As the Australian health system upgrades to digital patient records, interoperability has been a hot topic among the leaders in the health IT community. But a recent report from Medical Director¹ shows that practitioners are reluctant to embrace the capabilities of data sharing and interoperability due to a number of concerns. These concerns are not specific to Australia but seen in many regions.

Paul Mooney investigates the drawbacks which can often arise with EMR pricing. Traditional EMR vendors want you to commit to large perpetual licences. However there are other options, one where the hospital takes less of the risk by sharing it with the vendor and both can share the reward. This strategy means that the vendor is incentivised to get the hospitals EMR up and running quickly, taking months not years. Paul outlines this concept of consumption based pricing, comparing it to traditional based pricing.

The changing face of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). We examine procurement in the US and overseas markets which is driven by the preferred vendor hegemony. Discussing whether using the US as a template for EMR selection is compatible with the health systems in non US markets and also discusses the implications of not including clinicians/end users at the design and implementation stage of an EMR platform.