MEDfx CEO Colin Barry Discusses Virtual Lifetime Electronic Records (transcript)

This is the transcript of my recent podcast with MEDfx CEO Colin Barry.

Williams: This is David E. Williams, co-founder of MedPharma Partners and author of the Health Business Blog. I’m speaking today with Colin Barry, CEO of MEDfx. Colin, thanks for being with me today.

Barry: Thank you David.

Williams: Tell me a little bit about what problem your company is trying to solve.

Barry: Every other sector of our economy has leveraged technology to drive massive improvements in efficiency, quality and service delivery. Our health care delivery system is a key target for this kind of improvement. The potential of health information is largely untapped because it still remains in a form such as paper that is not efficiently communicated or aggregated.

MEDfx is focused on solving this very problem by making electronic health information available and fluid. Our solution allows physicians to quickly access information that’s pertinent to a patient’s care.

Williams: It seems as though your focus is care for military veterans and soldiers on active duty. Is that in fact a focus and if so what is the use case?

Barry: Our role is helping to bridge the connection between the VA and the DOD and the private sector to bring all this information together.

Nearly 60 percent of military personnel receive their health care through non-military providers. A typical scenario is that a veteran receives care at a private health care facility and using our technology, the treating clinician is able to view a universally accessible health record containing information from the VA, DOD and other private health care facilities. This might include the patient’s allergies, their medications and diagnostic test results that would otherwise require phone calls, faxes or redoing unnecessary diagnostic testing...