Over the last four days I’ve taken this procurement apart: what it is, what it means, why change is hard, and what it takes to succeed. Today, to wrap up, here’s the question I find most interesting: what would the perfect EMR actually look like? If you look past the procurement language, this RFP…
Yesterday I said the hardest part isn’t the technology. It’s helping tired clinicians make a change. So today, what would it really take to make that happen? If on Day 3 I showed you the wall, this is how you get over it. Here’s the good news: the team that wrote this RFP has…
Yesterday I talked about what all this means for our vendors and the doctors who rely on them. But beneath the architecture and the market strategy is a tougher, more human problem. And it’s the one that decides everything. Let’s talk about Physician Lock-in Let me say what often goes unsaid. More than nine out…
What This Means for Vendors and for Us, Their Customers Yesterday I explained that the PCMR is not just a shopping list; it is a blueprint for a new way to manage primary care records. Today, the next question is clear: what does this blueprint mean for our current vendors and for us (those who…
This is a five-part series about the PCMR, what Ontario is asking for, and whether we can actually achieve it. Ontario Health has just released one of the most important digital health documents in years. This is a procurement, so they are asking vendors to bid on a new Primary Care Medical Record, or PCMR.…
A new CMAJ study by Kappanam et al maps Canada’s health data interoperability landscape province by province, and their heat map tells a story worth sitting with. The provinces that score best share three things: small populations, a single EMR adopted — or at least designated — province-wide, and a unified Hospital Information System. Prince…
I had the privilege of being asked to speak at the OntarioMD Digital Health Virtual Conference last week. There were almost 600 people in attendance, but if you could not be, here is a written transcript of my talk and the questions that followed! Longer than my usual posts, but hopefully worth the long…
Part 5 of the Rise Up Series: Practical Paths to Healthcare Transformation By Darren Larsen, MD | DarrenLarsen.com I’ve been using EMRs for nearly two decades. The product I use today is functionally identical to what I bought in 2007. Two decades of technological revolution’smartphones, cloud computing, artificial intelligence’and my clinical software has barely changed.…
Part 4 of the Rise Up Series: Practical Paths to Healthcare Transformation By Darren Larsen, MD | DarrenLarsen.com We’re tired. I know. The cognitive load of modern practice is immense – the endless documentation, the referral chasing, the systems that seem designed to slow us down rather than help us care for patients. Most days…
Part 3 of the Rise Up Series: Practical Paths to Healthcare Transformation By Darren Larsen, MD | DarrenLarsen.com Medical associations, regulatory colleges, and universities occupy a unique position in Canadian healthcare. You’re trusted by clinicians in ways that governments and vendors are not. You shape training, standards, and professional identity. You have convening power that…
