I've worked on EHR systems before. Guess what the priority is?
Well... Let me list what it isn't.
It isn't
A) encouraging industry level interoperability through gathering major stakeholders around a table and nailing out a spec.
B) it isn't streamlining the experience, workflow, display, or data entry experience in such a way as to make front line medical personnel's lives easier.
C) It isn't to ease the communication process between medical service provider and patient.
D) It isn't to provide transparency, simplicity, or up front awareness of the cost of treatment.
EHR systems have not, and will not ever be made for physicians. They are made for the procurement departments of major health provider networks and insurance companies.
They will never do what YOU as a physician need it to. As a company product, it will only be customized in as much as it doesn't effect the ability of a software company to improve it's bottom line by selling to more customers.
When discussing "Quality" of the software package,whether or not it actually helps you do your job better is secondary to "Can it integrate with insurers, and are we still maintaining market share?"
I hate the software industry more and more every day. It isn't about implementing the right solution anymore. It isn't about empowering users. It's about creating technological dependence and maintaining the pain level just short of your customer going elsewhere.
That is the dirty secret. That is why your computer feels like an enemy. That is why that wonderful portal to the world of the 90's has started to seem more like a portal to hell through which demons and merciless taskmasters reach out and suck you dry of time, money, and attention.
The Personaal Computer is dead. The Digital Market Human Interface Device reigns supreme, and shows no signs of slowing down until we as an industry of software makers wake up from our generously salaried, and market force driven ethical, intellectual, and moral coma, and say enough is enough.
More than anything else, I'm trying to figure out how to teach every last person how to code and understand computers. You CAN'T TRUST that a programmer that isn't you is truly operating with your interests at heart, because even we programmers, software engineers, and Quality people are enslaved by the tyranny of the Market.
The computer can still empower you. YOU have to learn it though. YOU have to share in the suffering. YOU have to know enough to start holding the tech industry accountable, or that industry WILL carve you up and sink it's teeth into you as a recurring revenue stream.
Think I'm crazy? Just look around. Pitch an idea for something to solve a problem, and watch how much time gets spent trying to make it maximally monetizable. It ain't about you. It's about good business, and if you don't like it, feel free to get out of the way of those that do.
