Family physicians, like other primary care physicians, can choose any type of electronic health record (EHR) system for their practices. But when the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) conducted a survey earlier this year of 3,427 of its members, it found that the four most preferred programs were those geared toward smaller practices.
In the AAFP survey results, which appear this month in Family Practice Management magazine, 205 EHR systems were identified from 2,719 responses. AAFP researchers chose to focus on those systems (30 in all) that were reported by at least 13 respondents; the systems making this cut-off represented 87 percent of all responses analyzed in detail, reports Medscape Medical News.
The four top-rated programs were:
- Medent, from Community Computer Service in Auburn, N.Y.
- Amazing Charts, from AmazingCharts.com in North Kingstown, R.I.
- e-MDs, from e-MDs in Austin, Texas
- Praxis, from Infor-Med in Canoga Park, Calif.
All of the programs were found mostly in groups of one to five family physicians. On the other hand, more than 60 percent of the family physicians who reported using the fifth-ranked system-- EpicCare Ambulatory from Epic Systems of Verona, Wisc.--were members of groups with 50 plus members.
The authors of the survey, Robert Edsall and Kenneth Adler, MD, write that while the "results are not intended to be a statistically accurate picture of EHR use among AAFP members," the survey data can be used by EHR practices as they shop for EHRs.
For more information:
- see the Medscape article
- here's the Family Practice Management article (reg. required)