• Security. The HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) sets standards for confidentiality of healthcare records, and every healthcare worker knows this regulation. Violating it can lead to lawsuits and fines, so any system must keep the highest level of security. Not only do the servers need to maintain a high level of security, but also any clients (laptops, tablets, or PDA’s).
• Ease-of-use. I have discussed how difficult some medical devices are to use and set up. Physicians provide their service by diagnosing and treating patients. Trying to fix IT issues or learning how to use a complex software package is not going to limit adoption of products. Product development should focus on the Apple model, which focuses on simplicity with performance.
• Electronic medical records. The perfect system would populate records with data from medical devices, with physician notes, diagnostic codes, laboratory results, prescription, and other items. The healthcare worker can just open up your file on a tablet PC or PDA, and review accurate information. As an example, in the majority of medical offices, the blood pressure is taken during a visit. What if the number is written wrong in the file? There is a huge difference in treatment strategies between a patient with a BP of 115/70 and 145/70. What if the number is directly and wirelessly transmitted from the blood pressuring monitoring equipment to the patient’s record?
• Billing. Linking the physician’s office billing software to the electronic healthcare record would be great, but if they were one product, it would be a new paradigm in the market. This link needs to work by drawing the key information from the electronic record into the appropriate billing template, which then can be electronically sent to the third part payor for reimbursement. This feature alone can reduce billing errors and increase cash-flow to the physician’s office. Right now, it appears that many developers are focusing either the electronic records or billing, but few are integrating them into one product.
• Diagnosis. This area is probably the area with the most complexity and regulatory oversight. The FDA has authority over any product that is intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, in man or other animals. But thousands of medical devices and diagnostic products have undergone FDA review, so it is not insurmountable. I think the ability for a PDA or laptop computer to receive patient data (either from home or from the hospital) can assist a physician in making decisions, especially in emergency or critical situations. But it has to be done nearly perfectly–there is little room for errors. For example, data which is not accurate or is mislabeled (the physician receiving the data of Patient X thinking it’s for Patient Y) can be devastating. That’s probably why the FDA is going to tightly regulate this area.

Tags: Healthcare policy, Health information technology, Electronic health records, Primary care physician