No substitutions. I dislike it when I see that phrase on a restaurant’s menu. Why can’t patrons change up entrées a bit to suit their palates? Maybe this inflexibility rubs me the wrong way because at Allscripts we are so focused on an Open approach.  We want developers to be able to access data from our electronic health records (EHR) system, pair it with new functionality and create a wide variety of apps that satisfy the cravings of healthcare providers. That’s why we sponsor the Open App Challenge.  It’s a great way to showcase the innovation that emerges when inventors have access to the right ingredients to help improve health care. For example, Mana Health’s new app taps patient records to produce visual decision trees that better enable clinicians to make accurate diagnoses at the point of care. Taking advantage [...]

For me success for Open is when we, the inventors of it, are surprised by what people do. Imagine you make steel beams. You might expect people to use them to build skyscrapers and bridges. But someday, someone will build the Eiffel Tower. And we’ll respond with amazement, “You can make that?!” If people only do what we can imagine, then we haven’t built a successful toolkit. When innovators use what you give them to creatively assemble a brand new solution, that’s success. That’s what the Open App Challenge was all about. Phase 1 recipients proved that with access to the right toolkit (Allscripts APIs), they can help solve some of the most vexing problems in health care. For example, keeping patients safe during shift changes. Paving the way for smooth handoffs between care teams Smart Sign Out is working [...]

You tell me, which instruction is easier to understand? 1. Dissect the perforated 5 cm incision (ref. Slot B) on the host structure with the 4.8 cm x 6 cm freestanding flap (ref. Tab A). Adhere the flap to the anterior side of the host structure with a parallel application of a non-toxic adhesion strip. 2. Insert Tab A into Slot B. Secure with tape. For most people, number 2 contains all the info we need. But for a structural engineer, number 1 is more in line with the language of the trade, and includes additional details that could make the difference between the success and failure. The same is true in health care. Physicians need rich, clinical data when making decisions about patient care. But, you can’t expect patients to translate their symptoms into technical medical speak. That’s where [...]

  We always share news from the HIMSS annual conference, but this year was one for big announcements. Here’s what we did at the show to further our vision of a Connected Community of HealthTM: 1. Grew the Allscripts family with two strategic acquisitions Welcome to the family, dbMotion and Jardogs.  These two leading healthcare technology companies will help provide solutions that enable our clients to address some of their biggest challenges: population health management, interoperability and consumer engagement. Reaction to these acquisitions from investors, clients and media has been overwhelmingly positive. One analyst remarked that acquiring two familiar assets will help Allscripts, with dbMotion’s installed base in particular already executing on our connected community strategy. 2. Co-Founded an industry partnership We’re a founding member of the CommonWell Health Alliance, a not-for-profit that supports universal access to healthcare data. It’s an association [...]

Are you going to HIMSS 2013? Our team is traveling to New Orleans to spend time, face-to-face, with the greater Connected Community of Health™. Here are three reasons to stop by Allscripts booth (#3441): 1)      Be among the first to know the Allscripts Open App Challenge award recipients. On Monday, March 4 at 3 p.m. Central time, we’ll announce the 15 Phase 1 award recipients. Our judges will have completed the daunting task of selecting from 98 entries, all from innovators on a mission to improve healthcare. They are starting a revolution to reform healthcare, and you can get an early look at their solutions. 2)      Change the game for your revenue cycle. While the focus in healthcare has been on regulatory compliance, the time has come to now focus on revenue cycle management. Hospitals and health systems need a flexible [...]

For years, we’ve talked about the value of Open as an approach. A culture. A capability. It’s all very abstract. So how do we know it’s working? Judging by the response to Allscripts Open App Challenge — Open is working. Developers are on a mission to improve healthcare. Innovators are solving problems in different areas, such as: Clinical insights, creating clinical alerts Data mining, data analysis Patient connections – not just portals, but helping to build an even closer relationship between physician and patient And of course connecting patient home devices to the physicians clinical systems We’ll introduce Phase 1 award recipients, selected by our esteemed panel of judges, at HIMSS 2013. These are crisp examples of the power of Open. Sharing our Application Programming Interface (API) with others has sparked creative solutions to the industry’s most pressing problems. That’s [...]

Developers showed they are eager to “Start a Revolution” by designing and integrating applications to extend Allscripts Open Electronic Health Records software.  We have 217 companies and teams registered to participate.  At the close of the Allscripts Open App Challenge Phase 1, 98 of those registered submitted their ideas and integration for judging. The early concepts are incredible and include tools to improve diabetes management, patient scheduling and end-of-life planning. Some apps help make safety net facility information more accessible and others help providers manage sample medications. They all have a mission to improve healthcare. Our judges now have the daunting task of reviewing the submissions and selecting 15 Phase 1 winners, to be announced at the HIMSS13 annual conference, on March 4, 2013 at 3 p.m. Central time at the Allscripts booth. Judges are looking for apps that either [...]

As I shared in my post What’s Motivating Healthcare Innovators?, I’m encouraged by my conversations with Allscripts Open App Challenge developers. Solving healthcare problems is not about financial gain for them; it’s a mission to help others. It’s about transforming healthcare. To make this happen, all of healthcare IT has to work together – and so do our solutions.  Interoperability is key to unlocking the potential that technology has to offer. The Open App Challenge holds promise beyond any one vendor or company.  By fostering innovation and collaboration, we have a much better chance to solve problems we once thought were unsolvable. Phase One of the challenge is underway. We’ll likely have far more high-quality applications than we can recognize. I wish I were one of the judges that will review fascinating ideas from inspiring innovators.   Consider Dr. Phillip [...]

In preparation for an upcoming talk on how Open is driving innovation in healthcare, I contacted a number of applicants to Allscripts Open App Challenge. Over the course of just a couple of days, I was able to video chat with CEOs and Founders of HappyHealth.me, SampleRx, Purple Binder, ROYL, Chiron Data Systems, mHealthCoach and more. My main reason for contacting them wasn’t so much to understand what their companies do. Rather, I wanted to understand WHY they had started a healthcare company. I was inspired to learn more after hearing the story of Samuel Pierpont Langley in this amazing Ted Talk by Simon Sinek, one of the most famous Ted Talks ever. A couple of takeaways from my interactions with these innovators: First, these innovators have extremely deep understandings of their domains within healthcare. Whether that’s making it easier [...]

2012 was an awesome year. We released 3 versions of Allscripts Wand™ application for the iPad®. Wand 1.1 turns Wand from a roaming nurse product into a physician one (Clinical Documentation, Orders & Charge). More than 500,000 patients have been touched by a healthcare provider using Wand. Not bad for a product that’s just over 6 months old. Let’s look at Wand as an example application – we used our open API (Application Programming Interface) to build Wand. Yes, we eat our own dog food. Every screen, every field – everything you can see on an iPad – is available in our open API. (an API is like a command language – Sit, Stay, Roll Over… fetch the Doc’s schedule) In 2012 we built Wand and the open API that made that magic all happen. And a few of our partners also delivered [...]