We don't have to tell our audience that current EMRs are far from perfect. Besides, there are plenty of others far more qualified than we are to make that assessment. Count among them Jerry Buchanan, program manager and "scrum master" at IT consulting firm eMids Technologies, Nashville, Tenn.
Buchanan names five specific features missing from most commercial EMR products today:
- Information that's organized to help users make effective clinical decisions;
- Comprehensive health histories rather than just records of "health episodes";
- Information presented in a way that matches the needs of specific users;
- The ability to track tasks through completion then reassign tasks as patients move between care settings; and
- The ability for patients to control which caregivers see which bits of information.
Comments from Healthcare IT News readers suggest that Buchanan could have identified more than just five shortcomings. One goes as far as to say EMR developers overlook new, more flexible platforms by being overly reliant on Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer.
For further details:
- read this Healthcare IT News story