Paper is error prone but software gives me a migraine.

A recent UX Magazine article sums up one of the biggest hurdles for medical IT adoption:

Adoption and utilization can also be issues if the technology does the opposite of what it was intended to do. For example, physicians often lament that writing prescriptions used to be as easy as scrawling some text on a piece of paper. The task now frequently requires prescribing physicians to navigate through many complex software screens to accomplish the same task. http://www.uxmag.com/technology/portable-and-powerful

Adoption happens when people love the products they use. I truly believe that if you build it (well) they will come. The issue then appears that the medical field has not come around like the public has. But maybe they have. Aren't medical professionals also buying smart phones?

The medical profession would greatly benefit from lowering the barrier to entry for smaller more innovative companies that can build solid, safe applications that support or integrate with EMRs. Currently there are certifications that raise the bar so high that for the most part, only large software companies can afford the certification. Don't get me wrong, I am a proponent of standards but not if they only support the companies that take a one-size fits none approach. We have seen innovative companies such as 37 Signals build highly successful, small focused applications. The smaller applications focus on a subset of needs that a user has. They are truly useful and not featureful.

Even with my professional experience, the smaller tightly focused projects are the ones with the better performance (metrics and user studies support this) and often are released on time.

Granted, this article is of my biased opinion but I believe that a shift in approach is needed for adoption of systems that are not seen as migraine inducing and are adopted readily. The software moves from desktop applications needing lots of configuration to tightly focused web-based apps that are simple to use and support users needs.