Speaking at TEPR (Towards an Electronic Patient Record) will undoubtedly go on record as one of my career highlights for 2005.  Between the various vendors, the other speakers, and the old friends I bumped into, this year's TEPR was one of the most enjoyable conferences I have attended.  If you ask anyone from TEPR they'll tell you this was the best event they have put on thus far in their 21-year history.  According to Peter Waegemann (CEO, Medical Records Institute), TEPR brought "3500 attendees from 22 countries as well as a record-breaking number of faculty and exhibitors."

Without a doubt the US Government's renewed focus on improving healthcare IT has brought TEPR to an even more prominent place in our industry, however, with more vendors and faculty in attendance than ever before, but slightly fewer attendees (4000 in 2004, 3500 in 2005), I am beginning to wonder if its only the EMR Vendors who are getting the message.  

For the second year in a row, David J. Brailer, MD, PhD, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, was billed as the prestigious keynote speaker for the Government Initiatives track - unfortunately he was forced to miss the event because of an emergency White House meeting.  He did, however, offer the keynote address in 2004 and has shown that TEPR and the Medical Records Institute are institutions that have the government's support.

A number of EMR companies were able to take home some pretty prestigious awards at this year's TEPR.  Congratulations to all of them.

The 2005 TEPR Top Award Winners in each category included PatientKeeper (Mobile Applications for Use in Healthcare), eClinicalWorks (E-Prescription Management Systems & EHR Systems for Small Practices), Physician Micro Systems (EHR Systems for Medium and Large Practices), Cerner (EHR Systems for Hospitals), Axolotl Corporation (EHR Systems for Medical Transcription), and Office Practicum (Pediatric Awards).

If your company wasn't able to take home one of the prestigious top awards, don't fret.  We have created some additional awards of our own that we'd like to present at this time.  In fact, many consider the honor associated with receiving an InvestMed Informal Award to be just a couple steps shy of a Nobel Peace Prize (yes, in fact, that is sarcasm).

InvestMed Informal TEPR Vendor Awards -

**The TEPR Best Booth Award, InvestMed '05 - Allscripts, by far, had one of the most innovative and well-placed booths at the event.  Complete with a giant red inflatable ball suspended above the crowd like a hot air balloon, comfortable couches, private demo area, an iPod give-a-way, and a reasonable number of employees for the size of the area - the Allscripts booth was, in fact, so sexy that I nearly stopped and took a nap on one of the red couches.  Only my fear of getting too comfortable and accidentally purchasing an EMR stopped me.  Kudos to Allscripts.

**The Unstoppable Force Award, InvestMed '05 - The NextGen and Misys Booths both were stacked shoulder to shoulder with employees.  Each time I passed these two booths, both at large prime locations, they held a sea of employees ready to swallow up any marketing lead they could swim too, however, few or no attendees were in sight.  Because the army of black (NextGen) and blue (Misys) were both adequately armed and ready for battle, this award goes to both vendors.  I am confident that both companies must have taken home a plethora of marketing leads from the event, however, I am equally confident they could have done it with just 1/2 of the manpower they sent.

**The Crowded House Award, InvestMed '05 - Although I'm sure that the various iPod Give-A-Ways and other drawings probably yielded some solid mailing lists for several of the vendors, no booth had quite the pull and the personal appeal of the small TekVisions booth during my time there.  There wasn't much to this simple 10x10 booth, pretty non-descript actually.  Perhaps it was the sleek new touchscreen Kiosk terminals that had just arrived on the market, but these self-service computers brought quite a crowd.  Undoubtedly, other larger booths with better placements probably brought more total attendees, but this award goes to the little booth with the big new technology.

**The Ridiculously Cool Give-A-Way Award, InvestMed '05 - A lucky attendee at TEPR could walk away with an iPod, a TREO 650, or even a Playstation 2 Portable at some vendor's booth.  However, Pulse Systems - with their $25,000 Big Dog Motorcycle -  showed my coveted prize at the event.  To win the motorcycle, all that was required was a little pull on the PulseEMR slot machine.  I was only mildly pleased at my consolation gift of the cool t-shirt following my pull, however, I was genuinely happy for Dr. Tadeusz Kotas who was the man who got to ride off on the sunset with that bad boy.  For all of us wearing Pulse T-Shirts -- next year, right?

**The Solid Under Pressure Award, InvestMed '05 - The contests between the EMR/EHRs at this event were visibly grueling to the competitors.  The ones that I witnessed first hand were completely exhausting to the competitors.  For example, in the Pediatric EHR competition, real-world (however, uniquely complicated) scenarios were placed before each software company.  Each vendor had roughly 2 minutes to show how they would address these scenarios in their software (10 scenarios for a total of 20 minutes).  Vendors were given a portion of the questions beforehand, however, a detailed portion of each question was sprung on each vendor at the show.  I noticed that the vendors who did better during the competition were the ones who spent some time in their demo databases entering these fictitious competition patients prior to the beginning of the show.  Regardless, I was impressed with all of the vendors involved.  They were all Solid Under Pressure, and so this award goes to every EMR company who took the plunge and entered the competition - a competition run and judged by expert doctors and performed in front of their fiercest competitors.

One example of a question asked during the pediatric competition included a scenario where a boy from Lithuania who had been an existing patient changed him name from something like "Zhutan Bulgradigrazky" to "Timmy Smith" and each vendor had to demonstrate how, after changing his name in the system, they would be able to find his account when eClaims were being returned under the name "Zhutan Bulgradigrazky."  Frankly, it would take me more than 2 minutes just to pronounce the old name. 

**The I'm Too Sexy For This Show Award, InvestMed '05 - This award goes to two top EMR vendors who, for some reason, failed to make this year's show at all.  Epic Systems (Madison, Wisconsin) and IDX Systems (Burlington, Vermont), to my knowledge, were quietly and completely absent from TEPR 2005 - this in a year where there were a record number of vendors in attendance.  I guess the old adage, you have to play to win, isn't always correct as both Vendors take home the "I'm Too Sexy For This Show" award.

 

Regardless if you are a Healthcare Technology Vendor, a reseller, or a medical practice, TEPR offers a unique perspective into the entire EHR/EMR industry that can only be experienced by attending this one-of-a-kind event.  Sure, there are other conferences that have a large number of great lectures and workshops -- TEPR had over 400.  And yes, there are events with more vendors, however, TEPR had an enormous conference room filled with the majority of the industry's biggest and most innovative vendors -- more than you can see in one day!  These, however, are not the real reasons to go to TEPR.

The real uniqueness in the TEPR experience is found is the fact that they combine the high-level education with the pomp of the tradeshow, and then inject the high-level head-to-head vendor competition of having EMR companies view each other's demos, 'one up' each other on their individual technology, and then strategically plan for next year as they continually work to improve the solutions they offer a medical practice.

At the end of each year's TEPR, the real winners are the medical offices who choose to implement a TEPR-Forged EMR -- each EMR influenced by the collective knowledge gained and distributed at this prestigious event.

-- Kevin Burdick,               
InvestMedLLC.com        

 

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July 2005, TOP STORY:  Physicians for the Physician Office

May 2005, TOP STORY:  How to Be a F.A.B.Z.-ulous Salesperson