Practice Fusion - a Free EMR
Practice Fusion have annouced a free EMR funded by running Google Adsense on the program. This is a great approach to offering free software for doctors. I imagine as time progresses that users of the software will simply ignore the ads completely but new users will probably generate enough revenue to keep things going. They will certainly be busy blocking all the other EMR companies that will be bidding to appear on their pages though…
Practice Fusion Inc., a San Francisco startup, offers systems to put medical records in digital files, a move experts say is one of the keys to controlling health care costs.
Electronic medical records systems generally cost doctors upward of $20,000 to install. But Practice Fusion offers the service at a price that’s hard to beat — free.
The company is set to announce a deal today with Google Inc. to offer physicians and medical groups a Web-based digital medical records system at no cost. The service will be funded by advertising.
Source: SF Gate
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I hope they can succeed where other EMRs have failed (or at least not done so well). The technology behind EMRs is embarrassingly easy to create nowadays — most EMRs are just simple databases that act like electronic typewriters and simple filing cabinets.
I believe that conceptually, Practice Fusion is absolutely on the right track. Having a functional (user friendly), web-based (ubiquitous), interoperable, no cost (OS equivalent), highly functional, seamless software solution for physicians, providers, and related healthcare entities is fabulous.
Finally, but most important, how will patients feel about this? The first time a patient sees a Paxil ad pop up on his physician’s screen, the questions will start flying. And the physician will be in the awkward position of saying that those ads don’t affect his/her decision-making, that the company generating those ads is Google, but not to worry, through the magic of technology, Google has no access to private medical records (and the physician will be crossing his/her fingers hoping that that’s true).
No word as to whether the initial model has been scrapped or if this new concept is complementary. One thing’s for certain, it still raises the hackles of privacy advocates.
May 20th, 2007 at 4:47 am
nice to hear about this kind of EMR
May 20th, 2007 at 4:52 am
I don’t know whether I have to write another comment?
June 25th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
You get what you pay for, I think, and I suspect this wouldn’t be a particularly robust software system. There’s a reason why companies specialize in these kinds of things. Not sure I like (or even buy into) the idea that physicians will click on Google ads while caring for a patient, either. Seems a bit unrealistic.
It’s hard enough to exclusively sustain “free” Internet media sites with Google AdWords.
EMR Medical Software Guy
http://electronic-medical-record.blogspot.com
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:42 pm
All these ’solutions’ assume the physician is the customer. Is a web based solution really ubiquitous and useful to a patient? Portable where no high speed or no web access at all exists? We need something that lives on a cheap thumb drive, and can print a form that a parent can take to elementary school. Not more freeware that can hustle new meds to market.
December 16th, 2007 at 5:11 am
If possible, please update this post to remove the word “free” in the title. I tried to sign up for the “free” service. It is impossible to sign up for the “free” service without providing a credit card which is charged after 30 days for “support”. Even explaining that I did not need support did not give me a “free” option. Practice Fusion is playing bait and switch.
June 16th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I work for Practice Fusion, and I’d like to clear up a few things about our product.
There is a lot of skepticism surrounding the security and quality of our EMR, because it is free and web-based. However, there are many high-quality, web-based applications out there. Google Apps. is just one example. I can honestly say that we deliver the best product and support at absolutely no cost, and with no on-site implementation. And that is why we are one of the fastest growing physician practice communities in the United States. We have outstanding technical support, and we pride ourselves on our ‘Live in Five” process which allows us to get users started within five minutes of calling. If you are interested in learning more about Practice Fusion, you can check out our free EMR. Also, take a look at what others have to say about us: FiercehealthIT, ZDnet, ZDnet.
If you prefer, we invite you all to visit the website and take a demo with a Practice Fusion team member – Simply call us at 415-346-7700.