Emdat is pleased to announce the release of Emdat Mobile for Android. The Emdat Mobile application is already very popular on the iPhone, and we are excited to be able to deliver the same easy-to-use application for Android powered devices. The Android app allows physicians to view their patient schedule, dictate, review, and approve transcription. In addition, we’ve introduced a few new features to this version. Android users will be able to see their schedules in different views, review transcription in any part of the workflow, and dictate with Insert, Overwrite and Append options. Emdat is dedicated to the continued development of our Mobile applications — we look forward to bringing these features and more to both platforms in the near future.

You can download and install Emdat Mobile for Android from the Android Market.

You can...

Emdat will be hosting it's fourth User Group Conference December 12-14, 2011 in Scottsdale, AZ at the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North.

Register now for this great opportunity to learn and network with peers and Emdat leaders. Session topics include Emdat’s latest advances in mobile applications, EMR integration, voice understanding and meaningful use, in addition to industry trends, new technologies, effective marketing techniques and HIPAA. Early registration rates apply before September 15, 2011. For more information, visit our 2011 User Conference page.

Medical Health Imaging and Healthcare IT News recently published stories on Emdat Mobile for iPhone, iPad and Windows Mobile. Highlighting updates to the software, the publications detail improvements in usability and security.

The 2011 Emdat User Conference will be held December 12-14, 2011 at the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North Scottsdale, AZ

Emdat clients are invited to join us as we summit in the sun to discuss industry trends and new technologies.  Enjoy compelling presentations and question-and-answer sessions while networking with peers and Emdat leaders.  Learn about Emdat's latest advances in mobile apps, EMR integration, voice recognition and qualified text.  Discover how to maximize your use of the suite of applications and employ effective marketing techniques.

We have secured the amazing room rate of $163 per night plus tax. Rooms include magnificent desert views and gas-burning fireplaces.  This breathtaking property offers a luxurious spa, access to renowned courses at Troon North Golf Club, and exquisite dining.   

More information on this rewarding event will be available in the next few months. 

Make the most of Emdat's applications! Join us in Madison, WI for a three day training class June 8th-10th. You'll learn the basics as well as the advanced features of InCommand, InQuiry, InSync, InScribe, and ShadowPrint. Visit the Emdat Training Class category at www.emdathelp.com to sign up!

New features of the latest edition of Emdat Mobile:

Bob Haugen, Chuck Strain and Randy Olver are heading to the Clinical Documentation Industry Association (CDIA) 2011 Annual Conference in Charlotte, NC, April 13-16, 2011. Visit Emdat at booth 207 to learn how Emdat can facilitate EMR adoption by allowing physicians to enjoy all the benefits of an EMR while continuing to dictate.

PracticeLink.com recently spoke to several physicians employing Emdat's integration with EMRs for the article Transcription gone high tech. Because Emdat allows them to continue to dictate while still enjoying the benefits of EMRs, they're saving time and providing better patient care.

Like many healthcare organizations in recent years, Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation and Loyola University Health System have adopted electronic medical records (EMRs) as a way to streamline their documentation process. However, converting to EMRs without disrupting physician workflow presented a unique challenge, given that many doctors prefer dictating patient notes orally as opposed to entering information manually into a computer. For both health systems, the solution came in the form of EMR integration from Emdat Inc. Read all about it.

On Tuesday, March 8th, Emdat will be releasing the first in a series of updates to our InQuiry and InCommand web applications. With Tuesday's release, the following changes will be in affect:

A recent HISTALK blog post included the following reader-submitted article about the value of transcription in modern healthcare documentation.

Emdat is pleased to announce the release of our newest case study, featuring Valley Transcription. Since partnering with Emdat in 2009, Valley Transcription has enjoyed an increase in business revenue, client satisfaction and MT productivity. Amongst the many benefits of the Emdat suite of applications, Valley Transcription owner Sally Kennel cited physician satisfaction with Emdat's EMR integration capabilities because they can use EMRs without completely restructuring their workflow. She also praised the Emdat technical team and help desk. Emdat thanks Sally for agreeing to share her story.

Madison area and industry publications are as excited about our new facilities as we are. Emdat was featured in the following media:

Looking for a medical transcription consultant? Brenda Hurley, a friend of Emdat, is available to help. Brenda has been a medical transcriptionist for nearly 40 years and offers confidential consulting services in medical transcription compliance, quality assurance, education, technology and workflow processes.

