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Moving Your Office Online: Two New Must Have Medical Apps
This article originally appeared on iMedicalApps.com, part of the HCPLive.com network.
While there seems to be a never ending stream of medical reference applications for smartphones, it might well be that medical apps for the more mundane parts of a doctor’s life get the most use. Once outside the examination room, it seems we spend the bulk of our time charting and returning messages. Therefore, it is as much with relief as with pleasure that we welcome two iPhone applications that aim to facilitate medical transcription and handling phone calls: Emdat Mobile and PerfectServe Clinician.
Emdat Mobile (iTunes link) is a simple application that allows dictation directly into the iPhone. It is not connected to a voice recognition engine such as Nuance’s Dragon but rather sends the recorded audio to a medical transcriptionist. Later, the transcribed record is available for viewing on the iPhone. While this may seem mundane, it is actually a very nice advance over using a digital dictaphone and special software to upload dictations.
It is likely that many readers have never heard of Emdat (“Electronic Medical Dictation And Transcription”). The company provides a web based platform for transcribed medical documents and was founded in 1999, early in the internet era. Emdat is not a transcription company but rather provides the infrastructure for independent medical transcription companies to store recorded audio as well as the finished documents. Clinicians and hospitals then use a simple web interface to edit and sign the documents.
While a lot of attention is given of late to computer voice recognition and transcription, many physicians still rely on voice dictation for documenting their patient encounters. The benefits are fairly plain, speaking is faster than typing or clicking and it does not require standing in front of a computer. Of course, many physicians who have converted to template based EHRs will say that, with time, they can document just as fast as with voice dictation. While this is likely correct, the catch is in the product. The dirty secret is that notes generated by clicking and choosing entries from templates are just barely usable as medical documents.
When you’re trying to read the notes of your colleague [in an electronic record], it’s almost impossible to figure out what happened to the patient. You have to read through two pages of all this junk that’s put in to increase billing.
To read the entire article, click here.
While there seems to be a never ending stream of medical reference applications for smartphones, it might well be that medical apps for the more mundane parts of a doctor’s life get the most use. Once outside the examination room, it seems we spend the bulk of our time charting and returning messages. Therefore, it is as much with relief as with pleasure that we welcome two iPhone applications that aim to facilitate medical transcription and handling phone calls: Emdat Mobile and PerfectServe Clinician.
Emdat Mobile (iTunes link) is a simple application that allows dictation directly into the iPhone. It is not connected to a voice recognition engine such as Nuance’s Dragon but rather sends the recorded audio to a medical transcriptionist. Later, the transcribed record is available for viewing on the iPhone. While this may seem mundane, it is actually a very nice advance over using a digital dictaphone and special software to upload dictations.
It is likely that many readers have never heard of Emdat (“Electronic Medical Dictation And Transcription”). The company provides a web based platform for transcribed medical documents and was founded in 1999, early in the internet era. Emdat is not a transcription company but rather provides the infrastructure for independent medical transcription companies to store recorded audio as well as the finished documents. Clinicians and hospitals then use a simple web interface to edit and sign the documents.
While a lot of attention is given of late to computer voice recognition and transcription, many physicians still rely on voice dictation for documenting their patient encounters. The benefits are fairly plain, speaking is faster than typing or clicking and it does not require standing in front of a computer. Of course, many physicians who have converted to template based EHRs will say that, with time, they can document just as fast as with voice dictation. While this is likely correct, the catch is in the product. The dirty secret is that notes generated by clicking and choosing entries from templates are just barely usable as medical documents.
When you’re trying to read the notes of your colleague [in an electronic record], it’s almost impossible to figure out what happened to the patient. You have to read through two pages of all this junk that’s put in to increase billing.
To read the entire article, click here.
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Harry Horner
The point made in the last paragraph is significant and applicable whether you are using pick and click templates or dictating according to a template. In both cases, a major purpose of dication - or record keeping by any means today - is to efficiently meet the requirements of a administrative authorities that regulate payment and/or some aspect of privileging or licensure for the purposes of facilitating and maximizing payment of fees and minimizing the likelihood of administrative hassle related to a given instance of patient care - NOT to maximize the quality of care a patient receives and the impact that a given instance of care will have on future care and as measured objectived and according to the patient's perception. If this observation is accepted, it follows that the real "customer" in a medical encounter is these authorities - not the patient. This proposition - evidence that even the most basic components of the patient-physician encounter have been subsumed and corrupted by insurance companies, including the government, is consistent with the fact that the patient record is physically and intellectually more readily accessible to these authorities than to the patients and caretakers of patients for whose benefit is is presumptively created.
August 27, 2011 - [ 1:18:36 ]
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