06/29/2013    Kevin K. Lam, DPM

TRAKnet Charges (Marge Portela, DPM)

The problem I see is that we have been jumping
from podiatry program to podiatry program,
Medinotes, now TRAKnet, etc. While it is great
for ease-of-use, the problem with companies going
out of business due to a narrow market is
inevitable. If you only target one market, your
base will be low. We are currently looking at
Practice Fusion (Free), Kareo (free EMR), Athena
(free) The last two make money on the PM side.

While podiatric-specific EMR was great back
before the days of meaningful use and over-
regulation by government, those days are over.
EMR was meant to ease doctor’s flow but as
meaningful use gets more complicated, so does the
program. You should look for a program on the
cloud, longevity, and most cost-effective.

Having been through Medinotes and now TRAKnet, I
begin to see the fault in specialty-specific EMRs
and the risk one takes. We paid for TRAKnet with
unlimited usage, paid for our own server and IT
team, etc. Now we have to pay a monthly fee per
provider, so what is stopping me from totally
kicking my server to the curb and going cloud?
The internal office server is cost in maintenance
of such, IT team, memory upgrades, backups,
etc.
I do commend our colleagues for rescuing the
program, but how long can they stay afloat just
catering to one specialty? BTW, our program
freezes when I try to ERX and they have been
working on it for the last month. They should be
accessible via iPad or Droid devices as the
newest wave of tech.

Kevin K. Lam, DPM, Naples, FL, klamdpm@hotmail.com

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