Medical site is on a mission to set records

Practice Fusion, free web based EMR - well the jury is still out on this one. From my own perspective in creating an EMR, real estate is something all software developers deal with, in other words getting the maximum amount of information available on a page and it never seems to be enough, and the ads would appear to add to this issue. In dealing with many MDs, one of the most annoying issues is having to constantly click to view additional information and add chart data. You could opt for no ads, but then the price is no longer free. In addition, profiling will be enabled as well, minus patient name, etc. so where does all this information go as well? The free version will be full of pharma and insurance ads as well. Interesting concept and it will be interesting to see how the product advances through time. As the information is available now, there seems to be just too many unanswered issues to create a concise review. BD
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/03/16/BUG9OOM1FJ1.DTL&type=printable

In addition to a medical records system, Practice Fusion offers practice-management tools, such as billing systems. It says that by partnering with Google's AdSense network, the company can cover the cost of its services.
Practice Fusion is not the only company offering Internet-based medical-record systems. "We just happened to find a way to subsidize the cost of it," said Ryan Howard, the company's chief executive officer.
Advertising will be discreet -- no pop-ups -- and keywords are limited to a patient's condition, diagnosis or treatment. Practice Fusion says it complies with all federal privacy laws and will protect patient data, Howard said.
Practice Fusion will provide advertisers with basic demographic information about the physicians who view the ads -- such as their city and specialty -- but will not reveal names.
Pharmaceutical companies interested in having their ads viewed by a captive physician audience are expected to be the primary advertising clients. But Howard says the model will also appeal to insurance companies and other health-related firms and services.