As for physicians having to go to one application or multiple applications, look-and-feel and the ergonomics of the applications matter. If patient search isn’t consistent, training and user adoption will be a challenge. Microsoft, working with the UK, developed a consistent patient banner as well as other components in a consistent UI to help manage training, increase usability, and increase patient safety. Physicians want usability, they don’t want to waste time on training, they want their data to be available and exchanged between applications and they want to run reports from time-to-time. I fail to see how a loose bunch of applications can satisfy this demand. They are not marketing composite applications or even a worthwhile mash-up. Without a consistent user interface, some level of a physical or federated data model, data interfaces or integration, a single call for support model, a single licensing model and some recognition of different workflow needs for different practice sizes, specialties and configurations, it is just a single sign-on web page to me. I dare not even call it one of the former buzz words dujour, a portal.

So what if the AMA wants Allscripts, find other channel partners. Better yet, acquire someone that fits your architecture, truly integrate them and create the better mousetrap instead of this set of stand-alone applications.

As for your other comments regarding the multitude of apps, well it really all depends on the job the physician is trying to accomplish. In some encounters he/she may need access to multiple apps, in other situations, only one. The underlying data structure, in a PaaS model is supported within Covisint and served up through the API into the various apps that a physician may invoke in the course of his daily practice. Apps that are easy and intuitive will succeed, those that are not will not be popular, not be adopted and fade.

Again, good points raised Art and HIE vendors would be wise to think these issues through as they launch their own PaaS. Sill early, still very immature, but this is the future of healthcare IT in the small ambulatory setting.

This looks like the definition of information overload to me – just like first generation stand-alone blog readers without keyword searches, alerts and the ability to follow a feed. Better yet, it is a poorly produced song – “Physician Office PaaS,” by Covisnt, featuring MedAI, Wellcentive, Reach My Doctor, LabCorp, HealthVault and with special guest Allscripts. Where’s Kanye when you need a good comment?