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DrChrono - Record Patient Data - On KillerStartups

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16 pointsd8niel6 comments

It'll be interesting to see how DrChrono and other smaller companies break into the electronic healthcare record (EHR) market and compete with the larger medical IT companies. I work as a consultant for a public medical IT company so I've seen first hand just how much work it takes for a hospital to upgrade their software. Besides a strong product and sales team, there's a ton of training and support that is required for a hospital to successfully convert to a new system.

It looks like DrChrono's target market is smaller physicians offices, which I'm not as familiar with (I consult with larger hospital systems). If DrChrono can successfully demonstrate how their software can eliminate errors, improve efficiency, and save doctor's offices money in the long run, then they will have a good chance, but there are a number of things they need to execute correctly in order to succeed.

Training and support are VERY important for a successful switch to new software. Physicians and nurses are typically older and not as technically savvy as the people who develop and sell the software. They do not like change because they are used to their workflow with their paper-based systems, and I've seen firsthand projects that took a turn for the worse because the hospital executives decided to make the switch to new software and the physicians and nurses did not like the change to their current workflow.

DrChrono also needs to be flexible enough to cater to the different workflows and reporting needs of each physicians office. This is definitely not a "One software fits all" market. What may be a perfect fit for one physician may not meet the needs of another office.

Summary: This is a tough market to be successful in because of so many factors, but that doesn't mean that it can't be done.

It's happening in our hospital now as we have just implemented computerized physician order entry (literally just last week was the start date).

I don't think it's fair to blame the physicians and nurses - sometimes it is the hospital and its IT staff and the software being used. The machines we are equipped we are REALLY slow, the servers are slow, and there are not enough machines available. That makes it a real pain to enter orders now. There has to be some ability to "freelance" an order in the system and there really isn't. I understand why, the order should be standardized so the system automatically recognizes what the medication is, what the dosing is, whether it may interact with other meds, etc. But that's time consuming for the medical provider - unless it's executed exceptionally well.

I didn't mean to sound like the blame is solely on the physicians and nurses. The consultants make mistakes too. Sometimes the software is not perfect. Sometimes there's miscommunication. Sometimes the scope of the project gets way out of hand.

My main point was that due to the size of these projects, there are so many things that need to happen for a successful switchover.

I see many physicians using an iPad in the hospital to access the hospitals EMR system in a very cumbersome way - they log into the hospitals servers, so they are then in a Windows setting, then log into the desktop version of the hospitals EMR system (HMS in this case) using their iPad. Implementation in the office setting, if it's done, is pretty similar.

Hopefully companies like DrChrono can change this by designing an EMR system that is really made to work on a tablet. The existing companies, including AllScripts, just let you use the desktop version on an iPad, which kind of sucks.

"You might be surprised to know that one out of five doctors in private practices uses an iPad already"

That's a vague statement, are they using them at work, or do doctors simply have a propensity for neat personal technology?

I would suspect it is more of the latter right now, but as apps come out for the iPad, I think it's definitely going to be an asset for doctors, especially in the inpatient setting where doctors need their technology to travel with them.

I don't see iPads being very successful in an outpatient or ambulatory setting, mainly because most exam rooms are already equipped with desktops, and limited functionality may be more of a hindrance.

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