Why are there no Mac’s in the clinic?

The Macs (Apple Macintosh) and most of what has come out from the Apple Factory of Kick Ass Design have been an inspiration to Product Designers and Solution Architects. That inspiration alone has helped todays Software products get Richer in User Experience

In the Health Care industry though, EMR’s, Practice Management Software’s and other Clinical Productivity Tools are primarily built for the ubiquitously available Windows platforms. A huge number are also available for linux, most of these Open Source, and a very small number for the Macs.

In the United States, where the EMR business is filled in with over 300 major vendors, there are apparently only 8 offering EMR’s which are natively built for the Mac.  Read this report by Houston from Software Advice to see these 8 vendors and a fantastic comparison of their features.
Very few vendors actually support the Mac, although a number of them do keep posting news and press releases that they are making one or launching one soon.

This may be a reason why many doctors over the years would want a Mac, but would’nt get one due to the lack of Medical Softwares for it.

In the interest of the majority of doctors reading this, lets ask the questions: “What does one mean when they say that their EMR is natively supported on a Mac? What exactly does it take for an EMR to be supported on a Mac ? What is this native thing I’m talking about”

For an EMR to be natively supported on a Mac, it must be able to be used by a Mac User while the program is running ON the Mac. The program’s code must be understood by the Mac –> The program’s code must speak the Mac’s language and follow the Mac’s set of rules. Windows has its own set of rules and they are different from a Mac. So a program made for Windows unfortunately may not run on a  Mac.

The Mac and the Windows are inherently different, and a software program built for one may not run on the other as the other operating system might not understand what the program is trying to say/do

For an EMR to natively run on a Mac, its underlying code must be understood by the Mac, and it must be following the rules of the Mac.

Smart question asked by Dr Vivek Patkar when I was explaining this above concept to him: Nrip, does this mean that if I have a software made for the Mac, and I can make Windows understand it, then it will run on Windows.
 
This is true and is the underlying reason why the virtualization industry is a boon and is bomming.  A Virtual Machine is a type of software used to create a Virtual Environment, which is referred to as Virtualization. Virtualization may be used to run multiple operating systems at the same time on one Physical Machine. Through the help of a virtual machine, the user can operate software built for one Platform (Or Operating System) on another.

This brings us to a Grand Realization. A SOFTWARE NEED NOT BE NATIVELY SUPPORTED ON A PLATFORM TO BE USED BY IT ANY MORE, AS LONG AS YOU CAN USE A VIRTUAL MACHINE WHICH ALLOWS YOU TO USE IT ON THE INCOMPATIBLE PLATFORM.

Here is a link to 2 fantastic Virtual Machines for the interested. As always, feel free to drop me a line at n.nihalani AT plus91.in for any help.

Virtualbox

VMWare Fusion

In recent times, whether it is due to Apple’s advertising or the Word of Mouth spread that works with Doctors, a Number of Indian Doctors have told us that they are buying a Mac; and if the Clinkare EMR would be supported on it. Yes of Course! Both the desktop version and the SaaS version are supported on the Macs.

Talking of Saas, this category of SaaS and Web Based EMR’s is exciting. THEY ARE USUALLY PLATFORM INDEPENDENT, UNLESS THERE IS A PC COMPONENT WHICH REQUIRES NATIVE SUPPORT: LIKE A SCREENSHOT PLUGIN, OR A VOIP COMPONENT, OR A DICTATION COMPONENT;

In this article on MAC EMR Software, Houston from Software Advice states “Web-based EMRs are the best long-term investment for doctors using Macs. Unlike their on-premise counterparts, vendors offering web-based software won’t have to support two versions of their software (i.e. one for Windows, one for Mac) in the long run ”

One can’t agree more. Every Web Based EMR vendor, knows that their EMR can be used using a Windows , a Mac, a Ubuntu; Users can even use the EMR’s on Tablet PC’s as well as Low Cost Netbooks.

There has been a surge in the adoption of the iPads in many health care institutions(pictures below), here in India, and as reported in the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore. iPads with their form factor well suited for use by On Round Doctors in In-Patient Wards, Nurses while taking down Vitals in Charts and even Assistants in OT’s for Managing Checklists are a hit. 

LabC: Pathology EMR on the iPad

Dr Bhosale trying the Clinkare EMR on her iPad

        
With Virtualization being available and Web Based EMR’s being the popular flavor with vendors, there are now choices available to Physicians and Clinics for Medical Software which can be used with their Mac’s.

If you are in the United States, you may want to use this comparison to help you select the Web based EMR which works best for you

If in India, you really should give the Clinkare Physician EMR a try ...

