The conference was an exhausting but gratifying experience for Emily, Kellie, Ryan and me, the 4 folks from Practice Fusion who were lucky enough to attend. We met so many people who wished us well and want us to succeed…it was overwhelming. We thank each and every one of you for your kind wishes.
And we 4 owe a heart-felt ‘thank you’ to every other member of the Practice Fusion team who could not attend HIMSS: your energy and creativity are driving our rapid rise.
The massive conference left attendees with a million memories: it was part carnival, part inspirational and part heartburn (unless you normally eat breakfast at Papa John’s).
A highlight for us was ONC-boss David Blumenthal’s visit to the Practice Fusion booth. Long ago, I reported to Dr. Blumenthal when he was Sr. VP for Clinical Affairs at
Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. We even published a paper together in JAMA back in the day. The man hasn’t changed at all: his reasoned approach to things, his listening skills, and his unwavering commitment to public service and the greater good were present 20 years ago and they’re still there.It feels to me like Dr. Blumenthal has been prepping for his entire career to fill the role he now holds, and he is not about to swing and miss.
And the man has surrounded himself with an exceptionally talented staff—many of whom we met at HIMSS as well. These people believe they can make a difference in health care, and they are doing just that. I was stunned to learn at HIMSS that ONC has only 55 employees right now, but after meeting these folks I have some understanding for how such a small number of people can manage to have made such a profound impact in so short a period of time.
Almost as striking to me was the World's Fair atmosphere in the exhibit hall, which was created by palatial booths of many legacy EHR vendors. Some of these booths were larger than my home. They were bathed in soft backlighting. They featured perfectly coordinated color schemes, plush carpeting, and more HD TV screens than a sports bar on Super Bowl Sunday.
In short, they were waaay over-the-top, and they represented everything that is wrong in HIT today.
These exhibits reminded me of the spectacle that unfolded 16 months ago when the CEOs of the big three automakers flew to Washington on private luxury jets to plead for $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy.
What can these EHR vendors be thinking? Indeed, what must Dr. Blumenthal be thinking when he sees these cathedrals?
HITECH, lest we forget, is a taxpayer-supported program that was born out of the Great Economic Crisis of 2008, a near-disaster that is only now easing, and not all that fast, either. Millions of US citizens are out of work and down on their luck, and a central premise behind HITECH and the ARRA legislation it belongs to was to help these folks get back on their feet.
Now, it’s certainly not the fault of the legacy EHR vendors that the promise of HITECH cash has fueled investor speculation and soaring HIT stock prices. But the idea that part of this investment has found its way into the designer booths and Armani suits of legacy EHR vendors is abhorrent.
Surely a toned-down display would have been more appropriate given the hard times so many millions of Americans face right now. Surely some of that shareholder money could have been used to create more jobs or fueled more innovation by these companies so they could cut prices on their systems, enable more providers to afford them, and ultimately to allow more US citizens to benefit from the promise of HIT.
The contrast I witnessed in Atlanta, between the right-minded, super-capable public servants that came by our booth, and the large shadows these other booths cast over our modest footprint at HIMSS was something I’ll not soon forget.
Glenn Laffel, MD, PhD
Sr. VP Clinical Affairs, Practice Fusion
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2 comments:
How about the equivalent of a PHRMA Code for HIT? No useless trinkets, federal reporting of meals, etc.
The thought that was profound to me was that there was this undertone at the conference that the bigger your booth was the more substantial you are as a company and the more likely you will be around 5 years from now and therefore a good place to surrender your millions for legacy solutions. Oddly google's booth and yours were about the same size. It seems if you have the right business model you dont need such a booth.
meanwhile i like your comments.
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