I would like to respond to [the letter “Disappointed in PITO vendors chosen], BCMJ 2008;50:13-14. [2]
Disappointment abounds in the wake of the PITO selection process; this has been felt by physician users and EMR vendors alike. Users of non-selected EMRs will not receive subsidies and fear that their investment of time and energy may be lost; vendors of non-selected EMRs see lost opportunity and fear the loss of current business.
As both the user of a non-approved EMR (elliottEMR.ca) and CEO of the same company. I believe this disappointment is unfounded. I love using my EMR and have seen no other product to which I would change even if subsidized to do so.
Most other EMR users feel the same way. As an EMR vendor I celebrate the fact that I am not bound by the government-driven requirements of the Master Agreement[1]—that is, that development of my product will be market-driven, not government-driven.
The caution of physician consumers, suspicion around the entire BC government eHealth process,[2] and privacy concerns[3] have resulted in business being very slow for PITO-approved vendors (according to Mr Jeremy Smith, PITO director, addressing the SSPS of BC, 30 January 2008).
Meanwhile a plethora of non-approved EMR vendors, unfettered by the restrictions of PITO contracts, continue to hone their products. The resulting intense competition and the freeware economics of the Internet promise physicians state-of-the-art technology at dramatically lower prices, prices that I predict will be highly competitive with the subsidized price of PITO-approved products.
Running parallel is an explosion of innovation in the broader medical information technology marketplace; witness patient empowerment being embraced by personal health records (PHRs—for example, the CMA’s mydoctor.ca[4] and elliottPHR.ca[5]), and developments in medical imaging (OpenSourcePACS), pharmacy communications (SmartenRX), and epidemiology GIS (zyxware).
Despair not, BC physicians—be patient, the market will rule, and you and your patients will be the big winners.
—Tom Elliott, MBBS
Vancouver