Call me crazy, but I don’t want an iPad.

I really don’t. As far as I’m concerned, they look like over-sized iPods — awkward and clumsy. Didn’t want the first version, couldn’t care less about the new, slimmer, faster version that had people lining up last week, overnight and in the cold! For me to do that, front row seats to Lady Gaga would have to be included.

(On second thought, not even that would get me in line overnight….)

My colleague Kevin O’Leary from Dragons’ Den and The Lang and O’Leary Exchange has been quite tiresome with his raving about the fabulousness of his iPad. I just nod politely, and think to myself “boys and their toys…”

But I have to admit, the darn things are revolutionizing business.

iPads can be taken on the road by sales-people instead of a heavy catalogue, they can be presentation tools, menus or wine lists — even cash registers. I paid for the iPod I bought my daughter for Christmas at the Apple store on an iPad, and said yes when the clerk asked if I’d like the receipt sent directly to my e-mail. I was quite happy to not a have yet another paper receipt cluttering my wallet, and a more efficient way to find the e-receipt if I needed it.

No surprise that Apple uses its own products in innovative ways — but it’s catching on. I heard recently about a couple in California that didn’t bother with a $3000 cash register when they opened their bakery. They used a $600 iPad and employed ‘Square’, a free app and reader that turns the device into a credit-card payment system. No contracts or merchant account required.

Presumably all the new tablet devices — from Hewlett Packard and Samsung and of course, the one we Canadians are most interested in, the Playbook from RIM — will offer similar features. But being the first out of the gate, Apple is setting the bar for new competitors to meet or surpass.

Already, Cundari, an advertising agency with offices in Montreal and Toronto, is using the iPad for all of its presentations to clients.

“You can zoom in, zoom out, jump to pages,” says Sylvain Pereira, who runs Cundari’s Montreal office. “It looks so dynamic, clients love it.”

Pereira’s only complaint is that the iPad won’t take a USB stick, so presentations have to downloaded via PDFs, and that means going to the iTunes store to get the iBook program. But it’s not enough of a problem to take away from the ability to look cool and wired-in to potential clients.

“We’re often pitching social media strategy as well,” says Pereira. “so using the iPad shows clients ‘we know what you’re thinking about because we have tools’.”

The more I think about it though, it’s not the iPad or any other tablet that’s driving the revolution. These devices are just enabling it to another level People have been embracing mobility and technology in more ways for quite a while now.

“Nobody wants to talk on the phone anymore,” says Mark Kostel of Port Credit, Ont. He and his wife run a photography studio, specializing in weddings. “Most brides are between the ages of 25 and 35, and they all want to communicate via e-mail and skype and texting. So we created an on-line gallery.”

Kostel finds his young clientele is very techno-savvy. He used to carry his portfolio on an iPod, and before that, on a laptop. Now he’s loves his iPad.

“Images show really beautifully on the screen,” he raves. “And you have to keep up with the technology. That’s business.”

Apparently doctors are also jumping on the iPad bandwagon, to increase their efficency and revenue. And a firm based in Saint John, New Brunswick has designed an application that will allow doctors to “e-prescribe”.

“Right now we’ve been piloting for two and half months,” says Jackie Howatt, VP of Marketing for MedRunner Health Solutions. “It’s been going amazingly well. We’ve been trying to contain it a little bit, because we have a lot of demand coming from doctors wanting to come on board.”

Once the service is up and running, doctors will be able to keep their patient files on their iPads, and be able to see what other doctors are prescribing for the same patient. Then when they prescribe, they can use the iPad to send the details directly to the pharmacy, instead of scribbling away on a slip of paper.

MedRunner’s application is free to doctors. Pharmacies and insurers pay for the service, since it cuts down on paperwork and improves efficiency for those companies – and that means money saved.

“We’re starting with 400 doctors in St Johns, but by next year we intend to roll it out nationally,” says Howatt. I can see it happening.

What I can’t see is craving one of those jumped-up steno-pads myself in the near future — although I admit, in the early 90s I thought people with cellphones were a bit too taken with their own importance. Needless to say I’m a cellphone convert now. But I’m not convinced that I’ll be desperate for an iPad or any other tablet device any time soon.

Copyright © CBC 2011

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“It’s huge…it validates what we’ve been doing in the past year and a half,” said Todd Murphy, CEO of the Saint John-based company that developed the software.

MedRunner has created and continues to test a web-based application that enables doctors to send prescriptions to pharmacies online. With electronic prescriptions, pharmacies can avoid problems associated with illegible handwriting and negative drug interactions, which can add costs to health care.

