Web 2.0 Applications for Medicine

Some of you may have heard about what is now called Web 2.0. This is another term for .asp solutions that run over the internet. Businesses in other sectors are now using this more and more rather than investing in expensive software and hardware that often require upgrading and expensive maintenance contracts. This portion of the expenditure for IT is often not appreciated and can run up to 20% of the investment in IT. Many medical practices utilize this method to transition to inhouse EMR.

Several applications are now becoming available for RHIO development, and may be the best solution not only in the short run but in the long run as well. The scalability of this solution is enormous and fits both small, medium and large practice needs. It does not require affiliation with a group, IPA or institution, although this solution would do well in all of these practice settings.

Privacy and security are issues that concern most health care providers, however secure and certificated web sites already are robustly protected, and backed up. They are run by IT professionals in a professional IT environment. Often they are mirrored and run on multiple servers geographically separated. My own personal experience with an .asp solution for prescription writing has been excellent, with no outages for a year's worth of use, as opposed to our in house EMR which goes down about once a month.

I would like for each of your to look at Practice Fusion for your input and analysis. www.practicefusion.com

The next Inland Empire RHIO meeting will take place in mid-January. The announcement will be sent via email and posted to the blog(s)

Happy Holidays to everyone

Gary Levin
gmlevinmd@gmail.com