The proliferation of electronic medical records (EMRs) has left much to be desired. Though designed with care improvement and data exchange in mind, the necessary connective tissue layer is absent. Healthcare providers are still resorting to the phone and fax to communicate, and patients are still carrying their personal health information from one appointment to the next, or relying on memory.
But I’m optimistic that the next era of healthcare innovation is coming — the app layer that rides on top of EMRs. Despite the public perception that EMRs prefer to remain “closed,” some have shown that they can play well with third-party solutions. Athenahealth, for one, has been at the forefront of integrating with outside apps, even going so far as to build a marketplace of third-party solutions to offer provider partners.
In the same way that apps have transformed an iPhone into a taxi-summoning, heart-monitoring, grocery-delivering instrument, the app layer that sits on top of the EMR has the potential to give back providers control over their workflow, improve information sharing and create a more organized, seamless patient experience. But what is perhaps the most important benefit of this connected health technology? Medical collaboration.