Healthcare Technology and News: Leaders in Electronic Health Records Voice Opinions on Progression of Initiative

As businesses and media professionals seek to expand goods and services to more than just traditional outlets, the influx of the Internet and online-based systems is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s many booming industries.

One of those, specifically, that is pushing towards adopting an electronic form of professional operations is the health industry, with practices and hospitals pushing for more of their documentation to be pushed into electronic processes. But, not everyone is happy about how this initiative is progressing.

Jonathan Bush, chief executive of Athenahealth, is at the forefront of this movement, arguing that the government incentive program, which begins next year, will, given its size and complexity, serve to subsidize traditional health software, which resides on the hard drives of personal computers and servers.

Bush’s company, which offers electronic health records and billing services to physicians, using an Internet-based, software-as-a-service model, would feel the effects of the government’s current position, since it’s a Web-based insurgent, versus big, old-line vendors like General Electric, Allscripts and Cerner, which Bush feels would gain more.

At a recent healthcare conference, Bush said that established technology is being given a federally funded new lease on life, but that government programs tend to favor big companies.

In addition to Bush’s enthusiasm, David Blumenthal, the national health information technology coordinator in the Obama administration, has said that the electronic health record is a tool for bringing measurement, data-based decision-making and accountability to the practice of medicine.

Therefore, the computerized patient record serves as a step toward changing compensation of medicine and the economics of health care.