Problem # 1 – Sticker Shock EHR Pricing

It is estimated that over 40% of healthcare costs are spent on the administration rather than provision of care. Effective implementation of EHR (Electronic Health Records) is undeniably one of a clear and sure step to lowering the skyrocketing costs of healthcare. An ability to instantly access accuracy of information, speedy processing, and securely sharing information disregarding of the distant and geographical location will improve healthcare efficiency. However, historical records show that there is very little adoption of Information Technology (IT) across healthcare industry. According to Information Week, doctors’ offices can spend from $25,000 to $60,000 per physician JUST to deploy a system. It is not difficult to surmise that one of the primary reasons for the stagnant adoption of digital technology is the sticker-shock price-tag of the IT solutions which are currently available in the market. Assess further, as we look at that real picture of medical practices across America, we find that most practices are small and/or medium size organizations. This makes the price of digital technology become even more prohibitive and harder to justify.

Our Solutions

First we propose iDO®EMR - the medical office web portal developed with the focus to meet the needs of the small and medium sized network of physician practices and their service providers. The objective is to keep accurate patient care records and the related diagnosis, lab results, radiology images, super-bills, and claims. It is important that providers and processors are guardians of the information that falls under their respected care. In addition, patient information can be aggregated so that a completed record of the patient care-continuum can be virtually accessed. Aggregating patient information helps physicians improve and ensure the quality of patient care.

The network can be easily configured for specific branches of healthcare treatment such as pain management, and drug abuse intervention or the network could be configured for specific illness such as N1H1. The network also supports multi-disciplined healthcare providers, enables the virtual interchange of information, and streamlines medical bill processing.

Second, we propose iDO®LAB - Medical Test Lab Result portal which enable lab result to be reported and distributed to physicians instantaneously. The medical test lab reports in the secure and controlled portal also ensure the validity of the information.

Third, we propose iDO®PHR - a Personal Health Record Information System. This web portal enables you to store and retrieve the life-long medical information for yourself and your family. Wherever you go, your medical information is available to you and any medical providers that you choose to share the information with. We all agree that our medical records are important. It makes sense that we should have access to them. Yet, for most of us, medical records are scattered in multiple locations. iDO®PHR puts all of the records together and at your fingertips.

Forth, we propose iDO®OEX - a medical outcome portal consisting of sanitized demographic data and the collected treatment effectiveness. The data is collected seamlessly during care consultation and provision. The data is completely sanitized and over time, aggregated from physician’s input across the nation. The sanitization refers to the process of removing all patient identification from his/her medical data to protect patient privacy.

This results in aggregation of demographic characterization and the measurement of the treatment. For better precision and a consistent way to collect meaningful outcome results, the online interactive, outcome questionnaires are customized and formulated to address specific treatment. This is effectively implemented by the patient outcome registry. The patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform [clinical and other] data from and evaluate specified outcomes for a defined population, who have a particular disease, condition or exposure, to serve predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purpose(s).

Problem # 2 Stove-Piped Health IT
Contradicting To Network Nature of Care Provision

Adding to the problematic pricing is the stove-piped limitation of the existing EHR implementation. These solutions are mostly complex, standalone, incomplete, and unintegrated. They are based on Intranet Technology that presumes that the solution(s) shall be operating inside a single company or organization and generally behind network firewall. Yet, healthcare provision and transactions are most, if not all, involved with more than one organization. There are many attempts by various providers to create a linkage between these systems with Interface Engine and implementation of protocols such as HL/7. The result is an even higher cost to deploy on top of higher complexity to operate and maintain. It is no wonder that physicians and healthcare practitioners feel reluctant to adopt these headaches which are creating unreasonable changes and risks for them and their patients.

Problem # 3 Essentially Limited Outcome Data Collection Infrastructure

Lastly, while the industry recognizes that we need to focus on quality instead of quantity healthcare. Having infrastructure for collecting healthcare information, so that we can learn from the practices and improve healthcare quality is essentially non-existent. The information is buried in the handwritten physicians and nurses notes. The ones that are available are implemented specifically, and generally very expensive, for drug development clinical trials. We all recognize that it is better and cheaper to provide care that focuses on “wellness” rather than “illness”. We also recognize that we cannot improve what we cannot measure. We need low-cost, easy-to-implement, and seamless infrastructure to enable us to collect day-to-day, treatment-to-treatment healthcare data, and aggregate them for meaningful comparative effectiveness and analysis. In addition, we need to accomplish this in the way that we do not compromise patient identities and the confidentiality of patient information.