Posted by: AtlasMD

September 15, 2013

LISTEN: Atlas MD Podcast, Ep. 8

LISTEN: Atlas MD Podcast, Ep. 8

Tune in to the next installment of our podcast. We’re excited to announce the beta launch of our Atlas.md EMR. New users have signed up this week and we’re already receiving positive feedback. Thank you, everyone who’s adopting it.

A question we’re frequently asked is, how long does it take to transition to Atlas.md EMR? Well, no time at all really. It’s as easy as signing up for a Gmail or Facebook account. If you’ve done the former then you know it’s a matter of filling in a few fields, agreeing to the terms of service, and then jumping right in and clicking around.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 8 OF THE ATLAS MD PODCAST HERE

Drs. Josh and Doug answer more questions and concerns that have been brought up — How does Atlas.md simplify patient record keeping? Will I ever really use my EMR away from the office? Am I at risk for HIPAA violations? Is this EMR a smart investment? Is it safe to tweet a doctor? (Hint: Yes. If the NSA is concerned about a sore throat, that’s just sad.) Give it a listen. And keep those emails coming. We’re here to help.

Posted by: AtlasMD

September 10, 2013

BBC Reports “Doctor Slang” is a Dying Art

Well, the cat’s out of the bag. Doctors have been keeping their sanity amidst the pressures of a considerably serious line of work — by creating a secret language of funny acronyms. However, with the advent of EMR, acronym usage has waned. We’re going to plead the Fifth as to whether or not Atlas MD uses cryptic codes to label our patients, and whether or not Atlas.md, our direct care EMR, will render them obsolete.

That said, a panel of “PhDs” (pretentious hardly doctors) — wait, excuse us, that was a slip — a panel of “ethicists” worked to compile existing abbreviations. Yes, some were particularly offensive, like GROLIES (Guardian Reader Of Low Intelligence in Ethnic Skirt). For the most part, doctor slang was more offensive to colleagues, though. The report indicates that in general, doctors’ notes have been kinder to patients in recent years. Also of note were variations, in England specifically, indicative of regional dialect.

READ ALL ABOUT DOCTOR SLANG ON THE BBC

Posted by: AtlasMD

September 9, 2013

National Commission on Physician Payment Reform Recommends Fee-for-Service Payment be Phased Out in Five Years

Here’s a huge announcement from the National Commission on Physician Payment Reform. They recently issued a report outlining 12 sweeping recommendations designed to rein in rampant health spending and improve our nation’s quality of care.

How will they accomplish this? By fundamentally restructuring the way doctors are paid.

Read more

Posted by: AtlasMD

September 9, 2013

EMRs Are Doing More Harm Than Good

EMRs Are Doing More Harm Than Good

If you read anything about EMRs today, make it this post from Val Jones, founder and CEO of Better Health. She depicts an EMR world that you can imagine like this: “Spend your days as a copy editor for an Indian transcription service, try to prevent patients from being labeled as syphilitics while worrying about whether or not the medicine they’re taking is classified as a tablet or a capsule in a system where you may not be able to enter any orders at all if the central tech command is fixing software instability in the Star Trek room.” Does this sound a bit absurd? Well then maybe you should read Jones’ entire post and let her explain how a technology that promised so much, wound up making things so much worse.

READ VAL JONES’ POST ON KEVIN MD

Posted by: AtlasMD

September 6, 2013

Dr. Rob Lamberts Knows What Direct Care Docs Need In Their EMR

One primary care physician has spelled out EXACTLY what he’s looking for in an EMR. He made a comparison between what current EMRs offer versus what he actually needs in his practice. We’re excited to hear his frustrations, because it proves once more what we’ve been saying for months–Atlas MD is the FIRST EMR built specifically for direct primary care physicians. And there’s nothing on the market like it.

READ THE COMPLETE BLOG POST HERE

Atlas MD is an EMR made to tell your patients story, so that you can find what you need, when you need it. It’s focused on work-flow, not billing codes (although they are included for reference if need be). It functions on ANY device you’d use in the office, not a clunky machine you paid thousands of bucks for. Atlas MD is like the innovative apps you see across other industries; it lets the user curate the experience so that what’s useful is immediately accessible.

The benefits of Atlas MD go on and on. And we’re looking forward to hearing what direct primary care docs have to say. Which, speaking of, raises an important question — do YOU want a sneak peak into our new EMR software? Would you be interested in writing about it? If so, send us an email. We can make that happen.

Posted by: AtlasMD

September 5, 2013

LISTEN: Atlas MD Podcast, Ep. 7

LISTEN: Atlas MD Podcast, Ep. 7

Tune in to the next installment of our podcast. Our direct care ship is sailing smoothly, patients coming in and out, some patients even tweeting about the great care they received.

We appreciate the kind words! Looks like there’s more publicity for Atlas MD, too – the direct care duo, Drs. Josh and Doug, will be speaking at the American Academy of Family Practice Docs on September 26th; the next day they will head to Colorado to speak to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 7 OF THE ATLAS MD PODCAST HERE

Oh, and some huge news — Atlas.md EMR has launched its beta trial! Please email hello[at]atlas.md if you want to be among the first users. It’s free for the first 90 days. Click through to review some highlights from the taping.

Read more

Posted by: AtlasMD

September 4, 2013

What Does A Rap Mogul Have To Do With Direct Care? Marketing (of course).

What Does A Rap Mogul Have To Do With Direct Care? Marketing (of course).

Manage My Practice put together a great case study about marketing your practice. They create a model of marketing success using the career of Jay-Z. Never heard of him? Well then your kids have. He’s only the most successful rap artist of all time, who’s also parlayed his success into careers in fashion, merchandising, vodka, and a stake in the NBA’s New Jersey Nets franchise. His success, beyond the normal hard work and talent, is ultimately in marketing himself. That’s something many of us are loathe to do. But it can really pay off with your practice.

Read more

Posted by: AtlasMD

September 3, 2013

MUST FOLLOW_The Self Pay Patient Blog

Sean Parnell reached out to us recently, expressing support of our cash-for-service model of primary care. We’re glad he did. Turns out he runs a blog called The Self Pay Patient and it’s a helpful resource for “tens of millions of Americans who are either uninsured, have high-deductible health insurance, or just want to escape from bureaucratic medicine…”

His blog entries are the basis of a book he’s currently writing that will be “a ‘users guide’ to self-pay medicine, explaining in detail how to find doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and other providers of health care goods and services…”

He recently wrote about a patient who needed knee surgery and benefitted indirectly from cash-only medicine. The first hospital he visited wanted an out of pocket payment (he had a “good” insurance plan) that was MORE than the cost of the whole operation at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, a cash-only facility. In the end, the patient used price transparency to negotiate and save about $3,000 on his procedure.

READ THE COMPLETE STORY ON ABC NEWS

Once more we see the power of the market, and price transparency, in making healthcare more readily available. We believe it’s worth writing down — every direct primary care practice and every cash-only hospital that offers competitive, cost-saving procedures, treatments, prescriptions, etc. puts pressure on the insurance companies to treat clientele more fairly. Cheers to Mr. Parnell’s blog for keeping a record of these establishments and spreading awareness of their benefits.

Posted by: AtlasMD

September 3, 2013

How a Cabal Keeps Generics Scarce

How a Cabal Keeps Generics Scarce

So around a year ago, President Obama signed a law meant to end chronic shortages of lifesaving drugs. However, a critical lack of generic drugs continues. This is being called a “preventable crisis” and it’s harming patients, even leading to death in the case of botched anesthesias. The New York Times does not believe the law will be effective, in part because it addresses the symptoms but not at all the disease.