The NFL Picks Up an EHR in Free Agency
Less than a week after the National Basketball Association announced plans to use Cerner’s EHR for the foreseeable future, the National Football League (NFL) and eClinicalWorks have publicized a similar arrangement. The sports league will reportedly (Source: The Boston Globe) be paying $7-10 million to use an EHR from the Westborough, Mass.-based software provider up to at least 10 years.
According to Kaiser Health News, eight teams (the New England Patriots, New York Jets and Giants, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, Houston Texans, San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos) will use the EHR next year, and by 2014, the whole league will be on the system. The EHR will reportedly be able to store a player’s complete medical history including X-Rays, blood test results, and medications. According to The Globe, it will be able to access video clips from the game to show when an injury occurred.
“The NFL and its healthcare professionals pride themselves in maintaining a leadership role in sports medicine developments,” Tony Yates, M.D., president of the NFL Physicians Society and member of the EMR Committee for the National Football League, said in a statement. “We are always looking for innovative ways to enhance healthcare within the organization. Electronic health records are the next logical step and we look forward to partnering with eClinicalWorks on this initiative.”
The announcement comes at a time when the NFL is under increased pressure from various sources to reduce the likelihood of significant head trauma occurring within a game.