Tripping for Sales ... June 1st Week

Crash Boom Bang!!! Well that's what we expected when we arrived in Pune late last night from our very interesting and fruitful trip to Kolhapur. Ketan had called in late in the evening to inform us that there had been no electricity in the office for over 2 hours. There were rumours that there would be none of it for probably all of Saturday. Pune had finally been blessed with rain, unfortunately it had been really heavy and a number of trees had fallen all around town. However by the time we reached there, we found Pune to be pleasant and quiet, no rain, no thundering, no lightening... The almighty probably had decided to sleep for a bit... There was no electricity in most of the city though and our rickshaw ride was majorly through darkness. and it was a pleasant surprise when we saw lights on all around Dhole Patil , for we knew this wouldn't be a dark night for us.

As I look back at the past 2 days, very interesting 2 days, a smile comes upon me. I am happy to say that we now have an authorized distributor for Kolhapur, a city where the doctor density shocked me. On an average I am assuming 4 doctors per building... Now where have I seen this before. Actually lets go back 2 days to that bus journey in a Konduskar. As I woke up, to the sounds of Aaloo Chaat blaring on the screen, I looked outside and saw an advertisement of a Mercedes Benz. I was shocked. Was I in Ludhiana.... No...The posters outside informed me ...This was Kolhapur. Our destination had arrived. I was still shocked by that advert as I got down from the bus and looked around. I saw atleast 20 boards announcing different types of doctors. Where was I. This place was like the apt place for Plus91 to set up a marketing office. Paradise... We were to say.... As we went towards our hotel in a rick... All Aditya and me did was count the number of banners for doctors we saw ... 42 ... WOW!!! After a quick check-in ...into Hotel Ranjit ... A nice budget hotel... Nothing fancy...And nothing sub-standard either... We freshened up and went to meet the concerned party. An organization by the name of Orion Computers owned by a gentleman by the name of Prasad. After a good 4 hours of discussions and negotiations, we finally came to a set of mutually beneficial terms and conditions. We agreed on meeting the next morning and signing the documents which would take an hour in the night to prepare, and took off to enjoy the city. Which meant visit some doctors to get the feel of them...

Meeting doctors was easy. Aditya's contacts were available and after a phone call, we had a meeting waiting for us. We met a young gentleman who owned a small hospital, which was housed in a building alongwith 3 other hospitals. Add to that an Ultrasound Center and a Path-Lab, and this was a typical Kolhapur building. We were impressed at the the state of the hospital, and further by the interest the young doctor showed in our products. He found clinION and Ultrasite very interesting and quickly referred us to 5 other doctors also. Post this meeting, we went to another Maternity Hospital and an IVF center before retiring for the day. Back at Hotel Ranjit, I fell in love with the French Fries. The next day was smooth. We met Prasad, we had a quick meeting, a quick signing, some discussions about commitments and Bye Bye - Ta ta - See You ... We visited the ambadevi (Mahalaxmi) temple, a few stores in search of Kolhapuri chappals, and a restaurant which is pretty popular there called Hotel Gokul... and after pigging for 2 hours we were on our way back. Bombay and Aurangabad beckon us next week, and we hope to ring on board more distributorships and more doctors ...

Updates - May comes to a close

Its been a hectic past few months. Unfortunately, I have found very little time to focus on my personal projects. And my promise to write regularly did not end up translating into actuality. Well then one night, instead of opening up mono, I opened up google and searched out some blogging tools. Atleast I have a tool to keep writing whenever I have time, in between journeys. And here I'm writing my first blog from w.bloggar.

The recessions ugly face is now being seen everyday and well everywhere. Plus91 has unfortunately been affected to. Its been 5 months since Plus91 commenced its operations in Pune. We are everyday wondering if expanding in the middle of a troublesome economy was a good idea after all. Its been tough and thankfully the burden is being shared by the entire team wholly. Almost every one of our clients has delayed their payments, and well we have passed on some of these delays to some of our vendors.

On the positive side, the marketing efforts are in full swing. Over a 100 doctors in Kolhapur, Solapur, Nasik and Miraj have been sent brochures. Aditya and me are following that up with visits to Kolhapur and Solapur next week. After this we have to make a short trip to Aurangabad where we shall meet Prabal too. The last month has seen new sales for Ultrasite and clinKare. clinKare now is offered for 12 more specializations and now we are testing out the ability of both to directly feed in data into infiniteHealth. Further to that, the Tele-radiology platform is progressing towards a release. The Preview launch for infiniteHealth is just a few days away. Sign up there for invites. As of now we already have over 50 sign-ups. The team is working overtime towards that.

On the non -Plus91 side, I have been helping my cousin Rahul, with Manovega, a venture that he along with one of his friends Raj has launched recently. Read up about them here.
Their concept is interesting, and their success will be a blessing for many verticals in developing nations like India and China. Especially Healthcare :). We will be keen on seeing how our telemedicine platform can benefit from manovega's technology.

More from me in a couple of days.