Accelerated Medical Practice Blog

Physician practices are concerned with finding EMR software that meets the needs and requirements of their particular organization. CTS Guides, a research company located in Rockville, MD offers a free Medical Software Selection Kit to help healthcare practices compare and review software options, define needs, prepare questions to ask vendors during demos, and gain more control over the software selection process. The kit provides software reviews, comparative product ratings including over 800 features, and a template...

I speak with clinics representing as many as 30 specialties, ranging from small practices of a few providers to practices consisting of hundreds of providers, nearly all of which have one thing in common: They are adopting new practice management systems. No Such Thing as Perfect PM System One thing is certain, no two clinics are alike. Not in workflow, billing needs, or in what they see as priorities for their organizations. In an ideal world,...

Data storage and software applications are using machine learning to derive a patient’s diagnosis. The intensity of individual pixels in images over a period of time can be analyzed to help detect lung cancer patients.  Machine learning applications are used to derive a diagnosis by storing and analyzing years of demographic information for thousands of patients. When a new patient arrives who is similar to a filtered base in the large data store, the archived information is...

The Kaiser Family Foundation published their annual health insurance survey at the end of September.  The results were astounding. Last year, the average premium increase for family plans was 9%, with employer sponsored plans costing an average of $15,000 per family.

Steve Jobs’ commitment to innovation and technology left a legacy which will impact the healthcare technology industry for years to come. Brian Horowitz, contributor to eWEEK mobile, recounts Jobs’ impact on Healthcare IT in his recent article.  

The introduction of smaller and cheaper tablets may help land more tablets in medical practices and throughout the healthcare industry. 

There seems to be somewhat of a disconnect between the functionality that EMR vendors are currently developing and what customers want. Much of the development investment made by EMR vendors for the next 3-5 years will be driven heavily by functionality that helps physician practices qualify for meaningful use. While that is certainly important, we wonder about the efficiency of significant software development dollars being allocated on the basis of what bureaucrats or lobbyists are able to agree upon.

This is a difficult time for practice administrators as you attempt to navigate your way to the future. Many practices have made significant financial investments in existing practice management and EMR systems. Some practices are now making additional new investments in those technologies by replacing an existing EMR.