If ever the need for new solutions existed for physician practices it is now.  Reimbursement pressures, documentation demands, overhead costs, personnel demands, and government regulation at all levels is placing physicians at a crossroads in practice management.  The key for 21st century practitioners is to move to outsourcing operational functions as much as is possible.   This includes payroll, billing and collecting, bill payments, medical records, patient eduction and other related services.  The ability for most small or even medium practices to keep up with the changing demands of these areas and still provide personal, one on one health care, is increasingly a losing battle.  Additionally, the significant overhead costs in terms of staffing to meet these needs is placing a drain on many practices and their financial viability. Outsourcing is coming of age as more and more providers are creating new and innovative ways to address the needs of practices.  The key is to make these solutions integrative as well as making sure they fit within the patient flow/thru put model that generally exists.  Solutions that require vast changes in practice ergonomics are likely to be slowly adopted or not at all . . . jomaxx

There are a myriad of providers of all stripes in the arena, here a but a few with their links and their core competency:

Physician directed patient education along with extended services for physicians @ http://www.icsciences.com/index.cfm

Integrated back office services focused on all aspects of billing and collecting @ http://www.athenahealth.com/index.php

New, web based core medical history information, secured and editable by the patient @ http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/health/tour/index.html

Supplier of EHR and EMR solutions @ http://www.nextgen.com/