Will the future of EMR and EHR be open source and/or free advertisement-supported platforms? Marketing and advertising are so important to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, so there shouldn't be any problem funding EHR solutions that are ad-based. Will that be the future model for success?
So many physicians are unable to afford paying for standard EHR solutions. They can't afford the software + hardware + support that is needed to effectively run EHR in their practice. However, if the software cost = $0, then uptake could rise tremendously. Furtheremore, if support could also be FREE, then we'd have a winning solution.
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) is using the term EHR over EMR, so I think that will become standard terminology. Free or open source EHR solutions should be CCHIT certified if they want to be competitive.
