Ask HN: Why is medical software so hard to use?

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This is coverage of electronic medical records by The Times, in reverse-chronological time, at the clip of about an article a year:

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"Do Electronic Records Help or Hinder Patient Care?" [1]

"Our Hospital’s New Software Frets About My ‘Deficiencies’" [2]

"Broken, wasteful, inhuman, expensive, deadly" [3]

"Why Health Care Tech Is Still So Bad" [4]

"Tech Rivalries Impede Digital Medical Record Sharing" [5]

"Doctors Find Barriers to Sharing Digital Medical Records" [6]

"Doctors complain that the electronic systems are clunky and time-consuming" [7]

"The Cost of Electronic Medical Records" [8]

"Usability is the single greatest impediment" [9]

"An Unforeseen Complication of Electronic Medical Records" [10]

"Most Doctors Aren’t Using Electronic Health Records" [11]

"Doctor-Patient-Computer Relationships" [12]

"The Computer Will See You Now" [13]

"There’s no way small practices can effectively implement electronic health records" [14]

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/opinion/letters/electronic-medical-records.html

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/health/epic-electronic-health-records.html

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/opinion/doctors-nurses-and-the-paperwork-crisis-that-could-unite-them.html

[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/opinion/sunday/why-health-care-tech-is-still-so-bad.html

[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/us/electronic-medical-record-sharing-is-hurt-by-business-rivalries.html

[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/business/digital-medical-records-become-common-but-sharing-remains-challenging.html

[7] https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/health/the-ups-and-downs-of-electronic-medical-records-the-digital-doctor.html

[8] https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/opinion/the-cost-of-electronic-medical-records.html

[9] https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/technology/assessing-the-effect-of-standards-in-digital-health-records-on-innovation.html

[10] https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/health/22chen.html

[11] https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/technology/19patient.html

[12] https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/opinion/l11medical.html

[13] https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/opinion/06coben.html

[14] https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/business/01unbox.html

My favorite is "An Unforseen Complication of Medical Records", despite the several articles before it about the complications of medical records.

Is this really the case? Finance is highly regulated and there is a lot of superb software.

Isn't it the classical enterprise software situation where the user is not the buyer? These are bought by administrators from sales reps based on features that appeal to "leadership". Its the same with any SAP or other major vendor implementation, the software itself is a steaming pile of crap, but it ticks all the boxes a non-user wants to see (compliance and reporting and whatnot). There is no incentive for the vendor to "waste" money on usability.

Because the primary concern of all projects is compliance. Building the thing is an afterthought and it's gonna be expensive and take for ever to deliver anyway so everyone just throws their hands up and accepts it.

Our whole system is designed around making Healthcare this highly moated bonanza for insiders who know how to gameplay beaurocracy so I'd argue its not much of a surprise that that's what we get: a bloated beaurocracy

It’s billing that’s the problem. The software has to account for all sorts of billing codes to make sure it’s billed correctly.

I’ve said it before but I think medical billing is the problem with healthcare in the US.