W. Michael Park is a vascular surgeon practicing in Iowa at the Iowa Vascular Institute of the Iowa Heart Center. Partnered with 70 physicians specializing in cardiovascular disease management, his medical specialty involves treating people with diseases of the blood vessels such as arteries, veins and lymphatics. Iowa Vascular Institute is the leading cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery and vascular surgery practice in the state of Iowa, seeing over 100,000 patients a year in 14 offices and many more clinics throughout the state. Dr. Park and four other colleagues comprise the Iowa Vascular Institute and the Vein Center.

Business Challenge

Dr. Park is a self–confessed geek. "I have a background in computers and technology through my biomedical engineering concentration at Harvard," he explains. He continued his interest in technology through medical school at Columbia University, residency training in general surgery at St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City, and vascular surgery fellowship training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. His first position after finishing training was on the faculty at Columbia University in New York, at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. "it was there that I was introduced to FileMaker," he says. "The Columbia Weill Cornell Division of Vascular Surgery, at that time, was comprised of 10 vascular surgeons spread over three states and eight hospitals, and we were in need of a solution that would allow for billing of operations and registry of cases."

Successful Solution

Using FileMaker, Dr. Park created a robust, web–based solution that was universally adapted. It quickly logged over 5,000 cases in the 18 months that he was there. For his own use, he created an electronic medical records module that allowed him to run his office and access patient records over the web in a secure fashion and print documents anywhere within Columbia University.

In 2004, Dr. Park left New York to join the Iowa Heart Center, taking this expertise with him. He had been working with his partners, and six in–house developers, on creating Iowa Heart's electronic medical records on a different system, but soon realized the need for an auxiliary FileMaker system. Several database–related needs arose for which, he said, FileMaker was uniquely suited.

My initial deployment will involve a web–based course that allows the physicians in my practice to become certified readers of vascular ultrasound and laboratory studies. This solution requires a combination of web access, security, multimedia, usability and panache. I look forward to developing this on FileMaker Pro 10.

— W. Michael Park, M.D., Iowa Vascular Institute, West Des Moines, Iowa