Question: I could not attend the ACEP Scientific Assembly this year. What were your impressions of the exhibits? What’s the latest buzz?

Answer: According to the College, the 2010 attendance broke all records (5900 registered). All I knew was that the corridors, meeting rooms, and the exhibit hall were crammed. I suspect the lure of Las Vegas had something to do with that but, curiously, the show itself seemed to be a bit dull.

Most significantly, there wasn’t that “gee whiz” idea or buzz-generating exhibit like there’s been in the past. While many of the booths sported new graphics and displays, most of the products and services seemed to be “yesterday’s news.”

I don’t mean to use this forum for political commentary but I’m inclined to attribute much of that to all the uncertainties surrounding this year’s health reform.  Companies aren’t inclined to make big bets on new initiatives when there are so many unknowns—whether it’s the talk about significant repeal or revision, all the unanswered questions and unfinished regulations, or the implications for reimbursement.

But there was evidence on the exhibit floor of the operational and logistical overhang associated with Healthcare Reform. Given the government’s big push, it isn’t surprising that exhibitors hawking Electronic Health or Medical Records were probably the most numerous vendors on the floor. As my colleague, Dr. Hellstern observed, “EMR’s are like treatments for a disease, when there’s so many options it generally means none of them work very well!”

Ironically, the newest category of vendors at ACEP (they didn’t exist five years ago) is those promoting scribes—human interfaces to operate between the computer and the physician.

So now we have all the costs and complications of the technology either the enterprise version or the boutique solution.  And coming along behind them are rapidly growing (both in number and size) organizations selling an additional service at an additional cost so we can overcome the productivity compromises created by the EMR.

I suppose some call that progress!