Ask HN: What would it take to make a great Electronic Health Record(EHR)?

I realize this is a niche topic, so apologies in advance.

In my personal experience, EHRs do not make me feel like I am doing a better job and take time away from interacting with patients (which I love).

Secondly, EHRs have been linked with physician burnout. http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/mayo-study-links-ehrs-with-physician-burnout.html

There are just so many issues that I just wonder why it is not a richer area of innovation.

As a dermatologist, my gripes are mainly about the provider facing interface, but there are so many things to improve upon in this area alone.

To name a few:

Data entry takes forever.

Coming up with a longitudinal view of any specific problem requires piecing together sequential notes which takes far too long.

Patient access to their own charts without context sometimes leads to misunderstandings. Like documenting a finding of S.O.B. (shortness of breath)

And that is ignoring many other equally important perspectives.

So I ask: what do you perceive as the hurdles of this sector, and what would the process be to come up with EHR 2.0?

  • As a doc you probably have a better idea of the problem that most of us. Probably the back end has to be universal but can you make a front end tailored for a dermatologist?