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s © 2013.04.03-CT6738 E EW SHOW DAILY 52 Results of EHR Customer Satisfaction Survey to be presented A symposium sponsored by the ASCRS HIT Commit- tee will present the results and analysis of the recent EHR Customer Satisfac- tion Survey conducted by McKinley Advisors, a market and research firm, on behalf of ASOA. Many oph- thalmic practices are not planning to implement an EHR system, choos- ing to pay penalties instead. These practices do not believe the signifi- cant capital investment in technol- ogy results in increased efficiency. "This survey was designed to be purely a customer satisfaction sur- vey," said Candace S. Simerson, Bloomington, Minn., moderator of this symposium. "The results from this survey will be presented for the first time during this year's confer- ence. We surveyed the ASOA mem- bership to determine what satisfaction levels were and how the various software vendors stacked up," she said. "We [at Minnesota Eye Consult- ants went live] in February, so I'll discuss our experience, what we did and did not like. Hopefully some of our attendees will be able to use our experience in their decision-making process," Ms. Simerson said. For example, while practices in- herently understand the necessity of an EHR program and moving away from a paper-based system, "the biggest challenge we hear about is how to anticipate all the workflow changes because it interrupts your whole practice operation," she said. These systems "change a practice's resource allocation" but not before most practices undergo reduced effi- ciencies as they learn the ins and outs of a particular system. "Every practice is different. You have to adapt the software to your needs and expectations, and skill set of your staff and doctors," Ms. Simerson said. "Even though we all recognize that intuitively, it can be difficult to adjust to a new system while you're trying to provide the excellent care your patients de- serve." Practices that have not yet im- plemented a system will hear "it's not like when you go live on some magical date everything is perfect," Ms. Simerson said. An ongoing chal- lenge for practice administrators and IT personnel is helping staff and physicians overcome the learning curve as quickly as possible. For practices that have already implemented a system, this sympo- sium can help address whether or not an upgrade or overhaul is neces- sary, and whether or not a piecemeal approach to updating software is a better idea, Ms. Simerson said. "No matter where you are in the process, everyone will walk out of this session with ideas on what will work for his or her practice," she said. The symposium will be held Monday from 3:00-4:30 p.m., in room 131 of the Moscone Center. EW Editors' note: Ms. Simerson has no fi- nancial interests related to this article A symposium concentrat- ing on the Food and Drug Administration, aptly titled, "FDA, Indus- try, and Ophthalmology: 'What We Don't Have and Why We Don't Have It,'" will be held today from 1:00-2:30 p.m., in room 131 of the Moscone Center. Michael W. Belin, MD, chair, ASCRS FDA Committee, noted the symposium has been developed to provide "federal, regulatory, indus- try, and international perspectives on major changes occurring in ma- ture regulatory systems such as the FDA and the European Union, as well as the difficulties companies have (both financial and practical) in getting products through the U.S. FDA process as compared to Eu- rope." Panelists include Rolf Schwind, of a German medical de- vice manufacturer, who will discuss why the company made the deci- sion not to enter the U.S. market; Allen Hill, CEO of a domestic device manufacturer, who will elaborate on the difficulties bringing a device to market in the U.S.; and Doyle Stult- ing, MD, who will address the entire approval process. EW Editors' note: Dr. Belin has no financial interests related to this article. Saturday, April 20, 2013 ASCRS Symposia by Michelle Dalton EyeWorld Contributing Writer Focus on FDA by Michelle Dalton EyeWorld Contributing Writer Michael W. Belin, MD, is chair of the ASCRS FDA Committee.

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