March 20, 2009 by Atul.

Dr. Rob - board certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics - has a balanced post about EMR’s and his experiences on his blog “Musings of a Distractible Mind”. 

One of the steps he suggests before selecting an EMR product is to visit an existing installation and ask open ended questions about their experience with the product: “How did they do it and how hard was it?”.

 I generally agree and recommend that several existing installs be systematically surveyed and queried, not limited to implementation aspects.

 While useful, this is still difficult to do well, methinks, for many reasons. I don’t sell or endorse EMR’s but know of several instances where the vendors have heavily discounted their products to the early customers in exchange for assurances. Of course, they can’t ask the physicians or their office managers to lie - they have an agreement that any negative experience or dissatisfaction has to be communicated to the vendor right away.  This puts the practice/office under some pressure.

Then, there are other aspects such as changes in functionalities and module versions. Also, and especially these days, the product is constantly changing/evolving  and a data point from the past may be more dated than you realize.

Finally, there are the concerns from the early adopter physician who may feel threatened or feel that his/her advantage is getting diluted by sharing the knowledge….it does happen.

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March 17, 2009 by Atul.

It is amazing how so many physicians are being misled by the lure of “free” EMR’s.    

There are at least 2 companies in the US that are blatantly declaring how they can introduce an EMR without costing the physician or the practice anything.  

Of course, it is not free!! In both these cases, the companies have deals with the vendors and will make some commission but also charge the practice for other hidden fees for , say, training and documentation. 

More serious, though, is the long term effect of this “free” offer. Since some of the products are not certified by CCHIT (or equivalent), these physicians will not see a dime of the stimulus incentive funds released by President Obama’s administration.

And then, the nasty surprises will come when the physicians want to change their hospital affiliation or introduce some additional capabilities in their EMR’s or have some new reporting function talk to it.

Then, they will realize that free is in fact quite expensive. By then, the damage, in terms of reputation hit, downtime and practice continuity - is already done.  

We don’t mind that the physicians - especially in ambulatory, independent group practice setting -  are frugal or that they are not experts in EMR architecture - After all, we expect the specialists to be exactly that and stay current by keeping updated in the field of medicine, not IT. But we are concerned about how some in the vendor community may be exploiting this to deliver a marginalized, sub-standard system.

We at PreviMed pride ourselves at offering vendor-neutral, future-proof EMR strategies for the forward thinking physicians - And just as we don’t take any kickbacks from vendors, we also don’t offer mis-matched trouble for “free” ! 

Contact us, if you will like to know more.

Posted in EMR, Reporting, PreviMed-General, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

September 3, 2008 by Atul.

Current issue of the esteemed “Foreign Policy” magazine has a short article about PreviMed.

This is a non-trivial recognition by an important publication, which, for instance, has contributions from Senator Obama and Senator McCain  long before the election winds started. The magazine also derives its strength from its publisher - the Carnegie Endowment.

You can read it (the item about us)  here but requires paid registration. You can also pick up a copy at a nearby magazine-stand.

It is a short piece, written by Joshua Keating and some of the comments appear below:

• PreviMed, a new Silicon Valley start-up aiming to be a kind of Priceline for medical care, is banking on. “Our idea is to give patients, their insurance companies, and home doctors a choice,” says CEO Atul Salgaonkar.

• Bridging this information gap is PreviMed’s mission. If you need a particular procedure but can’t afford an insurance payment, the insurance company can submit your medical information to a secure server on PreviMed’s Web site. Prescreened hospitals from around the world can bid for the job by suggesting a course of treatment and price. Ideally, you can then choose from a variety of offers.

• “…by introducing a level of transparency, we’re making a small change for the better,” he says. (Attributed to Atul Salgaonkar, CEO, PreviMed, Inc.)

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September 2, 2008 by Atul.

This is not an endorsement of the Medical Tourism Association and, as of now, PreviMed is not a member.

Still, the upcoming annual congress -being held this month 9th thru 12th in San Francisco - looks very interesting.

 PreviMed executives will engage at this event with oter stakeholders to explore areas of mutual benefit.

More info about the event here and if you would like to meet, please contact us.

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August 17, 2008 by Atul.

The esteemed magazine The Economist  in its August 14th issue has finally published a piece on medical tourism under a more accurate heading of “Globalisation and health care”.

Titled “Operating Profit”, the sub-title is tantalizing: “Why put up with expensive, run-of-the-mill health care at home when you can be treated just as well abroad?” 

We, here at PreviMed, felt that it is a good start although it leaves out some rather important points - such as the topic of accreditation, EU’s recent position and AMA’s comments endorsing the trend.

You can read the article here  and our comments to the article are reproduced below:

 Cost savings (associated with medical tourism) need to be considered in the context of other variables.For example:A US-based patient may choose a hospital in Costa Rica over a Chinese hospital for many reasons (higher comfort with the language/culture, shorter flights and treatment/staff/facility-related specifics) - even if the Chinese hospital represents much higher cost savings.

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