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Software for searches in EMR database

By Kristina Cleveland posted 03-11-2015 04:25 PM

  

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone knew of a software company that had a product that would piggie back an EMR system? We are trying to find a software to purchase that could attach to our EMR and we could run reports for more specific criteria. Our current EMR has reporting but it is limited by only diagnosis, age criteria, medication and medical history diagnosis. I can not search key words in bodies of text, which would be extremely helpful.  I would appreciate any advice you could offer.

Sincerely,
Kristina Cleveland, CCRC

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04-06-2015 01:21 PM

Hi Kristina,
We have been doing research on software for Remote Monitoring and one key aspect of this process is integration with EHRs, so I can share some of our findings.
During our conversations with a few hundred research sites, from small to large academic sites, we have found that some of the largest organizations have an IT team dedicated to connecting directly to the database behind the EHR and the analysis on the data is usually ad-hoc. This seems to be big problem for researchers, because it is not fast (usually a few days to find the availability of the team to build the ad-hoc queries and obtain the reports), and thus not an optimal solution, but that is what they have to live with.
Alternatively, we have seen some companies trying to integrate with EHRs but in some cases this is very expensive (the EHRs are charging hefty fees to allow integration per site), and difficult, because each EHR, even if it is the same product, is customized here and there to meet the needs of each site. This ends up in software tools that don't support a wide variety of EHRs and its customized flavors. (Vendors would integrate with your flavor for an additional cost on top of the cost of the solution)
Also, some other companies try to connect directly into the database, with similar issues as above, (multiple EHRs, multiple flavors) and also require heavy IT involvement from the site.
So, what we found is that it is a difficult proposition to find something out of the shelf that will work for you.
As part of our research within the GA Tech Startup Engineering program (Flashpoint), we are implementing an Electronic Research Binder for clinical trials, and we have a feature where records can be 'sent' to our solution from an EHR directly. Once the data are in the Research Binder, we will be able to do the analysis that you require, however, our solution doesn't extract all the data from an EHR, but only the records that belong to patients on the trials.
I hope this helps in any way.
Andres Garcia | CTO
Florence Healthcare
a Georgia Tech Flashpoint Company
andres.garcia@florencehc.com
+1 (470) 207-3701