Dell and the American Medical Association announced yesterday that they were teaming up to offer before the end of the year "one-stop shopping" for electronic health record (EHR) and ePrescribing systems, hardware and consulting services. The AMA says it has developed a "new health information solutions platform for physicians" that "is currently being beta tested in Michigan in collaboration with the Michigan State Medical Society."
Dell owns Perot Systems which has a large healthcare consulting business.
According to the joint press release:
"The new AMA platform is aimed at helping practicing physicians assess and meet their clinical and practice needs. It will provide physicians access to information, products, services, and resources to help facilitate medical practice and ease adoption of health information technology. The AMA will partner with physicians and their practice staff from the initial selection of products and services through implementation to ensure meaningful results."
The press release wasn't very forthcoming in describing what this "health information solutions platform" is in its entirety, but news reports from last year indicate that it is consists partially at least of the Isabel PRO diagnosis decision support system. What EHR or ePrescribing system(s) the AMA is planning to offer as part of its platform is not clear, at least to me. Anyone with better information about the specifics I would like to hear about it.
The Dell/AMA announce follows by about a year Wal-Mart's decision to selling EHRs at its Sam's Clubs, although how well this business is going doesn't seem to clear from its financial statements. I also don't recall any ads with doctors saying, "I bought my EHR at Sam's Club."
Dell provides the hardware support for Wal-Mart in its effort as well.
Robert N. Charette is a Contributing Editor to IEEE Spectrum and an acknowledged international authority on information technology and systems risk management. A self-described “risk ecologist,” he is interested in the intersections of business, political, technological, and societal risks. Charette is an award-winning author of multiple books and numerous articles on the subjects of risk management, project and program management, innovation, and entrepreneurship. A Life Senior Member of the IEEE, Charette was a recipient of the IEEE Computer Society’s Golden Core Award in 2008.
