What to do with $5 million?

Having to answer an essay question for a healthcare related opportunity, I initially was overwhelmed at the thought of answering the question. The question, "If you were given 5 million dollars and could use it for only one purpose, what would you do with the money?" incorporates so many different possibilities in my mind. I could give the money to a friend who is working on a water purification project in Ghana, Community Water Solutions.

However, as much as I want to donate this hypothetical money to CWS, the project does not reflect my own passions, knowledge, or life intentions. It doesn't show the entrepreneurial, healthcare related thoughts that the admissions committee is looking for. Therefore, I continued to grapple with the concept of having to narrow an essay response to one meaningful project. Would I choose to donate to an AIDs clinic in Africa, give the money to impoverished children in India who cannot afford vaccinations and medications, or would I donate the money to Latino communities in the US who cannot access the healthcare system because they are working with green cards?

As I logged into my blog, the answer was quickly realized and seemed so easy. I would donate the money to have open source healthcare systems implemented at small clinics, family practices doctor's offices, and healthcare organizations in general that cannot afford to adopt an EMR system. These small clinics are truly the key to the successful automation of the entire US healthcare system. The large hospitals, insurers, and clinics can afford to implement healthcare systems and utilize a proprietary vendor who installs the software and provides the training. They can also brunt the cost of creating interoperable health information networks, so all of the large providers can "talk" to each other and share data.

However, the smaller healthcare providers can barely staff their clinics well enough each day. Healthcare IT systems are their last worry on a daily basis. They cannot afford to implement such a system nor can they dedicate staff members to training others on the new system. Without the systems, they are also left out of the sharing of invaluable health data on information exchange networks that provide better healthcare diagnoses and overall care to patients.

Therefore, the answer is clear now with what I would do with $5 million dollars. Utilize a team such as MedSphere to implement OpenVista in small, needy clinics across the country. The focus initially would be with clinics who cater to our system's children and elderly because these individuals are our future and most needy. Then, with a MedSphere team, the software implementation would cost ZERO dollars. The $5 million dollars would be used to pay MedSphere members to go in to implement the systems and train employees. Without the licensing fees, the $5 million dollars could go quite far in automating and digitizing our foundational healthcare organizations.

How far could the $5 million extend in covering the implementation/training costs? That is one answer that I am still unsure of. However, it is clear that this $5 million could go much further with an open source health system than with a proprietary health system. Our healthcare system should not based upon having the "best" system but rather on providing an interoperable health platform that all health organizations (big or small) can access. For that to happen, ALL health providers must have the foundational system implemented to connect to the platform. That is why open source makes this seemingly overwhelming task of implementing health systems in such a large, disaggregated US healthcare system much more feasible and affordable.