EMA is the best ophthalmology EHR available.

Our experience has been so excellent with both the EHR product itself as well as the Modernizing Medicine team that we have since adapted their practice management software as well. While using another practice management company we were able to directly contrast the customer support between the two companies...and there was no comparison. From implementation to troubleshooting, the support from Modernizing Medicine is far superior to anyone we have come across. The support team is reason enough to choose EMA over its competitors. Fortunately they also have a superior product to go with a great support team. If you are considering an ophth EHR do not hesitate to go with Modernizing Medicine. You will not be disappointed. I have no financial incentive or other alternative motivation to promote this product. They have exceeded my expectations from the very beginning and I just really love this EHR!

Pros

The intuitive interface makes documentation far easier than any of the other systems we tested before choosing EMA. Even our more senior partners were able to adapt to this system coming from decades of paper charting only and without having to employ scribes.

Cons

We are ‘dead in the water’ on the very rare occasion that we loose internet connectivity. Currently there is no way to access prior patient records or testing since it is all stored on a cloud server. In 4 years of using this system we have only had this happen 2 or 3 times for a period of 1 hour to half a day. This has never been a problem with the EHR system itself but was either our internet service provider or once when there was an ‘attack’ on the amazon server system. Reverting back to paper at those times was a great way for us to realize how much we preferred documenting in EMA rather than paper!

EHR of the Future

We use the Modernizing Medicine EMA Orthopedic platform and are very happy to have found an EHR company that works with us and their other clients to make the system better for all. I also like the fact that each of the other EHR domains (ex. Derm, gastro, etc.) work together re utilizing tools already developed/solved for other domains instead of always having to design items from scratch, this dramatically improves the time from a "client system request" to "included in a release". If you are in the market for an EHR, I would suggest you take a serious look at the EMA platform from Modernizing Medicine and then decide if the system is right for your practice. Modernizing Medicine is a great company to work with in solving your clinical workflow challenges.

Pros

Excellent technical support staff and training staff. The ModMed Programming team is constantly coming out with updates and additional needed/requested functionality. They are always open to listen and understand the problems faced by our clinical staff and providers in order to design, develop, and implement solutions to our problems. The staff from Modernizing Medicine is always delightful to deal with and they are fully supportive of delivering the best experience and easing documentation burden around the clinical visit compared to other EHRs

Cons

The system is designed around the physician workflow and smaller office staff, this system is not as user friendly for office staff not involved with the clinical visit when you get into a large, busy clinic. Many of the administrative features found in the larger client base systems are not found in this one. They are making progress on all of the above with each and every update!

I lead the Administration and Operations for a 5 physician, 4 physician extender dermatology practice. Prior to this position, I spent 17 years as a senior executive at Accenture, the world's largest technology consulting firm. In this role, I worked with many Fortune 100 companies and their technology vendors. Software company evaluation and selection is one of my areas of depth and experience. Our practice spent over 1 year evaluating the EMR marketplace, watching closely as it evolved. We met with the sales and support personnel from the leading firms with Dermatology-specific solutions. In addition to features and functionality, we sought a partner with a vision, and the dedication and know-how to translate that vision to the market. We selected Modernizing Medicine (M2) in Q3 2012 and are approaching 1 year with it in production. I recently asked several of the physicians to share the best thing they like about M2 EMA. Their decidedly non-IT replies were - "it’s awesome, my patient visit documentation quality is stunning when compared to my old paper charts"; "it's amazing -it just keeps getting better with each release"; and "the coding accuracy, based on the Dx codes, is brilliant". Our pathology lab coordinator is effusive in her praise of EMA’s Cancer Log, and even more impressed with the fact that they value and adopt her input on how to make it easier to use. Our medical assistants (MA’s) love the new body maps in the latest update - more accurate and anatomically correct. The “EMA runs in background” feature is helpful when patients sign consent forms; they no longer accidentally hit the "home" button and close EMA. Several of our MA’s and one physician extender had experience with M2 EMA’s leading competitor, and they tell me EMA is significantly better and much easier to use. Given the size of our practice and the number of employees and providers, we elected the on-site training option. The trainers were young, dynamic, and impressive - not only in their knowledge of the software, but also their command of the business process flow within a dermatology practice. We trained in August, 2012 and went live after Labor Day. We hoped Meaningful Use (MU) would be attainable over the last 3 months of 2012, but we had muted expectations given the magnitude of the transition. After 1 month of using EMA and running the helpful EMA MU reports, we "knew" we were going to attain MU. We attested on 12/14/12. The MU Progress reporting is outstanding, and the drill downs take you right to where MA corrections are needed or omissions were made. It is obvious that the design of EMA is the work of physicians with deep clinical experience. The iPad and workstation platforms demonstrate the integration of advanced technology and streamlined dermatology office work-flow. Above all else, we continue to be amazed with the quality and dedication of every M2 employee we interact with. From the leadership team to the newest employee, we are consistently impressed with their desire to answer our questions and to help us succeed. A front desk employee of ours noticed an inconsistency in a “last visit date” field in EMA and we brought it to Customer Support’s attention. When M2 confirmed we’d identified a bug, we were showered with praise and they fixed it immediately. It is clear they are intellectually and emotionally invested in making M2 EMA the best. I don't believe we've found another bug since. After we selected EMA but early in our implementation approach, I had a software integration question. I asked to speak with someone in a leadership role on the “interface integration team”. Less than 4 hours later, Dan Cane called me at 7pm while I was watching my son play a baseball game. Dan spent 20-30 minutes discussing the pros/cons of the implementation and integration options I faced transitioning from our paper chart and legacy practice management system environment. How many other CEO’s could or would be willing to do that? When we began our EMR software selection process, our biggest fear was selecting an EMR product/company that would be eclipsed by others in the marketplace. We no longer have any fear of the future. We are 100% sure we made the right decision, and we could not be more pleased to have M2 EMA as our EMR partner.

I am in a 2 person general dermatology and Mohs surgery practice. I was using a paper chart system prior to switching to EMA in 2011, and now have almost 12000 visits documented in EMA. I always thought that when I left the military and entered private practice 16 years ago, I would adopt an EHR system very soon. I quickly realized that it was not easy to find a system out there that could match the efficiency of the single page progress note with anatomical figures that my practice like many others had been using for years. I set a goal to find an EHR system that would make me more efficient, but still allow the convenience of documenting the visit on an anatomical figure like most dermatologists have done for years. I also wanted to be more accurate and complete with my documentation, and preferably be more productive. Finally, I wanted a system that would allow me to maximize face time with the patient and minimize the drudgery of all the paper work associated with patient care. When I started evaluating EHR systems at different dermatology meetings in 2010 and 2011, I did not see a single system that met any of those goals. Then I stumbled upon the Modernizing Medicine booth at the AAD meeting In New Orleans. There was definitely a lot of interest in the product and I was immediately impressed. Finally, a system that appeared to be designed by a dermatologist with all my goals in mind. I have to admit the implementation was not as easy as I expected. The product was relatively new at the time we began and far from perfect, but it has improved by leaps and bounds - and Modernizing Medicine continues to find ways to improve it regularly. Most of my staff has learned to use EMA very quickly, and brand new employees seem to adapt to EMA faster than they do to a paper chart. I estimate it took 6 months to be reasonably comfortable with the system, but with the improvements made in the program now, I suspect that time could be even less for a new user. The coding feature of the program is I think one of its greatest strengths. I learned more about accurate coding in the first 6 months of using EMA than I had in 15 years of manual coding. The coding feature has not only shown me many areas where I was previously under coding, but has also highlighted visits where I previously may have lacked documentation to justify a code. I always take clinical photos of biopsy sites to help me prepare for future surgery. This program does an excellent job of assigning the photo to the patient's visit with a label almost effortlessly. Filling out a pathology request and all the specimen jar labels use to be a pain in the neck with a paper chart. Now, all the pertinent information is collected from the note and in a few clicks the request and labels are done. Not a single call back from the path lab because they cannot read the path request form since we started EMA. The ultimate goal of an excellent EHR system should be to make us a better doctor by allowing us to spend more time thinking about what is actually wrong with the patient, and to provide us tools to arrive at a diagnosis and treatment more accurately. With the ease of documentation and addition of some of the new features such as VisualDx, EMA is very close to achieving that ultimate goal for me.

