Even though my hospitals run MEDITECH or GE Centricity, I have an Epic MyChart account.  I really wanted to see how well Epic worked in the clinic and I wanted to be able to see their MyChart patient portal.  So, I scheduled an appointment with a competing health system to check things out.  It was actually very interesting experience and worth the time (despite a thorough physical exam).

I was most impressed with MyChart.  It far exceeds what anyone esle has, including niche vendors in this area.  With the exception of e-visits, it is a fairly comprehensive system.  Perhaps the most impressive is the ability to do true round-trip scheduling.  This isn’t the ridiculous “request an appointment” blank forms that take more time and effort than driving to the clinic.

Frankly, MEDITECH has fallen so far behind in this area it is disappointing.  While they have a product, I am unaware of anyone that has implemented it.  Maybe they have something up their sleeve.  But as of now, they are way I believe that are way behind Epic in this area.

While MyChart is way cool, they seem to be having trouble with Vista.  At least the provider I went to is having a problem.  I suppose it could be something unique to their implementation, but that seems unlikely.  Here is an excerpt from an email that I received from that provider:

If you have Windows Vista, please do the following to maximize the performance of <snipped provider name> on your computer:

Within Internet Explorer, open Advanced Internet Options from the Tools menu Scroll down to the Security Section and disable TLS 1.0

Yikes.  I think your average patient would struggle with these directions.  I wonder if there are any applications that would break as a result of disabling Transport Layer Security.  I am unaware of any.