This morning’s conference started off with a Keynote Presentation from Girish. He began things by letting us know how well the company is doing. And eCW is doing quite well, thank you. They have had a 6,000% growth in the last five years. They’re profitable, investor free and debt free. Girish told us an amazing stat (and if I wrote it down wrong, someone please let me know, because as I am typing it right now, it almost sounds unbelievable). He said that in the last five years, 60,000 physicians have started using EMRs. And 20,000 of them installed eClinicalWorks!

They’ve now installed over 5,000 locations, representing 20,000 physicians and 80,000 users. The company now has over 750 employees.

And better yet, he bragged about a 98.9% renewal rate on maintenance contracts, implying a very nice rate of ongoing use of the product.

Girish discussed current product enhancements, giving an overview of v8.0 and eBO (Enterprise Business Optimizer). Version 8 has some great new features, which have been discussed on our site. Order sets, enhanced structured date (balanced with free form entry) for Registry and P4P purposes, and clinical decision support systems. He also gave us a preview of v8.1 when he talked about the development of a Payer Rulebook (so you never get a denial twice from a specific payer).

Regarding eBO, he discussed the “Studios” that the software will feature for Reports, Events, Query and Analysis. For example, using the Event Studio will not require time-based reporting. You can set up a report that will, for example, run when the days in AR for BCBS-MA reach 20 days. Or, for example, a report that will run once “my average panel of diabetics with A1C’s of >7.0 reach more then 20% of my diabetic patients,” which will be great for P4P, as well as good medicine.

He gave an overview of eClinicalWeb v3.0, the latest version of the Patient Portal and discussed new features for pre-registration, the possibility of structured questionnaires that could integrate with the EMR, and the use of the Portal as an online PHR for patients.

eClinicalEHX (eEHX) v2.0 is a feature especially important to hospital systems implementing EMRs in their ambulatory practices, allowing connectivity and interoperability between multiple practices.

And Girish announced two new products. eClinicalMobile v1.0, an upcoming version of the software that will work on any Smart Phone that features a full browser (e.g., iPhone and the new Blackberry Storm). This will allow mobile access to your schedule, patient chart summaries, ePrescribing, charge entries, and tasks such as message and lab review. The technology for this—using a hosted gateway and not direct access to the EHR—will also facilitate browser access to eCW from any computer hooked to the internet (without the need for the eCW Smart Web Client).

eClinicalMessenger v1.0 will add bi-directional VoIP to the product, allowing us to send messages to patients via VoIP, AND the patient to respond with key entry on their phone. This should help with med adherence, reminders for appointments, etc.

(a picture of my daughter enjoying the Orlando sun)