20 Oct athenahealth, ZDoggMD fight bad EHR design
Two of health IT’s most outspoken figures, athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush and Turntable Health CEO Dr. Zubin Damania, are trying to spark a physician revolt against bad EHR design.
Monday, health IT vendor athenahealth, with the help of Damania’s rapping alter-ego, ZDoggMD, launched “Let Doctors Be Doctors,” which is part platform for doctors to demand better electronic health records and, let’s face it, part athenahealth marketing campaign.
Bush spoke about the campaign Monday at the U.S. News Hospital of Tomorrow conference in Washington. He explained the problem in a U.S. News & World Report op-ed:
Health care is the only industry that has managed to lose productivity while going digital.
The typical electronic medical records software is a maze of tabs and dialog boxes that doctors must navigate to record the same information they used to be able to handle with a few notes in a file folder. And what do they get back for their effort? Sadly, consumer apps are much better at volunteering helpful information and unexpected insights.
Health care’s software problem will not be solved with a user interface overhaul – EMRs need to be smarter, not just prettier. Think networks, not software alone. We need to bring together the intelligence of doctors, nurses, patients, hospitals, laboratories, insurers and everyone else who contributes to the continuum of care.
As for ZDogg, he released a new music video for the campaign, singing about “crappy software,” to the tune of the Jay-Z duet with Alicia Keys, “Empire State of Mind.”