When I look around healthcare information technology, I see silos. I find software that gets in the way of productivity. I see technology that is not as reliable or as efficient as it should and could be. When I try to think of companies that are actively working to change that… The list is much shorter than I think it ought to be. But there are a few that are dragging all of us forward. I wrote before about athenahealth and the success they’re seeing. I think Allscripts is another company that really “gets it.”

Since the merger with Misys was completed, Allscripts seems to have begun a bit of a missionary project to baptize all of healthcare in the salvation of interconnectedness. Their chief executive, Glen Tullman, sat down for a surprisingly unscripted and sincere chat with with Tim over at HIStalk.

(Glen even answered questions for nearly an hour. I only got a “moment.”)

Seriously, though. Glen Tullman ought to look into evangelism, because I think he might just be able to help some folks see the light (at the end of the healthcare information technology tunnel):

I see the merger of Allscripts with Misys, not only as an opportunity, but as a responsibility. We simply must use our new size [and] scale, our set of solutions and our reach to radically accelerate the movement to create a truly interconnected healthcare system in order to eliminate errors, improve quality and better manage cost. But we believe this must be a mandate not just for Allscripts, but for all vendors. While Allscripts and others provide applications that help address the issues I outlined above, the core problem is that healthcare is not connected – functionally, financially or technically. That can’t continue and we collectively have the tools to ensure it doesn’t. Consider this a call to action to eliminate what I call “software silos.” Now is the time to come together as an industry to create standards, to ensure our systems are actual solutions, and that what we provide is the fix, not the problem.

His interview with Tim back in 2006 was informative, but his new call to action is energizing. There’s a lot of work between talk and action, but Allscripts has both the people, the resources, and the influence to actually push parts of healthcare forward, just like athenahealth is doing.

Sometimes people think I’m like some sort of healthcare Alanis Morissette, that I’m always angry with healthcare information technology. Sometimes, I am. But I also see the progress we are making, alongside the progress I think we still have to make. Companies like athenahealth and Allscripts are two of the companies that I pay attention to today because they’re rewriting the rules for this industry. athenahealth has built a thriving company around a highly disruptive, but also highly successful business model. The other is starting a new chapter (hell, a whole new volume) in its history by declaring war on the proprietary barriers healthcare information technology vendors build (or leave) up.

Given Vieue, I should probably stop getting so excited about athena, Allscripts, and (a few) others. The truth is, though, Glen Tullman is right: making healthcare information technology more accessible is about more than just one vendor, and it is a responsibility, really, for all of us.

Let’s hope more of us enlist.