We’re back from Nashville, where we held our 11th annual National Conference, and now we are jumping right into National Health IT Week, which focuses on catalyzing change in the U.S. healthcare system through the use of information technology.

Sunday was our last day together at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, but even though the conclusion of the 2018 eClinicalWorks National Conference was in sight, it was clearly no time to let up on the learning and networking.

The thousands of eClinicalWorks customers who came to Nashville this weekend expected to hear about improvements to the core EHR, see some new products and services, renew friendships, and have some fun.

Sometimes, to know where you’re going, it’s important to take a look back. Which is why eClinicalWorks CEO and cofounder Girish Navani included a 1998 screenshot of the Google search engine and a 1994 image of the Netscape web browser during yesterday’s Keynote kicking off the 2018 National Conference.

Since 2016, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) and Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) have been changing the healthcare reimbursement landscape. Now, providers have largely adjusted to the new rules, are meeting the reporting requirements, and have turned their attention to finding ways to improve their performance.

eClinicalWorks is excited to announce that Tushar Malhotra, Director for Interoperability Strategy and Business Development, has been appointed to the CommonWell Health Alliance® Board of Directors. Tushar has a decade of experience in the healthcare IT industry and is responsible for defining solutions and services for integrating the eClinicalWorks EMR with disparate systems and applications.

Although our 11th annual National Conference is still four months away, we are in full-speed prep mode for the big event in Nashville, Tennessee! We’ve been designing, organizing, packing and planning so our customers can enjoy an experience to top even the hard-to-follow 2017 Conference.

In 1984, in the early days of the AIDS pandemic, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler made a bold prediction: An effective vaccine against HIV would be available within two years.

What happens when primary care practices don’t provide patients with the service they demand, including flexible hours? Someone else does.

An outsider might assume that New York City youth are universally savvy and self-reliant, capable of finding their way in what is, after all, one of the world’s largest and most diverse cities, a place that is brash, bold, and seemingly bursting with confidence.

But the reality is that youth everywhere face many of the same problems, have many of the same questions, and struggle with many of the same issues. Those issues range from dealing with the physical and emotional changes that come with puberty to questions of identity, self-confidence, and how to navigate the world.

Two converging trends

When you step back and look at long-term trends in medicine, some things seem obvious. The use of telemedicine to better serve pediatric patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is such a case.

While mental restlessness has been a part of human behavior throughout history, it is only in recent decades that medical professionals have discerned a treatable difference between individuals who sometimes have trouble focusing and others, including many children, who have the disorder known as ADHD.

Let’s Talk about Excellence!

At Prime Care Family Practice of Prince George, Virginia, things were going well. Having worked with eClinicalWorks since 2012, the practice had an excellent healthcare IT partner. Providers were seeing 600 patients each week. The phones were busy.

But early in 2016, Dr. Amar Shah recognized a serious deficiency in his Patient Engagement strategy: It was all about the telephone.

Telephones are great, but if they are the primary or sole method patients use to reach their providers, access to healthcare can suffer, along with patient satisfaction.

Like many rural areas in the U.S., Pecos, New Mexico and environs has two tales to tell. One is of breathtaking natural beauty, where hiking, biking, and sightseeing unfold against a backdrop as beautiful as any in the nation. The other is a story of hardworking people who sometimes struggle with issues of health, insurance, and access to quality care.

When it comes to making quality healthcare available to any community, what’s the first challenge? Access.

After all, the best medical services in the world are of no value unless patients can make use of them. And even when a doctor/patient relationship has been established, the doctors and patients sometimes need help staying in touch and making best use of available resources.

That’s where a tool such as Patient Portal can make a critical difference.

The spirit of 1996 lives on

If you want to understand the role that Petaluma Health Center plays in California’s Sonoma County, it helps to understand what took place in 1996.