In many cases, a simple solution with a well defined market wins. EDIG is in the HARDWARE business for the most part with regard to the eVU and the medical market....patients and families in hospital rooms, waiting rooms, etc. This is assuming that they ever make a sale in THIS market. This has absolutely nothing to do with the healthcare IT stimulus package, but more to do with entertainment (and possibly patient education). Most medical software that is built for the future is modern day ASP or software-as-a-service (SaaS) where the device itself is almost irrelevant. The internet-delivered software and the people on the other side working remotely for the client are where it's at.

10 years ago I studied more than 50 electronic record solutions before deciding that none of them came close to being satisfactory with regard to speed, ease of use and function face-to-face with patients. Believe me in saying that EDIG really doesn't want to be in this market. I am, however, as after finding no solutions that worked well for a high volume orthopedic surgery practice, I co-ventured with some ex-Anderson Consulting people to build our own solution (ClinicSuite) We are 8 years in and have more than 4 million lines of code in a solution that looks very simple on the surface.

I practice othopedic surgery (hands) and our solution is specifically for the subspecialty of orthopedics. Most of the solutions that have been on the market for 10+ years were initially built with the intent to sell to "everyone" or all specialties. In the end, these soltutions are cumbersome, slow, and poorly adapted to individual specialties. These same companies are the few that have CCHIT (certification). If really good electronic medical record systems were available for all subspecialties, government stimulus money really wouldn't be needed. Physicians are willing to pay for solutions that work. Unfortunately, the healthcare IT stimulus is encouraging physicians to purchase solutions that don't really work well for them just because they are the solutions with the pre-existing certification. The whole "Meaningful use" debate continues, but I really don't trust Washington to do the right thing.

I would like to think that function will win and dogs will lose. Sometimes a well-funded dog survives.

sorry to drift off topic. I'll disappear back into my hole and get lost in my two jobs. Hope to check in some day soon to see that we have something of substance to talk about with regard to EDIG.