What is the biggest change for 2009 TEPR+, Feb. 1-5?

TEPR+ 2009 has changed from a conference that mainly addressed the selection and implementation of electronic medical record systems to an event that focuses on the emerging changes in healthcare.

What prompted the first TEPR event?

Twenty-five years ago, there was a vision to create continuity of care in healthcare through longitudinal electronic patient records. This was an overwhelming, unrealistic expectation not accepted by many. Enterprise-wide solutions thus became the focus, and we take credit for promoting EMRs and EHRs more than any other organization during the subsequent 25 years. 

What inspires your staying power after 25 years?

While we promoted EMR systems all this time, others came onto the scene. Today, EMR systems are a topic across numerous healthcare conferences. Therefore, true to our vision, we are taking on and will drive the next big wave that many are not yet aware of or attending to. It is the mHealth revolution. We believe that mobile technologies will change healthcare even more than the vision of electronic patient records. We are, and will be, the center of this movement. 

How might TEPR change?

It will more than today focus on the disruptive changes that technologies will bring to healthcare. There is a need for standards, an ecosystem description for interoperability, a blueprint for mHealth, and more. These changes may be painful for some but offer opportunities for others. Our future events will explore these and show that change cannot be avoided.

What are you reading?

My current books are Hot, Flat, and Crowded, and Wikinomics. I’m particularly interested in the power of consumers and patients to transform medicine.