Who: Allen Wenner, M.D.
Current position: Vice President, Clinical Applications Design, Primetime Medical Software
Location: Columbia, S.C.
Fast facts: Wenner created Instant Medical History, the flagship product of Primetime, which allows patients to enter medical histories online as a branching algorithm helps pinpoint symptoms and compiles the subjective part of medical documentation, saving physicians time and leading to more accurate diagnoses and care plans. Wenner uses the software at Twelve Mile Creek Family Medicine in Lexington, S.C., part of the Palmetto Health organization. He often teams with Mayo Clinic family physician John Bachmann, M.D., at healthcare conferences to give highly entertaining and informative presentations about creative uses of EMRs to improve office workflow, practice revenue and patient satisfaction. He was a featured speaker in a September 2010 FierceEMR webinar on achieving "meaningful use" of EMRs.
What makes him disruptive: From the Instant Medical History online interview to his work in attempting to convince state pharmacy boards that the pre-visit interview allows physicians to prescribe certain "lifestyle" drugs over the Internet sight unseen more safely than typical office encounters--so far successful only in Utah--Wenner often is the medical establishment's worst enemy. He often attempts to rattle that establishment by pointing out many of the absurdities in American healthcare--and he's usually right, as his highly efficient practice demonstrates.