e-Health -- it ain't easy!

I had the opportunity to attend  an "EMR" night in Ajax recently, hosted by OntarioMD (https://www.oma.org/Benefits/Pages/OntarioMD.aspx) for its members, and was really impressed by the turnout both from the health care provider (HCP) and vendor communities.

First up, as I toured the area assigned to vendors, I tried to imagine myself as a HCP and asked: which product would I pick?
Every vendor was touting the various benefits of their offering and I hardly have the time to do the due diligence that's really required!

Next came the presentations by OntarioMD representatives; Stephen McLaren M.D. was the first of three speakers, and I felt he vividly articulated many of the issues HCPs are facing, namely:

• whether they agree or otherwise, electronic patient data (its capture, delivery, manipulation etc.) is the future -- there's no escaping this fact
• some HCPs have refused to implement an EMR because of either reluctance or resistance; the former,  he stated, could be overcome by education -- regarding the latter, well let's just say he no longer partners with them in his clinic
• EMRs are challenging to implement -- for example, the vendor you decide on may not be around in 6 months; should this be the case, you could be plagued by compatibility issues as you try to move to a replacement product

I've enumerated the above to give a sense of some of the difficulties facing HCPs, and to highlight (and give reasons for) the fact that given the admirable efforts of OntarioMD and the like, EMR uptake (at least in Ontario), has been less than stellar (as of this writing, OntarioMD is touting 56% on its web site).
I still maintain that the current methodology used to implement EMRs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_medical_record) in Ontario is flawed in that:

• patient data should be co-owned by individual HCPs and the appropriate governing body for the region, e.g. Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) in Ontario
• the HCP should access the data using a browser and their preferred vendor interface (i.e. xwave, Nightingale, OSCAR, etc.)
• LHINs should manage their own data according to their purview

From a patient perspective, I would need a full article to list all the benefits.
From a HCP perspective, issues such as security, business continuity, software updates and product compatibility would be eradicated overnight.
From the vendors' perspective, their businesses would be streamlined since they would only have have to deal with the LHINs as opposed to the numerous individual clinics.
From a LHIN perspective, what more efficient ways are there for both themselves and their constituents to be aware of what's happening in the community, health-wise?

So, everyone wins and as usual, the technology is already there -- perhaps budgets will eventually force the will!


Ernest A. James

President & CEO
Regal Informatics Inc.