For every two physician practices that have chosen and set up a basic EMR system, there are about three others that haven’t yet done so. Boston-based startup MedicalRecords.com sees that as a huge business opportunity.
In 2010, when the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act was passed, CEO Ace Bhattacharjya found himself fielding calls from physician friends and connections. A former marketing and IT executive, he was a logical source of advice for physicians who had all kinds of questions about EMRs and choosing the right one.
It seemed strange to him that, although the government was doling out billions of dollars in incentives for providers to make the switch, there didn’t seem to be a comprehensive list of EMR vendors, or a good way for providers to evaluate which would be best for them.
“This (decision) was going to affect everything he does every day of his life,” Bhattacharjya said. “We wanted to marry together the 700 vendors with the 700,000 providers who needed the technology.”
So Bhattacharjya and a small team went to work building a database of vendors. With the early adopter providers likely already committed to an EMR, Bhattacharjya knew that the people who needed something like MedicalRecords.com would likely be small-business guys being driven to EMRs, quite frankly, less by the desire to do it and more by the fear of not doing it.
As early SEO analysis and conversations with physicians showed, the people using the database were also the kind of physicians who had questions like, what do I do with my paper records? and, how will I really be penalized if I don’t implement EMRs?
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
So it made sense to the MedicalRecords.com team to build a robust website filled with content that not only helped providers choose the right EMR, but also answered some of those basic questions. Today, MedicalRecords.com contains about 3,800 pages of content based on specific topics that these providers are looking for, including EMRs for specific states and specialties.
Physicians enter some basic information about their specialty, practice size, and preference for what they’re looking for, and MedicalRecords.com’s search engine turns up some recommended vendors. The company then follows up with the physicians, and asks some more questions about their preferences. Then, it sells that lead to suitable EMR vendors.
Bhattacharjya said the company has done basically no outbound marketing. Instead, it keeps its focus on making the site easy to find for the people who need to use it. Even though most physicians will eventually have EMRs, Bhattacharjya said he’s confident there will always be a market for connecting providers with services connected to EMR technology in some way or another. “We already know the demand is there,” he said.
