EMR upstart DrChrono, perhaps the first vendor to create an EMR app for the iPad, just snagged $675,000 in capital.
It may not seem like much compared to the $23 million garnered by their much-bigger rival, Practice Fusion, a few months ago, but DrChrono's creators tell Liz Gannes, technology blogger for the Wall Street Journal's "All Things D" column that it should be enough to continue penetrating their premier market--single-doctors' offices.
"There are billion dollar healthcare companies that own very small factions of the market. DrChrono is not competing with them but with faxes machines and paper," DrChrono co-founder Daniel Kivatinos tells Gannes. "Our goal is for every physician to have a mobile EHR."
The DrChrono app provides its EMR app for free to the first user in a practice, then charges for $99 to $199 per month for each additional user. It also charges for upgraded functions like speech-to-text, phone support and medical billing, according to vatornews. On the EMR app, physicians can schedule appointments, write e-prescriptions, take notes and other complete administrative functions.
Kivatinos insists his app will qualify physician offices for HITECH act incentives of up to $44,000. No clarification from CMS yet, of course, but it's an interesting marketing move. And it may be working. The company claims it has doubled its user base to more than 100,000 practitioners, up from 55,000 users at the start of the year.
Perhaps even more interesting, though, is the company's next gambit: Offering a free "PatientPad" app that will link patient's personal monitoring devices to the DrChrono system, and allow patients to share readings and data with providers. Kivatinos tells Gannes that the product will offer FaceTime video chatting with physicians, and ER search functions.
To learn more:
- read USAToday's blog post
- get details from the Wall Street Journal's AllThingsD
- check out Teck Two's analysis
- read iMedicalapps' review
- peruse vatornews' coverage