Background: It's no denying that Health IT (HIT) is broken. Our gov't is putting billions of dollars into an industry which is adding only marginal (if any) value to the end user. Many argue that HIT can add value, just the current approach does not. However, as is the case with most enterprise software, legacy software dominates. This legacy software is not extensible, making it difficult for innovators to create new solutions.

SMART Platforms[1] is looking to change this. The idea is simple. First, they want to define a standard API to access medical data. So rather than having to use cryptic data formats such as HL7/CCR/CCDs, SMART defines a consistent API for ALL electronic medical record installations. The goal is then to SMART-enable EMR installations at either the vendor or customer (eg. hospital) level. By SMART-enabling the EMRs, they make the connections between the legacy dbs and their API. With this an HIT application can use the API and not require custom integration work, which is half the battle in HIT.

Do they make a compelling enough case for you to jump into Health IT? Their success is largely contingent upon innovators, such as HN, wanting to develop on their platform.

FYI - SMART is currently sponsoring a HIT App challenge [2] for their new platform. There is an all-star panel of judges including Tufte. Deadline is the end of this month.

[1] www.smartplatforms.org [2] http://www.smartplatforms.org/challenge/