We are right in the heart of creating our health information exchange (HIE) video - the fourth in our set of creative and educational videos. After starting off with the story selection and script, we’ve completed the voice over and are now onto the style boards. There has been a lot of excitement built up because this is where things get visual and the story gets a beautiful face. It’s a lot like putting a face to the name of a person you’ve talked with for so long and now finally get to see what they look like.

Our friends at Belljar have created a series of illustrative, hand-drawn slides so that we can see what our video will look like. These slides serve to give us a sense of the style and imagery that the HIE software video will embody. It takes a little bit of imagination and foresight to visualize how these drawings will come to life in video animation, as well as trust in the artist’s direction to fill in the rest of the frames.

The HIE video opens onto a scene with an ancient Greek inventor in a toga sketching out an invention on a piece of papyrus. We soon find out that this “brilliant” invention is a goat’s collar that can carry a scroll from one place to another. Not only does the poor goat become tired in his journey to deliver the scroll, but he becomes hungry too. So naturally, the important message becomes his afternoon snack. Fast forward to today, and the medical industry is still facing problems with transferring medical records on paper.

pMD’s health information exchange is depicted by a magic-like electronic flow of information between health systems, practitioners, and patients. Our signore goat can rest easy knowing that he no longer has to make the long, tedious trek to deliver paper medical records between doctors. Rather, the goat can leave the information exchange to pMD and focus on what he does best - which incidentally, is eating the paper.


“Long ago, ancient Greeks invented the first of what would be a long line of brilliant medical file-sharing systems. It was called: the goat.”


“Fast forward to the 21st century, and medical records are still shared on a technology invented 3000 years ago.”


“Here, records and clinical information are gathered electronically, and shared seamlessly.”

How do you educate the medical industry about health information technology without simultaneously putting your audience to sleep? It’s a unique challenge that takes a village to make something informative and entertaining - it takes a video with captivating narration. We’re big proponents of short videos at pMD - we’ve created three of them so far for our products, including charge capture and secure messaging, and are now in the process of creating a health information exchange video with the help of our friends at Belljar. There are some integral key elements that go into making a great video, and narration is a big one.

In order to highlight the inefficiencies of the current state of health data transfer in medicine, our health information exchange story goes back thousands of years to ancient Greece with a goat and a scribe. The story is delightful - but it’s only as good as the narrator who guides the audience through it. Narration is a delicate task as it can make or break a video. Morgan Freeman can read just about anything and make it sound cool. But we’ve found a voice that works perfectly for our playful and education videos in the voice of actor John Getz.


We’ve worked with Getz on narration for two videos prior to this and know just how talented and witty he is with voice-overs. Our team had the opportunity recently to visit the recording studio here in San Francisco and take part in the script reading. Getz was a master with the script and brought the story to life. He explored different variations of the lines, including at least five different ways to say “and goats, too.” We chimed in every so often with feedback, suggestions, and jokes, but we very quickly had our video narration!

So without further ado, here is the narration for our upcoming health information exchange video:

A Health Information Exchange (HIE) is a system used to facilitate the electronic exchange of health care information among disparate organizations and health care information systems. It allows health care providers and patients to securely access a patient’s vital medical information from any location in order to improve the quality, safety, and speed of care. When a patient moves, the HIE ensures that their information follows them.

While there is no set definition for what qualifies a product as an HIE, an HIE typically offers some or all of the following services: data exchange, including electronic results delivery for labs and transcriptions; EHR integration at the point of care; billing-related exchanges; messaging; and analytics and reporting. Each of these services work together to give providers a holistic view of a patient’s medical history and current state of health.

There are numerous benefits that can be realized from utilizing the services of an HIE. These include: improvements in the quality of patient care; better coordination between the providers caring for a patient; reductions in repeat tests and imaging; increases in patient engagement in the health care process; improvements in patient outcomes; sharing of best practices amongst providers; and reductions in costs. The use of an HIE can also help prevent missed opportunities for preventive care and can reduce medical errors which result from a lack of sufficient information.

At its core, the purpose of a Health Information Exchange is to give appropriate and timely patient information wherever it is needed. At pMD, we’re passionate about helping doctors improve charge capture and provide better patient care, and we recognize that facilitating the flow of information amongst providers is a key component in that. This is always in the back of our minds when we’re building new pMD features, and I’m extremely excited about several upcoming initiatives in our pipeline which are centered around this goal.