Practice Fusion asked health and technology experts to share their thoughts on what the next year has in store for healthcare
(HealthNewsDigest.com) – SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 14, 2011 — This past year was full of surprises, from the health information technology hiring boom to the popularity of tablets in medical practices across the country. Practice Fusion, the fastest growing Electronic Health Record (EHR) community in the United States with over 130,000 users reaching over 27 million patients, asked key experts in healthcare and technology to share their predictions for 2012.
The next twelve months are shaping up to be a ground-breaking year for the healthcare sector. Expert predictions for next year highlight the convergence of healthcare and mobile; clinical data being used to find the best treatment option; and continued adoption of EHRs as deadlines for Meaningful Use arrive.
Predictions for 2012 in the Health Information Technology Sector:
— Regina Holliday, Patient Rights Arts Advocate: “In 2012, I predict
health IT awareness filtering down to our youngest patients. More apps
will be designed in the world of mobile health that cater to the needs
of children. In brick and mortar stores, we will see doctor play-sets
combine the classic treatment tools with the tools of technology.”
— Shadee Giurgius, Medical Student and Office Manager at Moataz K.
Giurgius MD, Inc., Adult & Geriatric Psychiatry Corporation: “Our
practice would still be debating the jump to EHR in 2012 if we hadn’t
found a free option with Practice Fusion. Finding a free solution is the
reason that our 3,120 patients enjoy our new efficiencies and
less-prone-to-error workflow. As the office manager, I expect to see our
processes speed up which will allow us to provide faster and better
medical care for our patients.”
— Wade Roush, Chief Correspondent and San Francisco Editor at Xconomy:
“2012 could see three tipping points: in the spread of EMRs to physician
practices as doctors realize the clock is running out on Meaningful Use
payments, in employer-provided wellness programs for employees, and in
the amount of data flowing into cloud-based services from personal
health monitoring devices. We won’t solve any of the massive structural
problems in healthcare — it’s an election year, after all — but we’ll
all get savvier about the potential solutions.”
— John Lynn, Blogger at Health IT Blog Network: “Next year will be all
about Meaningful Use: Meaningful Use, ACOs, Meaningful Use, ICD-10,
Meaningful Use, Meaningful Use, 5010, and a little more Meaningful Use
covered in Meaningful Use.”
— Matthew Douglass, Vice President of Engineering at Practice Fusion: “All
signs point to 2012 as the year healthcare and mobile truly converge.
The creation of physician tools to manage their patient populations,
apps for healthcare consumers to access their health history on-the-go,
and thousands of apps in the Quantified Self space will allow patients
to have access to more and more of their daily data than ever before.
Along with this growth in the mobile healthcare market could be
additional compliance requirements put in place by the FDA and other
regulatory bodies with an eye toward protecting patients.”
— Michael Lake, Healthcare Technology Strategies and President of Circle
Square Inc.: “Big data, clinical analytics and personalized health will
be huge in 2012. As more clinical data come online from maturing EMR
databases, clinical claims repositories and potentially genomics, the
need for analysis is now upon us. We need to use historical and current
data to predict clinical and financial risk and find best treatment
options. Important innovations to watch in 2012 include clinical
language understanding (Nuance), probabilistic decision-support (IBM
Watson), and new approaches to clinical trials that use smaller
populations that may directly benefit (translational medicine).”
— Robert Rowley, MD, Medical Director at Practice Fusion: “In health IT,
interoperability (having different practice locations be able to share
data back and forth) will be the center of attention. Traditional health
information exchanges (HIE) will struggle, both technologically and from
lack of small practice subscribers. Sharing the platform directly will
outstrip other methods as a quick and effective way of sharing
information between different locations of care.”
About Practice Fusion:Practice Fusion provides a free, web-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to physicians. With charting, scheduling, e-prescribing (eRx), lab integrations, referral letters, Meaningful Use certification, unlimited support and a Personal Health Record for patients, Practice Fusion’s EHR addresses the complex needs of today’s healthcare providers and disrupts the health IT status quo. Practice Fusion is the fastest growing EHR community in the country with more than 130,000 users serving 27 million patients. The company closed a $23 million Series B round of financing led by Founders Fund in April 2011. For more information about Practice Fusion, please visit practicefusion.com.
Web Site: http://www.practicefusion.com
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