Going hands-free

The EHR market has seen interesting developments in mergers and technological advancements over the past month.

Medtronic will acquire Covidien $42.9 billion for a total of 87,000 employees in more than 150 countries. One goal of the merger is improved globalization—the two companies have combined revenues of $13 billion from outside the U.S., of which $3.7 billion comes from emerging markets.

Does this hint of the coming consolidation of the EHR market? Many have predicted fewer companies with greater market share for some time.

Meanwhile, drchrono has created the first “wearable health record” through its software designed to work with Google Glass.  

By integrating Google Glass into its EHR, drchrono has created a mobile wearable medical experience for physicians who can look at medical records, videos and pictures hands free.

drchrono has been slowly releasing the tool to physicians over the past few months. About 300 doctors requested access, said Daniel Kivatinos, co-founder and COO, in an interview with Clinical Innovation + Technology . Each physician requires about one hour of configuration and training.

“Physicians want to see certain data in near real-time,” said Kivatinos. The software serves as a “backseat driver” to put information into the record. “It’s like someone is sitting there on the other side streaming video and putting information into the Glass.”

Will other vendors follow suit and find ways to make their products and services more mobile and futuristic? Time will tell. As Kivatinos said, the future is wide open. “Glass is very new so I’m sure some really interesting use cases are going to come out of it and the way that we’re using it.”

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor