Movement from the third world to our world

Simple Electronic Medical Record
Background

The Simple Electronic Medical Record (SEMR pronounced “see more”) evolved from a deep personal interest in healthcare delivery in developing countries. Volunteer physicians from developed countries provide most healthcare delivery in developing countries. At personal risk and expense these doctors take time out from their practices to run clinics in remote parts of the world. Our volunteer SEMR developers accompanied by physicians made numerous visits to Guatemala to work with the doctors on the ground to assure that the software developed would meet the patient and doctor's needs.. It became immediately evident that all the physicians in the clinics had no preexisting medical information to work with. The problem was that the clinics were being run by different groups of physician volunteers in the same villages. Most all-medical records left when the volunteers left. We realized that medical treatment could be vastly improved by simply creating medical records that would show the treating physician just what the previous physician(s) had done. We then set about creating the SEMR that creates individual medical records similar to systems used in developed nations. We realized that the challenge was not record keeping but the cost of medical record keeping. Electronic Medical Record keeping software in the United States and Europe can cost more than $250,000 for five users (aka seats) in a clinic. Annual software upgrades cost $25,000 or more. Plus there is the training expense to use the system. We had to design a system that costs a fraction of its counterparts in the developed world and at the same time had to be intuitive requiring little or no technical training. We built the system exceeding all required criteria. (www.gmproject.org)

The key elements of the system that make it the optimal solution in developing countries are simplicity of data entry and retrieval, multi-lingual capability at the push of a button, and patient identification that is independent of language.

All the features of the SEMR system that make it ideal for use in developing countries are applicable (with minor modification) to any environment. Thus the SEMR is applicable to the broad spectrum of health care delivery environments from the sophisticated hospital center to community clinics to treating Medicaid patients and the uninsured.

Purpose

To enable straightforward enrollment and record keeping for Medicaid patients in Maryland, and facilitate movement towards a citizen-centric health information exchange for Maryland.
System Benefits
· Improves knowledge flow between healthcare providers, facilitating
collaboration on quality improvement and cost containment
· Provides recommendations for cost containment and policy priorities for all stakeholders
· Provides improved healthcare provision to patients including chronic care management planning
· Reduces risk of medical accidents
· Reduces fraudulent claims frequency
· Reduces medical and administrative expenses across the health care system
Core Capabilities
Integrated Patient Management

The SEMR system is specifically designed to manage all aspects of patient health care regardless of the number of different interactions the patient has with the health system.
Whether attending a primary care physician, hospital, test lab, or other out-patient facility, the SEMR system maintains comprehensive traceable records for all relevant issues relating to the patient, their condition, and care.