Brenda is available to:

Emdat now has training videos available exclusively to Emdat clients that cover the setup and operation of our products.

Current Emdat clients, to access Emdat Video Training:

• Log into InCommand
• Select your MTSO Maintenance Tab
• Open the Advanced Maintenance sub-tab and select Video Training.

The training window will show the available videos on the left. When you click on a video, it will start playing on the right.

This is the first of many videos Emdat will have available to users. We will be creating a site specific to MT issues accessible from InScribe, and we will allow MTSOs to grant access to some videos to their clients through InQuiry.

If you have suggestions for topics, please visit our HelpDesk Request page and click on the Feedback icon, or add comments below.

Emdat, Inc. now has a facebook page.  Join our community of fans!

Below are details on what is new in each application.

Comment Tagging Through InCommand, MTSOs will be able to create Comment Tags -- canned notations about a transcription. Via InScribe, an MT will be able to choose one or more Comment Tags to apply to a transcription. Comment Tags can be indicators such as “Missing Patient Information” or “Could not Understand Dictator”. A color can be associated with each Comment Tag. Through InQuiry’s Review folder, a medical facility will see the Comment folder icon in the color of the chosen tag, and will be able to filter transcriptions by a given tag. This functionality will be extended to other folders in a future update.

MT Instructions Through InCommand, MTSOs will be able to enter MT Instructions on a Document or Dictation Template. These notes will be presented to the MT in InScribe when the template loads. The MT will have the option of suppressing this note after the first time they view it. The MTSO will have the option to prevent the...

On Tuesday, September 7, 2010, Emdat will be making InScribe 4.97 available for download. On Monday, September 20, 2010, our web applications will be deployed to our servers, upgrading them to InQuiry and InCommand 5.8. Below are details on what is new in each application. Please note that some of the features in the InScribe release on the 4th will only be available after the associated InCommand updates are deployed on the 20th.

Comment Tagging Through InCommand, MTSOs will be able to create Comment Tags – canned notations about a transcription. Via InScribe, an MT will be able to choose one or more Comment Tags to apply to a transcription. Comment Tags can be indicators such as "Missing Patient Information" or "Could not Understand Dictator." A color can be associated with each Comment Tag. Through InQuiry's Review folder, a medical facility will see the Comment folder icon in the color of the chosen tag, and will be able to filter transcriptions by a given tag. This functionality will be extended...

Emdat Mobile for iPhone is reviewed in a post today on iMedicalApps.

Blogger Felasfa Wodajo, MD notes that he's been an Emdat user for 3 years, and finds that the app is "a very nice advance over using a digital dictaphone and special software to upload dictations."

In case his readers (his primary audience is doctors) don't know about Emdat, Dr Wodajo provides details about Emdat's medical dictation and transcription suite of software applications, mentioning, specifically, the potential impact of functionality like DaRT on the healthcare industry. He also cites our recently released white paper, "Facilitate EMR Success."

iMedicalApps is a online medical publication written by...

Fitchburg, WI (July 20, 2010) - A new method of populating electronic medical records (EMRs) that pulls patient information directly from a medical transcription enables physicians to keep their daily workflow the same, according to a white paper released today by Emdat, a provider of web-based medical transcription software.

Most EMR systems on the market today require physicians to personally scroll through an extensive list of checkboxes for every patient they see.  As a result they're forced to spend a large part of their day entering data into a computer.  Entitled "Facilitate EMR Success: Discrete Reportable Transcription Shifts Documentation Burden Off Physicians," the white paper cites a finding by the AC Group, a health care technology consultancy, that a physician who sees 40 patients a day will spend an average of 140 minutes entering patient data.

By contrast, Emdat's Discrete accurate Reportable Transcription, or DaRT,...

Emdat has long supported the idea that dictation and transcription should be a vital element in EMR/EHR adoption, believing that a physician's time is better served practicing medicine than entering data into an EMR system. This approach not only transfers data-entry responsibilities away from physicians but also allows users to benefit from the richer narrative information and increased accuracy that medical transcription can provide.

Recently, two stories were printed in medical journals that support our stance, reporting that physicians are largely dissatisfied with current EHR systems because of both poor usability and the reduced productivity that results. See the articles below.

EHRs Get a Failing Grade on Usability —Internal Medicine News Study Finds Gap Exists Between Technology Expectations, Reality —American Academy of Family Physicians...

I had the pleasure of meeting Cindy Richardson at the MTIA meeting in Daytona. Cindy has an offering to assist MTSOs with HIPAA compliance training either online of available via CD. Mitagate you liability by training all MTs to understand their responsibilities as it relates to HIPAA compliance. The name of the company is Review of Systems Expanded.

Emdat CEO Randy Olver, along with over 75 fellow members of the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) and the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA), convened in Washington, DC for the organizations’ fifth-annual Advocacy Summit, March 23-25, 2010. The HITECH and subsequent proposed regulations concerning “meaningful use” of certified EHR systems have prompted the medical transcription sector to educate legislators on the significance of securing continued access by physicians to the dictation-transcription process.

Attendees met with their local state-elected officials and discussed the importance of dictation and transcription in the future of healthcare. Randy spoke with Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl (D - WI) and Wisconsin Representatives...

PITTSBURGH, PA, January XX, 2007 – Emdat, Inc. a leading national provider of transcription work flow and management solution M*Modal, a leader in on-demand, speech understanding services, have entered into an agreement that is expected to elevate Emdat’s competitiveness in the marketplace. This partnership leads to an integration of M*Modal’s proprietary speech understanding technology into Emdat’s hosted medical transcription platform and will enable Emdat to provide its clients with the leading edge transcription technology that covers the entire cycle of health care documentation – from capture of physician dictation to publishing of final medical reports.

Emdat is pleased to offer the AnyModal CDS product to their ever expanding dictation and transcription business. Steve Palmisano, CEO of Emdat says, “M*Modal’s AnyModal CDS complements the Emdat process because physicians can be added at anytime and do not need to be aware that speech understanding technology is being used in the transcription process. Due to the fact that over 32,000 clinicians and over 1,300 medical facilities currently use Emdat we had to be very careful in our choice for the best available speech understanding technology.”

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Physicians are pushing the federal Health & Human Services Department to include physician narratives in the proposed regulations for electronic health records. Doctors use the narrative to expand on an assessment and offer subjective and objective evaluations of a case, as well as outline the treatment plan. Some doctors use speech recognition technology for their narratives in EHR systems. The public has 60 days to comment on the HHS regulations.

"No matter how good [EHR records] are, you'll never get the flavored nuance of the patient's [situation] if you don't have an unstructured note," said Dr. Steven Schiff, the medical director and service chief of cardiology at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center, in Fountain Valley, Calif., in an eWEEK interview.

Emdat, a world leader in online-based medical transcription software, is taking on a leadership role with the Health Story Project. Health Story develops and promotes standards that support the flow of information between narrative documents and electronic medical record systems (EMR ).

"As a provider of transcription software and data storage to thousands of medical transcription companies and healthcare providers around the globe, Emdat is well situated to provide meaningful insights for the critical work Health Story is doing," said Randy Olver, Emdat CEO.

As part of advancing Health Story goals, Emdat leaders will provide strategic direction for the project, speak at industry events, serve as media spokespeople and continue sculpting its technologies in accordance with the project’s standards.

“Emdat’s direct commitment to Health Story supports further development of specifications for the transfer of information from narrative document types directly to EMR systems,” said Health Story...

I had the pleasure of working next to Frank Takacs and Angie Lachman from CanScribe at the AHDI meeting in Nashville, TN. CanScribe offers the CanScribe Career Centre which places qualified medical transcriptionists who have completed their course curriculum. Additionally internship opportunities can be offered to MTSOs who want to try out the newly qualified MTs. The MTSOs can get up to 100 hours of free work from these MTs to make sure it is a good fit for both parties.

Congratulations to Bobby Powers and eMedDox for launching their new web site. Bobby has been a partner of Emdat's for quite some time now and has put together some creative marketing ideas to get his message out to the industry. Best of luck Bobby!

How medical transcription will be affected by a Nationalized Health Care Record is a common question these days.

All of the soundbites that are in the air definitely keep us thinking about the future, and we've had many discussions about this. The most likely probability is that there won't be significant change at a national level, due to all of the healthcare lobbies, etc. Under a new administration, there may major reforms in this area followed by major changes in healthcare, but I think the likely hood of that is very slim.

That said, EMR systems are still emerging, pushing medical facilities to "reduce transcription costs" by using Voice Recognition and Templating features of their systems. With that in mind, we are moving forward internally with many development efforts to stay on top of this.

First, Voice Recognition tops our list, and several of our clients are ramping up.  We believe the technology partner we've gone with for Voice Recognition will exceed the claims made by other vendors, keeping us in play for facilities that want to go with this technology.

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When using auto fax or fax on demand keep the following items in mind. Security should be kept in mind such as restricting access to fax machines and verifying that fax numbers are actually appropriate for the doctors offices. The following link will be helpful as a reference.

Being in the medical transcription field for so long, I'm always fascinated by the different processes that clinics use to document visits, and I almost always bring up dictation to them.  Maybe I'll talk to the right person and get a sale out of it, but that's not my primary goal.  My goal is to understand real-world examples of how people are doing medical documentation, so that we can improve our product.

I recently had a doctor's appointment, and noticed that there was a computer in the exam room with me.  The nurse came in, took my vitals, entered them in on the computer, and left.  When the doctor came in, he worked with me for quite some time, and entered his findings into the computer.

Instinctively, I asked the doctor if he ever dictated any of his notes.  He said that the policy at their clinic was to not do this, and that more and more facilities are moving to EMRs.  I told him what I our company did, and we talked about the pros and cons of their methods.  He was definitely spending more...

If you have doubts about the security of where and how your data is stored you will be able to sleep better at night once you review this site. Emdat has invested our money and time with Equinix, the best partner for securing your mission critical operations. I had the opportunity to tour the Equinix facility in Chicago recently with Jeff Olver (CTO Emdat) as well as one of our prospective Medical Transcription Service Organizations. Obviously MTSOs should be concerned about the security and reliability of the center where their data is stored as nothing is more important or critical to their day to day operations. Equinix offers five levels of security which is designed much like the Federal Reserve. Additionally Equinix offers five nines of up-time which is the best in the business. I know many of you have not had a chance to tour this facility so I encourage you to take the virtual tour by clicking on the link above. Believe me you will...

Emdat is a suite of web-based applications that completely automates the preparation, routing and delivery of the entire dictation, transcription and documentation process. Emdat begins with the proven foundation of traditional dictation and adds web-based cost-saving features to give clients a fully integrated solution that improves workflow, reduces cost, and saves time.

Previously, CEI transcriptionists -- all of whom worked off-site because of space constraints -- made frequent trips into the office to pick up dictations and drop off completed transcriptions. Along with being inconvenient, it was an administrative nightmare for CEI Project Manager Marsha Wylie. In addition, the company paid transcriptionists for each hour of drive time, making for a costly and inefficient combination.

Using Emdat, CEI's simplified its transcription process. A straightforward and user-friendly system, Emdat is easy to learn. CEI’s transcriptionists easily transitioned to the new online system. Administrators effortlessly...

Email and FTP sites are poor solutions for a transcription process. Email and FTP were designed as transport and storage mechanisms but  increase administration of the transcription process flow. The headaches occur due to accountability. The dictations (voice files) and documents generally must be manually associated and managed with the finished transcription. Additionally emails and FTP sites require special encryption and decryption software in order to be HIPAA compliant which is very difficult to manage.

Emdat gives a receipt code and assigns a TID (transcription identification number) with every dictation (voice file), which continues to associate throughout the transcription workflow even after completion. This process is automated and creates a verifiable audit trail to track receipts, uploads, downloads, edits, autofaxes (successful/unsuccessful), views, electronic signatures, printing, exports and more. The key is to make this process seamless to all involved in the transcription process and provide accountability for quality, timeliness and security. Since autofaxing is a popular and acceptable feature within Emdat there are sites that are availble to make sure you understand HIPAA's stance on this technology.

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Recently it was brought to my attention that some facilities like to be charged by the page. Although this sounds very attractive at times I truly believe medical transcription companies open themselves up to potential losses by charging in this manner. I have talked to facilities that get charged anywhere from $2 per page to up words of $10 per page. My feelings are that by being too liberal with the definition of a page (not knowing how many lines are transcribed on that page) you potentially set yourself up for unprofitable business. My conversations with a transcription company owner revealed that they were charging $2 per page and that is what the market would bear. Immediately I went into the Emdat reports menu to see how many reports were produced in the past month for that account and then ran a report on how many lines were generated within that month. By dividing the number of reports by the total of number of lines (65 character line with spaces) I figured this company was charging 5.5 cents per line...

As a service to the medical facilities, Emdat, with very few exceptions, provides interfacing at no charge.  That is not always the case for EMR companies. At times, the costs charged for the EMR side of the interface can be prohibitive to moving forward. This is frustrating not only to transcription companies trying to win the business by providing better service, but also to the medical facilities which would realize  more value with their EMR. HL7 is the most common interface, but generally requires involvement for either the scheduling/demographic interface or textual/discrete interface back into the EMR.

If costs are prohibitive or cooperation is not forthcoming by the EMR software provider, we do have some options which are pretty straightforward and will save on cost. Don't panic - you can still interface to the scheduler to improve accuracy for the transcriptionist, and Emdat will store all transcriptions on our servers for as long as you are a client. Additionally we can bring past historical transcriptions...

For companies that pay attention to progress, every advancement in technology helps streamline an existing process, even if it was once thought it couldn't get any better.  With dictation, cassette tapes were first used to help offload the documentation of patient visits by freeing up some of the provider's time.  As telephone systems became popular, getting these audio files to typists that were off-site became easier, and reduced turnaround time for reports.  The internet had an almost immediate affect on how the dictation and transcription process could be made easier - transcriptions were now able to be transferred back to the physician electronically.  And as digital recorders became popular, physicians were able to use the software that came with these devices to transfer audio to the typists via e-mail or FTP.  But no system was available that really took advantage of every kind of dictation method, while keeping security of the process in mind.

The number of people on the internet has boomed.  Third...

Although it should be pretty straightforward to estimate your costs for transcription I have found that it has been very difficult to do a direct comparison without validating numbers. To make a complex comparison simple I will only look at billing by the line and not compare that to other methods of billing (page, word etc.). Generally speaking there are three ways to bill by the line:

The  standard which is 65 characters per line which will include spaces and punctuation. Basic (Gross) Method which counts each carriage return as a line. Microsoft Word which uses an embedded line word counter similar to the basic method. The differences in costs of these three measures can be as different as an apple to an orange.

Let me give you an example....

Emdat, Incorporated 857 Collins Blvd. Covington, Louisiana 70533

AAMT standard calculates this address as 1 line Basic (Gross) calculates this address as 3 lines Word calculates this address as 3...

For the past 50 years, transcription has been the most efficient means of documenting a patient encounter.  During this time frame, the transcription industry has grown to be a multi-billion dollar industry annually.  Doctors love the convenience of dictating the encounter and the time savings they realize. Administrators frown each time they receive a transcription bill and are constantly trying to find a solution that will dramatically decrease or eliminate their transcription cost.

One popular solution to eliminate or reduce transcription costs is to implement an EMR type of system. The system allows clinicians or their staff to document the patient encounter on-line, thereby eliminating or drastically reducing the need for transcription. In a recent article titled “Transcription’s Coopetition with EMR’s”  by Bob Haugen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Emdat, Inc., he explains the problems associated with such an approach. These problems result in loss of revenue for the health care facility.

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Last month, Bob Haugen, Emdat's VP of Sales and Marketing, posted on our blog about "Coopetition".  It took me a while to figure that word out, but it's really a great word when describing our system in relation to other systems at a medical facility.  Some facilities have practice management systems, electronic medical records systems, dictation systems, hospital information systems, radiology systems, etc.  Quite a few of these boast a transcription module to go along with their primary function.  But what does each system have in common?  They all can integrate with Emdat.

Ever since Emdat started, we've prided ourselves on our simple integration strategy.  We developed tools to accept data from other vendor's systems, so that patient demographics, appointment information, and referring physician data can be easily accessed by typists and the medical staff.  We also created methods with which we could interact with EMR systems.  The key to our integration was that we provided most of these interfaces...

EMRs have been around for some 20 plus years and in that time frame, have slowly been adopted by more and more medical facilities.  Many go into the implementation phase of an EMR based upon the  information received from their EMR vendor during the sales process.  Eliminating transcription is the number one cost justification for purchasing an EMR.  EMR vendors know this is a thorn in the side of medical facilities and any system that can reduce or eliminate transcription would be widely received.  The theory is a sound one.  Take a clinician who dictates and utilizes a transcription service and eliminate that monthly transcription expense by having the doctor use a template on-line within the EMR.  Immediately, the savings are realized in the elimination of transcription expenses.  Administrators rejoice because this was one of the major reasons they elected to implement an EMR.

Within one to two weeks after implementing the EMR and its template features, clinicians are upset because they have increased...