A “chip off the old soft” for improving clinical workflow

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Regular HealthBlog readers are familiar with my rants about the need for more flexible, lower-cost, more intuitive electronic medical record solutions that facilitate rather than inhibit clinical workflow. They also know that I frequently report seeing better solutions overseas than I typically encounter in the US. Some of the best of these clinical solutions are built from the ground up using lots of readily available, off-the-shelf software components and products from Microsoft. I’ve seen solutions that have been built entirely by the hospitals or health systems using them. I have also seen some really great commercial products offered by companies in the particular country or region of the world I’m visiting. The word “legacy” is not a part of the vocabulary when talking about these solutions. Maybe that’s part of the reason why electronic medical records are being used more extensively in places like Europe than in the US.

WP_000843An example of one of these commercially available solutions comes from a company called ChipSoft. The company provides fully integrated information and workflow management systems for healthcare organizations across Europe. ChipSoft currently serves more than 85 healthcare organizations including hospitals, nursing homes, mental healthcare institutions and private clinics. The number of users at each healthcare center ranges from just a few, to more than 10,000 within some of the large university hospitals on the system.

During the World of Health IT event in Copenhagen last May I sat down with Hans Mulder, CEO of ChipSoft. Hans Mulder comes from a medical family. His father, a surgeon, founded ChipSoft 27 years ago. I suspect that explains the high degree of focus on clinical workflow and solutions that fit the way clinicians actually work. During my visit with Mr. Mulder, I also interviewed two of his customers, both representing big university health systems that had recently gone paperless thanks to ChipSoft’s clinical solutions.

You can see the entire interview including a quick overview of the ChipSoft solution below. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Bill Crounse, MD Senior Director, Worldwide Health Microsoft

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