I am the owner/doctor of a solo ophthalmology practice and just opened a little over a year ago. I only have two staff members: a receptionist and a tech. I wanted to start off right away with an electronic health record system because I didn't have much storage space in my new office. I also wanted to qualify for Meaningful Use. I was looking for a cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) system because it would minimize the amount of computer equipment needed and be easily accessible. I also wanted a system that would utilize the iPad, if possible. I started with a company that had a very nice layout that displayed all the examination findings in one screen, but there were several major problems (watch out for these when you are shopping): The javascript-based interface accessed through a web-browser had many bugs. The IT team was poor. It was based in another country, so there was a problem coordinating time zones. There was also poor communication among the teams within the company. It took them 5 months of trying to program a bridge between my EHR and practice management (PM) systems, and by that time, I was just sick of the run-around that they gave me. I could not find the time to program all of my impression/diagnosis code/plan algorithms. The default ones they packaged for me were inadequate. I really wanted to use an iPad for my EHR. Even if I could access this EHR with the iPad Safari browser, the user interface was really designed for clicking with a mouse and using a PC keyboard. I finally went to paper charts for a few months while shopping around for other EHR systems. I randomly got a Google ad for Modernizing Medicine while writing my email and decided to check them out. When I clicked on their ad, they were advertising for their ophthalmology app, but had not released it yet. A few months later, I looked again, and found that they had just released their ophthalmology app and that they were Meaningful Use certified. I signed up with them a few weeks later and have been with them for the past 6 months. I was up and running just in time for the last attestation period for Meaningful Use for 2012 (October 2012). The company has been great to work with. The EHR to PM system bridge was completed within a few weeks. The online training was great and timely (we fit the sessions within a month and this gave me time to spare for going online in time for October 2012). Customer service has also been wonderful. They are continually making improvements. The system is easy to use, and it comes packaged with impressions/plans that is already great. The time-saving program that makes most accessible the most common impressions/plans that you choose is really time-saving. I also love how it is "customizable" on the fly. If you don't like one of the pre-programmed items, you change it and it is saved for the next patient with the same presentation. I am most impressed with their native iPad app. To me, it is the biggest selling point of Modernizing Medicine. When I signed up with Modernizing Medicine, they were, as far as I knew, the only cloud-based EHR with a native iPad app. The only other company with a native iPad app was one which was apparently pretty expensive and also required me to purchase an in-house server (another huge expense). As a note, if you are in the market for an EHR in which you can use an iPad, don't be tricked by other companies which claim that you can use the iPad to navigate their program. Most of them use a remote desktop program in which the iPad is essentially mirroring the screen from a separate Microsoft Windows computer in your office (a former colleague of mine was duped this way). It is slow, because you are running the EHR 'secondhand,' and the iPad touch interface was never made to navigate through Microsoft Windows. If you see an ad from another company that shows an iPad with a screenshot that looks like a Microsoft Windows window, be wary! The iPad interface of Modernizing Medicine is very easy to use (and easy to learn) and saves me a lot of time. With my previous EHR, it was still inconvenient to lug around a laptop from room to room or from a room to a table surface to use the mouse and keyboard to fill out charts. With EMA (Modernizing Medicine), I can fill out charts while I walk from room to room between patients. Electronic prescriptions are sent right through the app. I have one iPad for myself, and one for my tech. My staff love the program. One of my iPads has a cellular data plan activated - the benefit of this is that it can still operate if the Internet connection in your office is down. I also can take the iPad from hospital to hospital if I need to do an off-site consult. I have given Modernizing Medicine 5 stars in three of the rating categories. I gave 4 stars for the product quality, only because I have encountered bugs even if it is a very high quality product. However, I have never encountered an EHR that does not have bugs (my colleagues all tell me that their EHR systems have bugs). In addition, Modernizing Medicine has been very proactive in addressing bugs and making improvements.

EMA-Ophthalmology is well-designed for the specialty. It has great functionality & is user friendly.

EMA-Ophthalmology is a great system and saves trees. Patients are impressed with not having to fill out paperwork, since our technicians update their medical history and current medications while they are dilating. We like not having to store paper records or maintain an expensive server.

Pros

The ModMed customer support is very responsive and professional. EMA's cloud-based design and integration with our practice management system has allowed our practice to be virtually paper-free. It took a bit of effort to get protocols set up to streamline our visit notes, but now it is a big time saver. The e-prescribing function and new office flow features are great.

We use the EMA app for iPads primarily, but the web version is also easy to use. I recently attended their annual conference and was thoroughly impressed with the company's sincere interest in user feedback to constantly improve their product.

Cons

There was one time (once in two years) when the system was unavailable for a couple of hours, but we used the "Paper EMA" sheets you can download and print as a back-up until it was restored. The only other negative we have noticed is that it is difficult for the system to bill corneal topography with the correct codes.

Modernizing Medicine Delivers!

Mod Med has solved the overwhelming need for excellent documentation with the need to be able to see more patients than previously. EMA is phenomenal in this respect. We switched over to their practice management as the same responsiveness of the company is applied to this solution. Great company!

Pros

Once learned, this software has allowed me to increase my productivity by 4X. Seriously, I see 4X more new patients per month than I could previously and the documentation is perfect. Additionally, all patient encounter information is completed by the time the patient walks out of the office. I never have to work on charts after hours and can watch TV or walk the dog after work like normal people do. I have had audits and was told that the documentation is the best they have ever seen. Additionally, it is constantly being updated and requests are almost always integrated into the next build within a few weeks. The company is phenomenally responsive to requests for improvements and tweaks.

Cons

The rapid development pace means new builds every few weeks or months and occasionally a coding error is introduced that requires correction with another new build the next day.