VC TaskForce - The Rise of Electronic Medical Records June 24, 2009

Universal, portable and interoperable digital health records have been a prized objective for more than two decades. And lately, Washington's stimulus package has brought more attention to the goal with its plan to spend $20B to spur the adoption of electronic health records.

Trouble is the technology has been too expensive, cumbersome and difficult to maintain. To date, only a few of the largest healthcare providers have managed to make inroads with electronic healthcare records (EHR) among the 80% of physicians who are in smaller practices. Portable heath records (PHR) owned by the patient, has also been championed as a way to improve patient care, but haven't lived up to expectations.

New approaches to PHR/EHR systems from innovative Silicon Valley startups are beginning to break down the traditional barriers to adoption. And new data infrastructure designs, provided by Google, Microsoft and industry consortium-founded Dossia are offering a viable alternative to data silos that have previously plagued healthcare information systems.

Join the Emerging Technology Forum (ETF) for a lively discussion with experts who will examine the new landscape of institutional and personal digital health records and probe many questions. Are new approaches creative enough to remove the economic and institutional barriers to adoption? Is Health IT on the verge of a new wave of companies and solutions? What's the outlook for investors and entrepreneurs seeking to realize the vision of a universal health record providing patients with a lifetime of critical information?

Moderator:
Ken Rosen, Principal, Theory and Practice Consulting

Panelists:
Megan Mok, CEO, Peoplechart
Ryan Howard, CEO, Practice Fusion

Commentator:

Dr. Wally Buch, Venture Partner, Medventures and Member, Band of Angels

$55 member, 75 affliate, 95 general admission, + door.

Official Website: http://www.VCTaskForce.com