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Topic: Health

Cheap EHR: electronic health records on Kindle Fire

Summary: Here's another low-cost electronic record keeping option that will help small doctors' offices and medical facilities bring records into the modern age.

Denise Amrich

By for ZDNet Health |

Electronic health records have the potential to transform America's medical system. But not all health professionals can afford large-scale, enterprise-class electronic health record management systems.

Last month, I wrote an article, Free and open source healthcare software for your practice, which seems to have resonated with many of you.

This makes sense. Medical practitioners range from very small businesses to enormous corporations, and like all other areas of computing, one size does not fit all.

Based on your feedback, one of my editorial goals will be to continue to find and spotlight innovative and less-costly methods to implement patient record keeping and computer technology within medical practices.

To that end, I'll share with you a new one: EHR on your Kindle Fire. If you think about it, the Kindle Fire is actually an almost ideal device for in-office use (with the possible exception of the too-tight integration to an Amazon account). The Kindle Fire is robust and very inexpensive as computing devices go. It's easy to carry, easy to use, and easy to read for almost all patients and staff.

In the following video, a company called drchrono (yep, all lower-case), showcases a patient check-in app for the Kindle Fire. I haven't tried it, but it does seem to provide a taste of low-cost options medical practitioners can look forward to in the coming years.

Topics: Health, Amazon

About

Denise Amrich is a Registered Nurse, the health care advisor for the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute, and a mentor for the Virtual Campus at Florida's Brevard Community College.


Nothing in this article is meant to be a substitute for medical advice, and shouldn't be considered as such. If you are in need of medical help, please see your doctor.

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5 comments
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  • Recent Switch To Electronic Records

    My hospital recently switched to electronic records and now after having a blood test, I return in two days and it takes me almost an hour to get a copy where it used to take 5 minutes! So much for this new technology.
    glen@...
    Reply Vote

  • EHR

    Is your doctor a speed typist or data entry person? Did he/she even take typing in school? Is your doctor accurate when he types in data about your visit? Does it make sense for a doctor who should generate $200+ in charges per hour (not his/her income) to be typing when a transcriber is paid somewhere around $25 per hour? I like what the EHR has to offer, but it is far from perfect. Having your doctor type when talking to you, but not looking at you, has removed even more personal interaction between doctor and patient. It is important for the doctor to see your face and body language to appreciate such things as how much pain you have. Incidentally my doctor sees fewer patients now that he has to do data entry. This is occurring when there is a growing shortage of primary care doctors. Obamacare adds tens of millions of patients to the health care system, yet nothing in the law adds more doctors.
    Does the Kindle Fire meet the requirements for HIPAA (confidentiality/security)?
    I am a retired doctor.
    radar_z
    Reply Vote

  • And then what?

    Once the information is stored in the app on the Kindle what comes next? Does the receptionist have to manually transcribe that information into their Practice Management and/or EHR systems? How can they retrieve the information and incorporate it into their PMS and EHR systems?

    Also, there needs to be a way to populate the list of appointments on the Kindle directly from the appointment scheduling system in their PMS or EHR system rather than slowly and laboriously entering each patient.

    Also, many times practices DO double/triple book a given appointment time. This app appears to think that should not be allowed.
    jejamcl
    Reply Vote

  • re: time for seeing patients

    I can type faster than I can ever write. The data entry is just formally inputting the information and having it - kind of legible!
    In a public setting, if you had to decipher the writing of some colleagues, you would be in for a task!
    I had typing lessons in the days of the Hermes typewriter, long before the internet Tsunami which has taken the world by storm!
    Today its kind of difficult to turn the digital clock back, so we collectively have to roll with the punches and improve our typing skills!
    roythomas@...
    Reply Vote

  • Web based EHR

    I think that web based EHR is an alternative solution, which is cheap and device independent. It doesn't matter, which hand held device you are using, you just need Internet access. Another advantage is that it will be location independent.
    abidshahzad
    Reply Vote
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