What Extormity CEO Brantley Whittington lacks in couth, NoMoreClipboard's Jeff Donnell makes up for with humor. By now, it's no secret that the two are one in the same, and that NoMoreClipboard--created by Indiana-based electronic health record vendor Medical Informatics Engineering--formed the phony EHR vendor known for its lampooning of the industry. What's more of a mystery, though, is how the unveiling of Extormity will affect the very real prospects for its "parent" companies.
"All of a sudden now, we've got millions of dollars in stimulus funds that are available to give physicians a real incentive to adopt healthcare IT. The worst thing in the world would be for physicians to run out and buy Extormity-like solutions, because that would just create a second backlash," Donnell said at the phony company's unveiling at HIMSS11 this week. "What we want to do is use this as an opportunity to make physicians aware that there are affordable, sensible alternatives out there."
Donnell asserts that MIE/NoMoreClipboard serves as a "challenger brand" to some of its bigger, more expensive competitors. According to a whitepaper released at the unveiling, MIE's WebChart product costs "as little as $250" per month for physicians, leaving providers with more backend money to spend on other needs.
A recent grant awarded by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology should help NoMoreClipboard with its efforts. Announced in the week prior to HIMSS11, the company was named as the prime contractor for a $1.25 million "Challenge Grant" issued to Indiana Health Information Technology to foster innovation in the field.
Still, Donnell admits to being "jealous" of his fake company's success.
"Of course we're envious ... because it would be great if we could get that sort of traffic and that sort of notoriety," he said at the presser. "But what we realized is ... that we tapped into a very deep, rich and pervasive vein of discontent that is out there."
To learn more:
- read the Extormity unveiling announcement (.doc)
- check out this aforementioned whitepaper (.pdf)
- here's the slideshow presented by NoMoreClipboard at HIMSS11 (.ppt)
- here's the press release announcing the ONC grant (.pdf)