March 31st, 2012 by Christian Seebode

I pretty much agree with the general message behind this post

http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2012/04000/Commentary___Lost_in_Translation__How_Electronic.8.aspx

especially i would subscribe

EHRs and other forms of health information technology hold the promise of enabling users to provide more effective, more efficient, more coordinated, and safer care dreamstime_xs_13562516

My concern however is another. Since Healthcare in general runs a bit behind in providing adecuate information systems for the people involved in healtcare processes compared to other sectors, healthcare information models have a tendency to be kind of sticky. The EHR model is a bit old fashioned IMHO. A paper record is a perfect representation of the information model within the limits of paper technology. Diggin into the digital domain an EHR may be no more the perfect representation of digitally processed information. I am refering to the fact that RECORDS somehow relates to a data-centric models. No matter the complexity of the concrte EHR implementation. The notion is still a record.

A better approach would be a process oriented or even better Petient Centered model. Modeling healthcare from a patient centered perspective hepls to break down complexity. An EHR that approaches medicine in general could easily be outperformed by small application models that specifically solve small problems and give specific answes or support specific processes.

Another advantage of the application model is to measure application performance and to model application delivery chains

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/28/how-apps-transformed-it/?section=magazines_fortune

it starts by benchmarking its application performance. This means clearly defining what is, and what is not, acceptable application speed, based on the needs of its users.

  • support processes and people instead of data
  • modeling communication and relationships with information technology takes healthcare delivery beyond the restrictions of ancient delivery models
  • the Patient Centered approach reduces complexity of healthcare with improved performance of healthcare processes
  • the App model further reduces complexity and give a possibility to model healthcare chains
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