A couple of weeks back Allscripts’ CEO Glen Tullman was on the Cats & Dogs panel at Health 2.0 and he said some pretty controversial things about the state of EMR adoption (yes it was happening), certification of meaningful use (it was being diluted and the tax payer faced being ripped off) and other vendors, or at least one other vendor from small town Wisconsin that wasn’t playing fair in the quest for interoperability).
Given that I always enjoy talking to Glen and also that he’s as responsible as anyone else for getting Obama interested in the concept of why EMRs and automating health care matters (and therefore why there was so much money in both Obama’s campaign pledges and in the stimulus package for EMRs), I thought it would be fun to have Glen back on THCB to expand a little on what he told us at Health 2.0. And yes there was plenty more interesting stuff where that came from. (Be warned, the sound quality is not great, but its completely understandable)
The smug illusion that these devices are safe pervades the interview. I practice evidence based medicine. There is not any evidence to support electronic ordering.
Transfer of information by fax has its benefits. There is a bell that rings when the data comes in and a visual image that it is there. When data arrives by wire and gets deposited into an electronic silo, who knew it was there…or is someone to log in and check the stat lab test every 5 minutes as if there is nothing else to do?
I am concerned with care disruptions. CCHIT ignores safety and effectiveness.
Tullman: “Our physicians are presented with so much information, they will need to ignore some of it…”Really?
I can understand how Tullman might not understand the significance of evidence based medicine. However, I do not see evidence on which Blumenthal has based his opinions that HIT gear is safe.