Motivation

Many applications on the market add burdens to overworked providers.

Just as many other parts of the health industry, the costs of health technology have been growing for years. In fact, health technology is attributed to be the strongest driver of healthcare costs. These technologies include EHR's and clinical decision support systems, aimed at assisting in diagnosis and treatment.

Going beyond the up-front costs of purchasing health IT products, it is critical to understand what the side effects of implementing new technologies are. Many products require extensive training to best use, and the loss of productivity due to training, technical difficulties, and new documentation requirements incur costs of their own, which could be disastrous for smaller care providers.

In the same way EHR adoption caused many providers to spend less time with patients, the adoption of new technologies may cost valuable face-to-face interaction time with patients. For other providers, the concerns lie in the lack of clarity on what privacy and security concerns a platform may pose as it relates to patient clinical data or the lack of transparent pricing.

Probably the strongest deterrent, and even the most prevalent aspect of EHR-derived physician burnout, is the general lack of the ability of new technologies to mesh with existing systems. The fact of the matter is that a great deal of physicians must rely on antiquated technology that newer products may not work with. Thus, despite the promised benefits of new innovations, providers may not be willing to make the trade-off of valuable time and money that it would take for an even decent integration.