Why we chose a typewriter for our ad?

I think it’s a good thing that we work in an industry that’s in transition – we get to see the extremes and these could become stories to recount later. At sessions at FutureMed (now called Exponential Medicine), I recall extracting my own DNA and experiencing firsthand the role that data from DNA might play in the future of care. And on the other end, I visit medical practices that run really old software with archaic interfaces.

The typewriter is the quintessential icon of bygone technology. It opened up a new era in the industrial age and created countless jobs. But upgrading a typewriter doesn’t make it different. This reminds me of present day software. The original EHR systems did a great job in creating the market for digitized records. But simply documenting medical records electronically is not the end of the road – it’s the beginning. The real story occurs when we do something interesting with the data that we store.

We chose a typewriter for our ad in Becker’s ASC to call out all the software upgrade requests that salespeople extend to doctors and administrators. An upgrade is usually more of the same – it doesn’t change the basics. What we are calling for is a change – a new way to look at EHRs and management systems for ambulatory surgery centers.

By Praveen Suthrum, President & Co-Founder, NextServices