Open vs Closed EHR Systems With Jonathan Bush

Yesterday I had a video interview scheduled with Jonathan Bush from athenahealth. It was going to be broadcast live on my burgeoning EHR Videos website (Subscibe for EHR Video Email Updates) using the Google Plus Hangout technology. Everything was set until Google Plus HOA (Hangouts On Air as they’re called) wouldn’t load. It was a system wide problem and so we were unable to broadcast the interview. However, Jonathan and I were able to see each other and so we just did a more traditional interview about the subject of open vs closed EHR systems.

As you can imagine Jonathan had plenty to say on the subject of open versus closed EHR systems. We started the discussion discussing the business model of closed EHR systems and how looking at many EHR companies that seemed to be a very good business model. I asked him what was so bad about being closed.

Jonathan then told me that a closed EHR system is a great business model for the software vendor if you can get it. However, he said that as the product category matures the closed systems will get disrupted by more open options. [...]