Beginning Jan. 1, government stimulus money for adopting Electronic Health Records (EHR) will begin to flow, possibly finally shaking up the landscape of HIT (Health Information Technology). “2010 was the perfect year for small physician offices to position themselves to receive this money by becoming more familiar with the need, opportunity, and software developed for EHRs, but it’s by no means too late,” Bartzak says.

We asked other movers and shakers across the HIT landscape to set aside their mouse and keyboards – or in many cases, tablets and smartphones – and tell us what they expect in the new year, and how to prepare for it:

• Charles Antonini, Internist, Daly City, Calif.:“I strongly believe that in the upcoming year we will see a significant increase in more advanced medical apps for the iPad, such as Epocrates. These will include applications to help with e-medical records as well as e-prescription services. I also hope to see more patient educational apps that can assist my patients with Diabetes, Cardiovascular and Pulmonary diseases and help me instruct them so they can feel more in control of their diseases and help themselves with their treatment plans.”
• Ron Wince, Health IT management expert, Guidon Performance Solutions:“HIT in the cloud will be number one for technology. It is already here but is becoming more and more widely accepted as security and compliance issues are dealt with. In addition, we will see more migration from desktop and laptop solutions to EMRs on PDAs, iPods and iPads.”
• Sean Handel, vice president, Epocrates:“Smartphones have revolutionized the way we communicate and interact. Physicians are becoming more tethered to these devices as the applications available on them become integral to not only their personal lives, but their professional lives as well. Physicians have adopted smartphones at a level that is much higher than the general public, which is evidence that physicians are not technology laggards.”
• Dr. Karen Gilberg, Chief Medical Officer, Robert Bosch Healthcare:“Health system changes such as the move towards Patient Centered Medical Homes and Accountable Care Organizations lead to the need for individual practitioners to group together and implement a variety of health IT solutions in order to be able to generate required patient outcomes and cost savings. These health IT solutions include electronic medical records that can be integrated into the medical information of the health system in which the physicians are involved; and telehealth technology, which can support patient self-management while providing healthcare providers with targeted trends and alerts that will allow more efficient care management.”   
• Jim Hare, Vice President of Sales, eGestalt Technologies: "What’s emerging is a growing problem for physician offices to prove they are compliant with HIPAA & HITECH regulations. Let’s admit it: staying in compliance is expensive, complex and nasty; it throws dirt into the gears of business. It poses a serious distraction when trying to run a medical practice. Physicians should look at self-service automated tools that live online, take a DIY turnkey approach, and that require no deep knowledge of HIPAA/HITECH regulations to run them.
• Betty Otter-Nickerson, President, Sage Healthcare: “In as much as physicians and patients are able to interact through a Web-based patient portal, look for exponentially increased number of Web-driven interfaces to be used in healthcare settings. For example, connectivity is increasingly more important in rural and underserved areas, where healthcare is typically seen as a rationed commodity. With HIEs, telemedicine and patient centered medical homes easily, and seamlessly, exchanging care and providing information to patients, healthcare information technology is quickly becoming the care equalizer, and providing opportunities, especially for physician practicing in the specialties, where in the very recent past there haven’t been as many.

The bottom line? There are those who believe that the images in the proverbial crystal ball have been showing the same unchanging pictures for quite some time, but expect the slow-moving healthcare industry to begin to shift in 2011. How to keep up? “Finding success may be as simple as educating oneself, asking questions and engaging in the healthcare conversation, be it with fellow practitioners and peers,” says Otter-Nickerson of Sage. “Rely on the support of intelligent sources for guidance, advice and leadership as you work through regulation and reform.”