tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4384692836709903146.post3801984461040230013..comments2024-03-18T04:38:01.678-07:00Comments on Dispatch from the Digital Health Frontier: A Bold New Vision for Meditech John Halamkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04550236129132159307noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4384692836709903146.post-43499968332504407862013-10-23T14:00:52.456-07:002013-10-23T14:00:52.456-07:00While the comments that John expressed show some e...While the comments that John expressed show some encouraging signs for Meditech - they were largely comments directed for the provider side. But what about the patient? Who is speaking up for them?<br />Meditech's patient portal product lacks mobile functionality at this time. As mobile technology continues to grow and more people use mobile to access information - why wasn't this taken into consideration before now?<br />The last I read Meaningful Use is largely a way to keep the patient engaged with their health record with the provider - not just the provider accessing the information.<br />So when will that be part of this conversation? Sooner than later is my hope. Before it's too late.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4384692836709903146.post-72049948210248624152013-05-09T18:38:44.794-07:002013-05-09T18:38:44.794-07:00John,
I found your post incredibly informative, a...John,<br /><br />I found your post incredibly informative, and your take, very insightful. From your comments, as well as Spencer's(above), it's clear that the opinion on Meditech is that they continue to struggle in their delivery of advanced technology - and I feel this is a reflection of the strategic direction and innovation provided from their organization as a whole. As a health system, making a long-term decision (10 years), I don't believe I could entrust the future of my organization's on a relationship with them. Perhaps, if there were an opportunity to re-evaluate in 10 years, and they'd shown significant progression in areas of: Integration, Analytics, and Predictive Modeling, then I'd consider. Many Meditech clients are much like the vendor - reactive. Unfortunately, that is what has fed the massive M&A movement over the past 5 years, and will be the downfall to organizations in a reimbursement world where those who are leading are "winning", not the followers. At this moment, if I am a health system, I am only considering Cerner and Epic. It's interesting which organizations favor these vendors. It appears to me that organizations that are still very transactionally-driven and concerned with Physician Billing, are selecting Epic. While many organizations that are focused on system agnosticism, and leveraging a variety of data sources to drive Population Health - are choosing Cerner. Someone go look what Advocate Health is doing. I will say they are the first to truly approach Population Health - and that strategy is one we are following closely!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4384692836709903146.post-67166932279056175922013-05-08T05:27:45.581-07:002013-05-08T05:27:45.581-07:00MEDITECH is proud to admit they are building their...MEDITECH is proud to admit they are building their own proprietary web server for 6.1 instead of using a standards based open source or commercially available one. Mass pride will soon be their downfall.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4384692836709903146.post-44236274652832993142013-05-07T12:36:36.853-07:002013-05-07T12:36:36.853-07:00John,
You and I have been together in a number of...John,<br /><br />You and I have been together in a number of groups over the years, and I too have expressed my frustration with Meditech's lack of adherence to "standards" over the years. While 6.0 was a step in the right direction, there were a number of missteps and oversights in 6.0. We all know that a vendor needs to get something to market quickly to be able to recoup development costs, but there is a fine art to determining when a product is ready for prime-time. Likewise, most in our industry is aware of the concept of "Moore's Law" - Intel co-founder Gordon Moore's observance that basically technology capabilities double every two yeras. Historically, Meditech's capabilities have failed to live up to the expectations of Moore's law, and that is why 6.0 was such a huge step in the Meditech community. <br /><br />My fear is that Meditech will bring 6.1 to market with a cloud-based, web enabled product that runs on multiple platforms, and that the same underlying architechture will be in-place in 10 years even after the marketplace has moved forward. <br /><br />I remember when I opened up a new hospital for Methodist Healthcare in Houston back in 2000. We installed Meditech's Client/Server with full clinicals during that installation. I wanted to do some things different in that new install - some new technologies, some not so new. However, we couldn't get Meditech to support WAN VPN connectivity, even though such technology was commonplace in 2000. I personally have never seen a "technology" company so slow to adopt new technologies as Meditech. I still fight this battle with Meditech, trying to get the company to support true enterprise architechture. Don't believe me, just see the hassle you have to put up with when you try to get Meditech on-board with the transition of data to a NetApp or Compellent SAN, or the use VMWare in a true enterprise configuration - not just a configuration devoted strictly to Meditech.<br /><br />While I applaud John's findings of 6.1's capabilities, I worry that the system will not be kept up-to-date with new, emerging technologies and will become obsolete soonafter introduction. Sorry to be a naysayer in this context, but when dealing with Meditech lately, my experience is one where you can't even get wireless access in their conference room, and their Application Specialists can't deliver a Microsoft Project Plan for an implementation. My confidence isn't just based on the product, but the behavior of the company in general. Spencer Hamons, CHCIOhttp://itpodcast.orgnoreply@blogger.com