This first electronic prescription filled with the iPad application means MedRunner has officially moved into the next stage of development of their technology, said Murphy. The iPad-made prescription was made by Rothesay-based Dr. Gordon Hollway, and was filled at a local Sobeys on Jan. 17.

With this first electronic prescription filled, said Murphy, the technology is in the “beta” stage. This means the technology can now be tested in a closed network with participating members.

Currently, the company is testing the technology with a group of about 10 doctors and 20 pharmacies. They will use the information and suggestions from physicians they gather in the beta stage of development to help them roll out their network on a larger scale, with plans to expand to the rest of Atlantic Canada and Ontario.

While the company has plans to expand, headquarters will remain in Saint John, said Murphy.

The company is also working on partnerships with other parties who are part of the prescription process, such as health insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

MedRunner provided all of the participating local doctors with iPads to test out the application, said Murphy. While the application can be used on a number of electronic platforms, Murphy said the portable nature of the iPad is ideal for doctors on the move.

“Now they can take their practice with them,” said Murphy.

Hollway said patients at his Rothesay-based family practice aren’t necessarily surprised when they see him with an iPad.

“I think in the grand scheme of things, physicians offices haven’t been on the vanguard of the digital revolution at all. We’ve certainly got some ways to go, and I think people assume that we are a little further ahead on that than we are,” said Hollway.

At the start of the day, Hollway said he enters his list of patients into the iPad using the MedRunner application. If a patient needs a prescription, he can select the name of the patient, and then select the prescription they need and what pharmacy he wants to submit the prescription to.

He can also follow the same procedure without a list created beforehand. He did note, however, that he is already fairly efficient with writing paper prescriptions.

“As of yet, I don’t think it makes my day easier, but I think it’s the potential that excites me here,” said Hollway.

He noted the usefulness of a technology that could notify physicians of drug interactions, and he would be interested in a system that could connect electronic prescriptions to an electronic health record for a patient.

After celebrating the first electronic prescription sent, one of the next steps for MedRunner is to scale the system for the entire province of New Brunswick, said Murphy. He said he hopes to have that done within the next six months.

“Now the real work starts,” said Murphy.

© 2011 Telegraph-Journal (Saint John)

Original Article

The First Angel Network (FAN) Association also invested $125,000, in addition to $75,000 from private investors for a total round of $300,000.

Created by entrepreneur Todd Murphy and software engineer Kevin Garnett, MedRunner lets physicians submit prescriptions to a patient’s pharmacy electronically rather than write them by hand.

If a physician selects a drug that negatively reacts with another that a patient is taking, the system produces an alert and displays the information that they need sourced directly from the Lexi-Comp’s medical knowledge database.

“As jurisdictions all across Canada and the United States race to make the legislative changes needed to permit electronic prescriptions, the timing of MedRunner’s introduction to the marketplace is optimal,” said foundation president and CEO Calvin Milbury. “When several investors come to the table, like FAN, NBIF and other angels, it helps to build the credibility the company needs to raise even more capital when it starts to grow.”

MedRunner is conducting beta trials with a number of doctors and national pharmacy chains. In addition to successful adoption of the technology, the trials are reporting increases in productivity by both physicians and pharmacists, including reduced waiting times for patients due to telephone verifications.

“MedRunner is exactly the kind of startup our members are looking to invest in – a product that industry is already asking for, and a management team that has both the business and programming expertise to make it happen,” said network director Ross Finlay.

“And it’s by working together with other investment partners like NBIF that we’re able to help raise the capital startups need to enter emerging markets at the right time.”

Based on a software-as-a-service platform, the technology can work as a standalone or integrated solution, designed to plug in to any already existing patient information management system.

To ensure that the system has the best knowledge of a patient’s entire treatment regimen, physicians and specialists with the same patient, when authorized, can work from the same electronic record.

“Ultimately, the most important thing our system does is provide better health care by helping to reduce the risks that inevitably rise from using a system that starts with pen and paper,” said Murphy, the CEO of MedRunner.

“This equity investment by NBIF and FAN will allow us to get our product up and running for doctors, pharmacists, and most importantly their patients, by early 2011.”

© 2010 The Daily Gleaner (Fredericton)

*This story and more available in the download.

MedRunner, based in Saint John, is a small company that exemplifies this evolution. It has pioneered web-based software that allows doctors to register prescriptions with pharmacies, saving time and preventing errors. Ten physicians and 20 pharmacies are testing the process; by year’s end, MedRunner hopes to deploy its product nationally.

