Mac EMR Software | A Guide to Medical Software for Apple Computers

Is it possible that the next time you go in for a checkup you and your doctor will be lamenting over Microsoft while updating your medical records on Safari?

We’re hearing more and more questions about Mac compatibility from physicians interested in electronic medical records (EMR systems). Many providers, notably smaller offices, are choosing Apple computers over PC-based systems to run their practice. Their reasons are the same reasons consumers choose Mac products: stability, simplicity and “coolness.”

On the surface, it appears that Apple’s popularity in the consumer market is starting to creep into the medical practice market. Physicians like their home Macs and their iPhones, so they want the same hardware in the office.

A Limited Selection of Mac EMRs
Unfortunately, a physician wanting to run EMR software on a Mac is going to find a limited number of choices. Over 95% of the EHR software on the market won’t run natively on a Mac.

Most EMR software vendors haven’t developed a Mac OS-specific version of their software. On top of that, many of the web-based EMR vendors don’t provide support for the the most popular Mac web-browsers such as Safari, Firefox and Chrome. And if a physician wants to run EMR software from any of the top ten most popular EMR vendors, they’re out of luck. None of those vendors support Macintosh computers.

However, for the Mac diehard, there are a number of solutions. Here are three ways that a physician can start running EMR software on their Macintosh computer:

EMRs Built for the Mac
Relative to Windows-based systems, EMRs designed to run on Mac OS represent a fraction of the overall EMR software market. Only a handful of the over 300 EMRs available are designed exclusively for Mac OS.

If a physician wants a truly Mac-based EMR, built for Mac OS, this is the direction they want to go in. Here is a list of the native Mac EMRs we found in our research, along with the size and types of practices they are designed for:

Since these systems are designed specifically for Mac OS, that means they’re going to have a Mac look and feel to them. They’re installed either through a download or from a disc, meaning they are on-premise software systems. The install exists on a doctor’s physical machine, and not “in the cloud.”

Advantages of using on-premise EMR software for Macs include:

• The same familiar Mac look and feel;
• Less risk of performance degradation from “Windows emulator” software; and,
• Easy integration with other Apple software products.

The downsides of these products largely result from the fact that the Mac-based products are developed by smaller companies (largely because they service a smaller market – Mac users). These downsides might include:

• Smaller software companies may be less viable in the long term;
• They may have limited R&D budgets; and,
• They may get left behind as “the big names” race to meet new EHR requirements.

Web-based EMRs – A Great Alternative
Web-based EMR software is a growing segment of the market and one that is appealing to physicians in a wide range of specialties. Because web-based EMRs don’t depend on a specific operating system, a physician needs to only have a compatible web browser (Safari or Firefox for example) on their Mac to access the software online. There’s no installation of software on a physical machine; all data is hosted in the “cloud.”

The number of web-based EMR vendors is rising but unfortunately only a handful have optimized their software to run on a Mac-based web-browser. Here are the web-based EMR products that will run on a Mac:

Also known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), the web-based model of software offers a number of advantages over on-premise systems:

• No physical install of the software on a machine;
• System can be accessed from any computer with a web browser; and,
• Upgrades are pushed out automatically by the software vendor.

Another quasi-web-based option is to remotely access another machine running EMR software. This has potential security concerns, as well as possible performance issues, but some physicians are doing this. They’ll access a Windows-based EMR through their Mac web browser or Mac-based remote software.

Run Windows-Based EMRs, On Windows, On a Mac
The final way that a doctor can run EMR software on their Macintosh computer is through a virtual machine. This involves running a separate program (Parallels, VMWare, BootCamp) that mimics a Windows operating system on a Mac machine. This process is simpler than it sounds, with today’s virtual machine software being relatively easy to install and set up.

Advantages of going the virtual machine route include:

• Being able to run any Windows-based programs on a Mac;
• Seamless transition between Mac and Windows programs on one machine; and,
• Elimination of compatibility issues between Mac and Windows files.

The downside of this approach is that you will have to buy licenses of Microsoft Windows and you will have to run the EMR on the Windows OS. You won’t be using a native Mac OS application. However, as we said, it is fairly easy to toggle back and forth between the Windows EMR and your other Mac applications.

This option is appealing for practices that don’t want to give up their Windows EMR, but want to move to Apple computers.

An Eager Market Awaits
We’re a Mac office if you will here at Software Advice. Each employee has a iMac and we purchase Apple or SaaS software whenever possible. Actually, we use a lot more SaaS systems than on-premise Mac software. That’s why we hope that the leading EMR software vendors, both on-premise and web-based, can open up the market to those who want to use Apple hardware in their practices.