The AMA asks if we can create doctors better equipped to deal with the EHR. The question lit up Twitter and its growing numbers of health professionals. But this is the wrong question. Framing the question becomes important when you consider how we have related to our tools as a profession. Technology has traditionally served to extend the hand of the ... Continue Reading about Industry Applies – Man Conforms
Slack – 4 Ways It Will Save Health Care
Chrissy Farr at CNBC has reported that Slack may be posturing for a health care move. Recent changes in the site’s HIPAA compliance suggest that it may be readying to allow providers to share patient information in a clinical environment. I’m thrilled. Why? Physicians have no means of communication. Sounds dramatic? Not really. Or, I should qualify that they have ... Continue Reading about Slack – 4 Ways It Will Save Health Care
The EHR Thank You Crisis
This is awkward but I think we need to stop saying thank you. At least in the EHR. Take the health professional who responds to 25 staff messages per day. With all dutifully addressed in the early afternoon, by the end of the day they’ll often find their inbox full again. And each one with nothing more than a ‘thank you.’ A kind of warm and fuzzy last word in an ... Continue Reading about The EHR Thank You Crisis
Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff – How to Clean Clinical Workflows
If you want to see how the machine of medicine can be changed, read Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff in the New England Journal of Medicine. Under the leadership of Dr. Melinda Ashton at Hawaii Pacific Health, getting rid of stupid stuff was initiated to improve the inefficiencies of health professionals at the ground level. This program sought nominations for EHR ... Continue Reading about Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff – How to Clean Clinical Workflows
Within Normal Limits
If you poke around old medical records you’ll find WNL written in parts of the physical exam. Neurological: WNL. It means within normal limits. It’s the pen and ink dotphrase used through most of paper record history by physicians to indicate that the organ or system under exam was unremarkable. One of medicine’s most versatile and open-ended acronyms, within ... Continue Reading about Within Normal Limits
Keyboarding Doctors: Would You Hire a Doctor Who Can’t Type?
In 2011 I wrote about typing as a critical physician skill. Things haven’t changed much. Voice recognition has improved but admittedly only works in certain contexts. Typing remains key. It’s the interface to the digital world. You can quibble about EHRs but the critical nature of keyboarding goes well beyond records and impacts how we connect to the world. As I ... Continue Reading about Keyboarding Doctors: Would You Hire a Doctor Who Can’t Type?