A Glimpse into the Future of the EMR and How Unbundling May Cause its Demise: [INFOGRAPHIC]

The EMR is alive and well in healthcare today, (although most doctors and staff are not happy using the EMR in its current form).

Trying to do it all EMR Features

Bundling is the act of taking many features (usually too many) and developing a software program that tries to do everything a user wants in one package.

While that may seem like a novel idea, the issue arises where the software tries to be a jack of all trades, and a master at none. Almost every EMR and practice management solution incorporates to many features that work but not optimally. This dilutes the effectiveness of the solution and frustrates the end user.

Too many features…

ambulatory clinical data
inpatient clinical data
practice management
patient communication
prescription filling
patient scheduling

billing
meaningful use compliance
population health
specialist referrals
patient engagement
risk management
and more…

Ask your staff if they enjoy using the software you have purchased.

(Very large majority will say no)

Craigslist History (One feature —-> many)

220px-Craig-newmark

Craigslist began in 1995 by Craig Newmark as a simple event site for his friends in San Francisco.

Eventually people started using it to add job postings, personals and other services. After many years it grew to what we know today, a site where you can almost do anything. While it is nice to use one piece of software that tries to do everything well, most of the time it does not accomplish the goal and users want alternatives that are simpler and add more value.

The art of unbundling

Have you noticed a trend occurring in software over the past few years? Small startups are entering the space and creating amazingly simple, yet valuable tools as the diagram from Andrew Parker displays.

Craiglist and EMR

Craigslist taught users that commerce, education, relationships, and more, could be managed online and opened the doors to newer breeds of companies to flourish.

So what does that mean for the EMR?

The EMR has a serious problem, they are too expensive, hard to use, take too much time to get up and running, training takes too long, and most doctors and staff hate using them due to the complexity.

As more and more hospitals and clinics get used to the idea of moving their data to the cloud, we will start seeing many amazing startups biting off small chunks of the EMR features and do a better job then then EMR could do by itself.

Companies listed in infographic: