Dr. John McDonald could almost be considered a pioneer in the adoption of electronic medical records.

His small family medicine practice in Paris, Ontario, consists of just three people: himself, a nurse and an office assistant. In 2000 he introduced an early EMR system into his office and has since been committed to utilizing the ongoing improvements EMR technology provides to his practice. In 2007 he switched to a more advanced system in order to integrate his records with a common database shared by other local medical offices.

Dr. McDonald has found EMR technology has impacted and improved every level of patient interaction in his practice.

The office assistant uses it to check in patients, schedule appointments, answer telephone questions quickly and accurately, and to send updates to the nurse. External documents (such as discharge notes from a hospital) are also scanned into the EMR system and are automatically formatted so that they can be searched and edited.

The nurse, who sees patients before the doctor, enters data from routine physical assessments such as blood pressure, weight, and temperature. This information is then clearly accessible to the doctor when he sees the patient.

For Dr. McDonald, the EMR system has allowed him to be proactive instead of waiting for patients to bring up new health issues. He utilizes a prescription management function, which alerts him to when patients are due for a renewal and is helpful for monitoring compliance with medications. He also has digital processes for sending information to the office assistant to book follow-up appointments and tests.

The most important benefit has been the improvement in his patient relationships. The EMR has improved the quality and efficiency of time he spends with patients. He no longer worries about where some piece of information is in a chart and he can be sure he has all the information in front of him when it is time to make a decision and set up a care plan.

13 Features and Benefits of EMR Technology

• Efficient billing
• Scheduling appointments
• Intra-office communications
• Entering patients’ encounter notes
• Generating and recording prescriptions
• Generating referral letters
• Ordering diagnostic tests
• Downloading and direct import of lab results
• Generating and maintaining patient summaries
• Generating patient reminders
• Scanning and storing documents
• Remote access
• Generating reports and practice statistics

Transactions, Newspapers, Account Management; Offices: everything, will be digital. Including electronic accounts management. Why?

It’s simple: because digital documents allow professionals to read anything from anywhere at anytime; all done effortlessly with nothing other than a simple flick of the finger.

Yet, professionals today continue to carry heavy file folders, yesterday’s news, and, and, and. Indeed, it’s difficult adjusting; however, DOCUdavit has listed the top three reasons why digital accounts management is the way to go: the future.

Speedy Approval Process

With electronic accounts management you scan documents, images, and archive them onto a digital office or secure storage platform. This way you’ll gain the power to forward information swiftly for approvals to anybody across the globe.

Improve Compliance

Statistics show a dramatic improvement in compliance-related matters with users who have gained power and access to information digitally. Electronic account management allows members to properly back up information and improve the auditing process.  As they say, information is power.

Maximize Staff Productivity 

The average worker spends 50% of their work life searching for information or misplaced documents. When professionals transfer their documents onto digital offices, they’ll be able to retrieve up-to-date information with a few simple push of the button, anywhere, anytime.

With the rise of smartphones and tablets, the advantages of transferring paper documents to digital documents are mandatory, especially in this day and age.

If you do not have a third party digital office, a good idea is to search online for reliable third-party document scanning and storage company.  This way, you’ll stay one top of the competition with electronic accounts management.

Doctors and Patients Embracing Social Media For Better Healthcare

At the forefront of social media for doctors is the website Doximity. Originally, emerging as a sort of LinkedIn for doctors, the social networking site for physicians has grown to include 40,000 member doctors who can collaborate online.

Compared to other social networks, Doximity has an extremely stringent approach to checking the credentials of its members (similar to the standards of online banking.) With this in mind, doctors can feel secure that the other doctors they communicate with on the site are qualified.

Social Conversations

One interesting example of collaboration on the site included a doctor from California who used Doximity to reach out to the site’s community about a patient with a puzzling and uncommon infection. Through the site he was able to connect to a specialist in Texas. A third specialist from Boston joined the conversation and together they came up with a new way to treat the patient.

Patient Social Networks

From the patient side, social networks such as PatientsLikeMe and Health Unlocked allow patients to share details of their medical conditions on a peer-to-peer level with others who have the same or similar conditions. Patients are able to compare and contrast diagnoses, test results, medications and treatment plans with other patients from anywhere in the world. Patients can ask for advice and learn from each other.

These medical social networks empower both doctors and patients with information to make better decisions about healthcare.

Doximity: https://www.doximity.com/

PatientsLikeMe: http://www.patientslikeme.com/

Health Unlocked: http://www.healthunlocked.com/

In recent business news, a US owned document scanning service company,  D4, LLC, a national leader in litigation support services announced their latest acquisition of one of Detroit’s leading local document imaging, electronic discovery, photocopyingand litigation presentation companies. This is just another example of our belief that “everything is going digital.”

According to D4 CEO, John Holland, “The addition of one of Michigan’s flagship companies, Detroit Legal Imaging, known for its consultative approach and long-standing relationships in its market, will enhance our presence in the region and enable us to deliver on our vision of producing a comprehension suite of litigation support solutions to clients everywhere.”

But this isn’t the first time a house hold name brand has acquired an independent document imaging business. In 2009, Kodak acquired Bell and Howell, a document imaging company based out of Durham NC; hiring over 50 of the existing Bell and Howell staff.

Litigation Support: Growing demand

This growing demand for electronic discovery also is present in both medicare and law as well. In 2011, DOCUdavit helped hundreds of lawyers with their litigation support service demands. Our own “e-Office” is popular with lawyers because it utilizes high speed smartphones, tablets and laptops; further maximizing case efficiency, which then creates an infinite advantage over their competition.

Digital Trends

This growing digital trend in both business, politics and economics highlights today’s accelerating economic and political push for instant information. According to Pay Pal, by the year 2015 the physical wallet and purse will be replaced by smartphones and tablets.

So, yes we think everything is going digital and litigation presentation support companies like this prove that the digital office helps save lawyers money; reducing scanning costs by 70 per cent; whilst decreasing environmental damage; improving a win-lose ratio, and more.

It’s easy: If your law firm has hired a subpar file scanning service then you can bet your overall staff efficiency isn’t as good as your competition. These days, the best law firms harness the important advantages of real-time information retrieval via closed file scanning.

And many law firms look to satisfy this demand by hiring third-party scanning solution. But, how does your company separate the good from the bad? Below, DOCUdavit has listed three key elements law firm’s must consider before hiring a third-party closed file scanning company.

TESTIMONIALS

• Testimonials are an easy way to discover whether or not a company has delivered their self-proclaimed, “proven results” spatted on their website.
• A great way to find company credibility is to see if the company in question has highlighted past accomplishments, rather than vague experiences.
• Locate company testimonials, retrieve specific names and numbers, contact them yourself and request for an opinion.

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS

• Searching for and hiring a third-party scanning service is no different than hiring for any other position within your law firm.
• Yet, many law firms continue to settle for subpar file scanning services that do not understand the Law industry.
• When searching, ask yourself: What are my industry keywords? Does this online file scanning service understand my niche? Do they know exactly how a paperless office can benefit my law firm?

If not, move on to the next one and find a file scanning company who has dealt business with previous law firms.

LAWS

Of course, privacy and security is everything when it comes to finding the right “gatekeeper” to your life’s work. When a file scanning service understands indepth file scanning laws and best practices, and are knowledgeable of file retention specifics, then you know that your prospect is a potential keeper for closed file scanning.

With a goal to achieve a single electronic source of patient information Trillium Health Centre launched a “go electric” strategy in which they are scanning all paper records and making them available as electronic medical records.

The Cost of Paper

Before this program was initiated, paper records were stored off-site, at a storage location that was running out of space. Lease costs were high, as were the costs of couriering an average of 700 – 1,000 charts per day between the storage facility and various clinics. Operating the storage and retrieval services required 12 full-time employees.

With this system of paper records, there was no concurrent access to patient charts if they were needed in more than one place at a time. Tracking charts could be complex, and they were not always completed properly due to unavailability.

The Trillium Health Information Management team decided that the costs of maintaining their paper storage system were too high, so they began to pursue solutions. They chose software, and outsourced the scanning of the charts to a scanning and conversion provider.

Electronic Convenience

Once the charts were electronic, users with secure access could concurrently view and work with the charts anytime they needed to. Emergency department clinicians were especially appreciative of the quick and easy access they now have to patient records from prior visits.

The success of the “go electronic” initiative has completely transformed the workflow process at Trillium. They have been able to start eliminating off-site storage space and have significantly reduced labour costs of paper chart retrieval. There is no longer a need to track chart locations, making it much simpler to ensure that charts are complete and up to date.

The results of converting patient charts to electronic documents have been so significant, that other hospital departments are now looking at making the switch to electronic medical records management, including human resources, research and legal.

DOCUdavit©2012

If you’re a busy lawyer looking for that one secret ‘tool’ to stay ahead the competition; to boost day-to-day productivity without compromising efficiency; look no further, DOCUdavit has found that one solution to help determine whether your next case is a winner or a loser. Litigation support services.

The trend in lawyers, was one that highlighted improvement in litigation support services: the lawyers who used the strongest support systems were the lawyers who produced a maximized case; further increasing client results.

However, in an evolving technical-centered society, many lawyers today still continue to settle for “good-enough” litigation support systems: outdated; slow.

Since the inception of web 2.0, along with the technological advances (smartphone, tablets, applications), tech savvy lawyers have found an obvious advantage above the older ones who settled for old archaic management systems.

According to ABA’s 2011 legal technology survey, 89 per cent of lawyers use tablets for work-related tasks; however only 15 per cent continue to use it outside of the office.  Why?

