The growing adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) has not only changed the way patient information is captured and shared, but has also proven to be an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to improving patient health outcomes. We asked Dr. Richard Sztramko, Co-Founder of Arya Health, to tell us about the solution he and his team have developed and share his thoughts on the industry. Dr. Sztramko is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in software development for health care delivery. He is also the Chief Medical Officer of Reliq Health Technologies and an award-winning medical educator.
Tell us about how Arya came to be.
We started Arya to improve the way health care providers feel at work. There are many EMRs available, but most were built in the 1990s with little or no updates to user experience or interface. They are consistently rated as difficult to use and a source of impaired quality of life and burnout at work. As doctors we knew we had to take a stand and change the game – not only for our own benefit, but for all other doctors and health care providers that are struggling with their EMR/EHR technology.
What makes Arya different?
Arya is simple, intuitive, and cost-effective. Because Arya is so easy to use our customers don’t need a large amount of expensive setup and training time. This is particularly important to new graduates who do not want to spend five thousand dollars in their first year of practice to get up and running. From the moment you sign in you can tell that Arya is different from other EMRs. We paid particular attention to details with respect to colours, icons and layout so that you can feel calm while in the middle of a chaotic clinic.
How exactly does Arya help to improve efficiency for clinics?
We built Arya from the ground up with Medical Office Assistant (MOA) and clinician workflows in mind. This means that there are less clicks, less headaches, and more freedom. Some of our clinics are seeing a 40% reduction in their administrative costs, and our doctors can see 5-10 more patients per day which results in a significant amount of increased revenue. For other doctors they get done earlier and have a better work-life balance. We empower physicians and other allied health providers to live their best lives.
We continue to hear that EMRs don’t talk to each other and that providers keep the data connections closed to other platforms. How does Arya address that?
Our system is built with interoperability in mind through HL7/FHIR principles. The Canadian and US governments are making large strides at the regulation level with respect to interoperability. We are ready to partake in safe and secure data transfers in locations where the infrastructure is available.
Patient data privacy is obviously a top-of-mind concern. What role has MedStack played in supporting Arya’s journey?
Arya has worked tirelessly to ensure that best practices with respect to privacy and security are implemented within our organization and within our software. Our journey begins with MedStack’s out-of-the-box PHIPA and HIPAA compliant hosting environment. You can see the relief in the faces of our physician clients and the hospitals we work with when they see how seriously MedStack takes cybersecurity. From provisioning environments to threat detection management you have us covered. We have also worked with other industry experts such as Privacy Horizon and New York Cyberlaw to make sure that we are beyond reproach when it comes to our internal policies and procedures.
Isn’t it really tough to change EMRs? Physicians have thousands of patients with tons of data, and getting onto a new system must be costly and expensive. Are you seeing any traction in the industry?
We have built a custom data migration assistant which makes this painless and inexpensive. Our data migration experts ensure that the transition is comprehensive, accurate, and efficient. Our customers have been very happy after switching from other EMR vendors. They’ve taken the plunge and aren’t looking back.
For more information on Arya Health, visit www.aryaehr.com.