This company, and others like it, represent a new field: the application of information technology to systemic problems in health care. From digital diagnostic imaging to instant surgical bookings and online prescriptions, ehealth has the potential to speed diagnosis, reduce waiting times and slow the rapid growth in health-care costs.

Successive federal governments have made the development of ehealth initiatives a priority, and former health minister Michael Murphy spoke often about the value that electronic records would confer. That value has not yet been realized – but the potential is growing.

The Department of Health doesn’t need to devise its own computer technology, nor should it be searching for a one-size-fits-most software vendor. There are many companies out there competing to meet similar requirements. The provincial government must tap into the creative power of this highly competitive market.

If officials can determine what the province’s needs are, entrepreneurs will do the rest. The competition may even give rise more local businesses serving national markets.

© 2011 Telegraph-Journal (New Brunswick)

*This story and more from the Telegraph Journal (Saint John) are available in the download.

The Opportunity

MedRunner was trying to solve the problem of building an interoperable HL7 v3 electronic prescription platform to connect physicians, pharmacy management systems, hospitals, and key participants in a patient’s “circle of care”.

MedRunner faced two major obstacles in deploying its solution.

The first challenge was the fact that there are at least six independent pharmacy management systems built with different technologies. MedRunner required its HL7 v3 platform to seamlessly integrate into other HL7 v3 compliant systems, sending and receiving electronic prescriptions using pan-Canadian standards. This included working with each vendor to integrate their systems into MedRunner’s systems.

The second obstacle was the absence of an interoperable application or tool that allowed all pharmacy management systems to connect and receive electronic prescriptions from the MedRunner HL7 v3 electronic prescription platform.

The Solution

MedRunner’s goal was to build an e-Health platform focused on usability, functionality and advancing physician adoption.

To help build this platform, MedRunner chose Intelliware’s Test Level 7 (TL7™) – a healthcare systems interoperability testing platform – to test and deploy its HL7 v3 electronic prescription platform.

MedRunner used TL7’s Drug Information System test sandbox to test the platform’s ability to send prescriptions, add patients, add drugs, add allergies, perform drug interaction checks, and for physicians and pharmacists, to add and abort prescriptions.

MedRunner chose Intelliware because of their expertise in the e-Health sector and their experience deploying and testing healthcare applications that fit within Canada Health Infoway and pan-Canadian standards.

Because e-Health is still relatively new, provincial jurisdictions are at various stages of implementation. This is causing significant challenges for system developers. Without TL7, MedRunner would have had to build its own test system, thereby significantly delaying deployment timeframes and increasing costs.

The Outcome

MedRunner built an HL7 v3 platform that can accommodate all provincial HL7 v3 messaging sets which enable physicians to send electronic prescriptions using HL7 v3.

This means that physicians and national pharmacies can rapidly advance their adoption of electronic prescribing – years ahead of provincial initiatives.

Key business benefits realized by MedRunner include: Integration of its HL7 v3 platform with all Pharmacy Management Systems and Drug Information Systems using Test Level 7 Conformance with Canada Health Infoway and pan-Canadian standards, leveraging Intelliware’s expertise Guidance on the best ways to implement and deploy its own solutions.

SAINT JOHN, (NB) – Every year, pharmacists in Canada alone dispense 450 million paper-based drug prescriptions. In the United States it’s 3.5 billion. Every day, many of those pharmacists struggle with two problems: illegible handwriting and negative drug interactions. Both can lead to adverse health effects.

Today the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF) announced a $100,000 venture capital investment, in a new Saint John-based start-up that will eliminate both of those problems: MedRunner. The First Angel Network Association (FAN) also invested $125,000, in addition to $75,000 from private investors for a total round of $300,000.

Created by entrepreneur Todd Murphy and software engineer Kevin Garnett, MedRunner lets physicians submit prescriptions to a patient’s pharmacy electronically, rather than write them by hand. If a physician selects a drug that negatively reacts with another that a patient is taking, the system produces an alert and displays the information that they need sourced directly from the Lexi-Comp’s medical knowledge database.

“As jurisdictions all across Canada and the United States race to make the legislative changes needed to permit electronic prescriptions, the timing of MedRunner’s introduction to the marketplace is optimal,” says NBIF President & CEO Calvin Milbury, “when several investors come to the table, like FAN, NBIF, and other angels, it helps to build the credibility the company needs to raise even more capital when it starts to grow.”
MedRunner is now conducting beta trials with a number of doctors and national pharmacy chains. In addition to successful adoption of the technology, the trials are reporting increases in productivity by both physicians and pharmacists, including reduced waiting times for patients due to telephone verifications.

