Redesign Electronic Medical Records – STAT!
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
With President Obama’s signature on the stimulus bill we have decided to spend some $19B to scale up the use of electronic medical records (EMR) software across the nation. This might not be good news. According to a recent study by the National Research Council the current products and implementation approaches fail to provide the “cognitive support” needed to improve clinical outcomes and administrative efficiencies.
Scaling up current EMRs will likely not produce the benefits we need to improve healthcare in the US. We must redesign the EMR so that it supports the cognition of clinicians and behavior change in patients if we want a return from our national investment. A true challenge for a cognitive designer! In answer, I have developed a position paper describing the motivation, principles, building blocks and economics of a redesigned EMR or EMR 2.0.
You can review the full paper or a one-page executive summary.
We need to move quickly if an EMR 2.0 – designed for how minds naturally work – is to be ready for the first round of stimulus incentives in 2011. I am currently selling this vision, building a business case, recruiting a team and seeking funding to build a prototype. Should you have any interest or comments drop me a note at mark.k.clare@gmail.com