It is safe to say lawyers without access to tablet applications are lawyer at a disadvantage. But what does this mean for litigation support? How can tablets help lawyers outside of the office? What are the specific benefits for lawyers who use litigation support services?

Save Time

With litigation support systems akin to DOCUdavit, lawyers who take advantage of a paperless offices help reduce slow-to-access off-site storage information systems.

Instead of digging through each individual file folder, lawyers who look to tablets and smartphones can utilize an advantage of real-time information retrieval; accessing vital documents from paperless offices with a simple flick of a finger; all accessible from all over the world.

Save Money

Hey, when you’re busy as a full-time lawyer – time is money. But, do you really want to be that person to project that impression?

Lawyers who use DOCUdavit have discovered that our litigation support services help increase productivity through high-speed information retrieval based on secured web portals, saving time and saving money; rendering relevant and accurate information on any whim.

Easy-to-Learn

It’s a surprise to many. DOCUdavit has solved the one major turnoff professionals utter when it comes to technological advances: adaptability.

When lawyers utilize smartphone and tablet application advantages, they’ll notice how simple it is to use litigation support services.

DOCUdavit©2012

Driven by consumers who want to be in control, innovations in technology are providing new tools to help us manage our own health.  New apps and devices are targeted towards consumers wanting the ability to prevent, examine, improve, and monitor their own health conditions.

The health application market is expected to reach a staggering USD 4.1 billion by 2014, up from 1.7 billion in 2010. Apple’s app store offers over 9, 000 health apps, and that number is expected to reach 13, 000 within a few months.

The range of health issues addressed by the mobile health industry is astounding:

Jawbone’s Up: a wristband that monitors the wearer’s activity, eating and sleeping patterns; it can be programmed to vibrate after a period of sustained inactivity or can be synced with an iPhone app to arrange activity competitions between friends. Information on Jawbone’s Up.

Pain Free Back: a back pain app which uses specific data entered by the consumer to recommend exercise solutions. Pain Free Back.

Play It Down: an app which can test the user’s hearing, and measure the an environment’s volume of sound in decibels. Play It Down.

Withings’ Blood Pressure Monitor: a device which plugs into an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch to measure blood pressure and send it directly to your doctor. Link to Withings.

Skin Scan: an app which monitors moles over time, and can tell users if a visit to a dermatologist is recommended to prevent skin cancer. More on the Skin Scan app.

Lifelens: a point of care app which can diagnose malaria by identifying parasites in a magnified image of a drop of blood.  Lifelens.

With help from these DIY mobile health products, along with many more exciting products due out before the end of the year, consumers can really take control of their personal health.

And in the height of today’s technological innovation found in smartphones and tablets, professionals; including lawyers who use them find no negative side-effect aside from a fair advantage over the competition.

Yet, many professionals today fail to see the advantage of holding a “digital office.” Some professionals may even go as far to say, “paperless offices are a waste of time: inefficient; ineffective.”However, on the contrary paperless offices have proven to do the complete opposite.

For years, DOCUdavit has helped lawyers speed their expediting process; effectively empowering lawyers with instant transcript, pleading, and evidence retrieval; further boosting productivity. Of course, when the law is involved, the need for all parties to adhere to private policies is a top priority.

Legal scanning companies, such as DOCUdavit, serve all data connections with a secure vehicle to transfer important information to and from all parties. This also means that legal scanning allows for lawyers to document code everything; saving lawyers countless amounts of man-hours from sifting and searching through paper documents.

Clearly, legal scanning drastically improves information retrieval and work productivity. But, the one major benefit beyond profession, is how legal scanning can help to improve the environment. Zero trees wasted. Paper is never misplaced or wasted. It’s a
win-win. For more information on legal scanning, contact DOCUdavit.

Consider this: The average office employee – including lawyers — spends approximately 50 per cent of their time searching for information. Legal scanning can help maximize your time.

Can you imagine what a legal practice can do if they could knock those wasted hours down? A stronger case indeed. What’s more mind-boggling is that lawyers today still continue to use old methods of information retrieval, which lead us to those mind-numbing facts.

Especially in the growing popularity of the iPhone, married with the world’s growing dependency on the Internet; more legal offices are looking to electronic, “legal scanning.”

Why? Well, DOCUdavit has outlined its benefits below:

Legal Scanning: 5 Benefits

• Improves speed and enables lawyers and support personnel to effectively use technological innovation (laptops, smartphones, tablets) to speed-up the litigation process.
• Maximizes productivity; helping lawyers spend more time on clerical duties; such as, filing, copying, coding or searching for misplaced documents – lawyers can search electronically through keywords using software.
• Share information with all parties with a simple flick of a finger from anywhere in the world.
• Instantly reduce document storage time and preparation time; generating hundreds of thousands in savings for law firms on an annual basis.
• Frees the burden of storage space; saving you more money on paper; office supplies; and muscle strain.
• Prevents crisis; allowing lawyers to safely create backups in case of natural floods; fires; or mishaps.

DOCUdavit©2012