone promoting their latest and great EHR, than they were claiming to be an HIE vendor. Heck, even Dell had a section of their booth dedicated to HIE and Igenix had an ongoing presentation about their HIE capabilities...
1) Big vendors are paying a lot of attention to HIEs. McKesson, which could have discussed any number of products in its portfolio at a special media event chose to focus solely on its HIE product suite RelayHealth. GE had a special section dedicated to its HIE offering (they are partnering with ICW). IBM, which recently acquired Initiate told us in a briefing on Wednesday that they have every intent of being a major player in the HIE market, both here in the US and abroad.
2) Telecom is making a move. Both AT&T and Verizon had portions of their booths dedicated to HIEs with AT&T announcing its HCO, basically an extension and productization of their previous work with Covisint.
3) There is the growing presence of multi-stakeholder, private HIEs. Until recently, most private HIEs were sponsored by a single IDNs to drive referrals back to the sponsoring entity. These new HIEs are about facilitating care across the community, often times without ROI justification - its just the right thing to do and community
physicians are demanding it...
Platforms are In, Might Monolithic be Out? Over the past several months there have been a number of announcements regarding Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings by HIE vendors (Axolotl, Covisint and Medicity) ....
... The big question with PaaS is which platform will be most compelling for developers being both easy to develop upon and more importantly, has a broad customer base to serve. There is no clear winner today but aggressive moves are being made to create these vibrant ecosystems with Axolotl announcing that EHR vendor Greenway would offer a modular EHR on their PaaS and Medicity announcing that Emdeon would be a part of theirs .... But what may be an even more significant move was that made by one of the largest EHR vendors, Eclipsys, with their announcement of Helios. This is the first time that a major EHR vendor has opened up their platform to others...
Patient Engagement is Growing: Most vendors had some form of messaging within their booth on patient engagement. This is an area that is still very much in its infancy as most "engagement" offerings remain pretty simplistic...
To see & comment on John's full post go to: http://chilmarkresearch.com/2010/03/05/another-year-another-himss/