“MedRunner is exactly the kind of start-up our members are looking to invest in—a product that industry is already asking for, and a management team that has both the business and
programming expertise to make it happen,” says FAN Director Ross Finlay, “and it’s by working together with other investment partners like NBIF, that we’re able to help raise the capital start-ups need to enter emerging markets at the right time.”

Based on a software-as-a-service platform (Saas), the technology can work as a stand-alone or integrated solution, designed to plug in to any already existing patient information management system. To ensure that the system has the best knowledge of a patient’s entire treatment regimen, physicians and specialists with the same patient, when authorized, can work from the same electronic record.

“Ultimately, the most important thing our system does is provide better healthcare by helping to reduce the risks that inevitably rise from using a system that starts with pen and paper,” says MedRunner CEO Todd Murphy, “this equity investment by NBIF and FAN will allow us to get our product up and running for doctors, pharmacists, and most importantly their patients, by early 2011.”

About the investors:

New Brunswick Innovation Foundation

The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation is an independent corporation that makes investments in applied research and new growth-oriented enterprises. Specializing in technology transfer, the Foundation’s Venture Capital Fund and Research Innovation Fund has allowed many of New Brunswick’s most innovative people turn their ideas into commercial successes.

First Angel Network Association

The First Angel Network Association (FAN) is a not-for-profit organization created to bridge the gap between entrepreneurs and capital in Atlantic Canada through communication, education and networking. FAN is a member-based organization that offers a forum for Angel investors to increase their exposure to quality, pre-screened investment opportunities and expand their network of like-minded investors. FAN also provides qualified entrepreneurs the opportunity to approach a community of active investors.

MedRunner, a Saint John-based start-up company, is getting ready to release new software that will allow doctors to send prescriptions directly to pharmacies to be filled, increasing efficiency and quality of service in the process.

“The main thing that we provide is real-time communication between physicians and pharmacists,” says Todd Murphy, CEO of MedRunner.

“We’re connecting two completely different parties that, at this point, have no real-time communication.”

Now concluding trials with a limited number of participants, the technology serves many purposes. For pharmacists, it takes the guesswork out of deciphering doctors’ famously messy handwriting and saves them from having to make extra calls to confirm their instructions.

It also provides information regarding possible medication conflicts or reactions, increasing patient safety and service at the same time.

Ryan Kennedy, the owner and operator of a Saint John Pharmasave, says that will be especially helpful when patients visit different pharmacies.

“If you can see what people are getting at other pharmacies or from other physicians, you’ll have the whole picture,” he says.

“If somebody just simply drops in here to get a prescription filled because it’s convenient, but their pharmacy is normally in Grand Manan, then you’re not going to know (what else they’re taking).”

Across the country, 450 million prescriptions are filled each year.

If making that process electronic saves time for everyone involved, it will help save time and money, Kennedy says, pointing out that it is already in wide use in the United States.

“What it all is about is trying to take advantage of the efficiencies of the technology that we already have in our stores,” he says.

“If it’s used properly, not only do you have efficiencies, there can be a lot of reduction in errors.”

Starting in early November, the technology will go from testing to the open market, meaning it could be coming to pharmacy in southeastern New Brunswick sometime soon. Murphy says there are also regulatory challenges to making sure an electronic prescription meets the legal requirements in any given area.

“When you look at pharmacy and health care, a lot of these acts and provincial regulations date back to the early-80s, so a lot of these regulatory bodies are just starting to bring the documents up to date,” he says.

Murphy says that including New Brunswick’s doctors and pharmacists in the technology’s development was key to its successful growth. A local group of about a dozen doctors has formed the core of the consultations, but more than 100 other doctors and pharmacists have also contributed.

“We’ve really focused on usability, functionality and building this with physicians, so that’s the key,” he says.

MedRunner was the recipient of a $100,000 venture capital investment yesterday courtesy of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. The foundation is an independent corporation supporting the development of innovation in New Brunswick, with a mandate to strengthen make investments in applied research and businesses in high-growth sectors.

It has also received $125,000 from the non-profit First Angel Network Association and $75,000 from private investors.

In April, the company was nominated for a KIRA (Knowledge Industry Recognition and Achievement) award for the province’s most promising start-up.

© 2010 Times & Transcript (Moncton)