Code and Project Updates

[Brendan Levy]

Sorry, I realize my own code updates have been slow, but as my interview
season slows down (I have finished 8 of 14) I will try to pick up the
pace. More importantly I wanted to let you know that as I have been
traveling I have seen first hand the struggles people are having with
current EMR technology, both in massive and distinguished hospitals and
in tiny community centers. I have even seen how many really major and
famous healthcare organizations have yet to even adopt an EMR. One of
the largest hopsitals in the country which I just visited is using
FileMaker to basically run the show.

At the same time I have realized that for some of the more complex
integrations we will need to do ultimately we are going to need at least
some full time staff. To that end I will be meeting with members of the
UW School of Public Health and the OpenMRS team, members of the Gates
Foundation, and the CIO's of some area hospitals to see what they think
of current efforts and how they would direct resources.

All of which is to say I am even more committed to this project now that
I have seen that the problems I have trained with are not isolated to a
region, system, or healthcare setting (which does of course agree with
the statistics, but it is nice to see it first hand), and I really hope
we can produce a prototype for springtime and maybe begin trying to
associate ourselves with some institutional efforts!

Hope to see you all soon on the site or online!

Yours,
Brendan