How do a horse and buggy and a rocket ship come together? It’s a somewhat imperfect analogy, but that’s how I used to think of fax and the Internet, until I learned how omnipresent – and valuable – fax is in the healthcare world.
According to howstuffworks.com, Internet faxing works the same way as faxing the “old” way, but it uses a Web interface instead of a fax machine. It can be a flexible, inexpensive option for transmitting documents.
But what makes it ever more important in the healthcare world is that it’s a safe, secure way to exchange patient information. Research firm Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) predicts it will grow by 6.9 percent through 2017.
Even today, as health records go electronic, the annual National Physicians Survey proves that faxing has long been essential to the daily sharing of confidential information between hospitals, medical practices, pharmacies, payors, labs, government entities and other key stakeholders.
Fax still remains the predominant form of communication for 63 percent of healthcare providers.
Writing at tmcnet.com, Matthew Brine, VP & GM, OpenText Fax & Document Distribution Group, noted that faxes are so useful because they’re reliable – patient data can be transmitted without losing or distorting data.
“Fax software tracks all fax activity and allows administrators to set a broad range of permissions for individual users and groups,” he reported. “By moving fax to the desktop, fax software eliminates the vulnerability of standalone fax machines in public areas like busy nursing stations.”
The cloud is even coming into the picture with faxing these days.
“Faxing is a convenient bridge between healthcare entities that are automated or electronic to different degrees,” according to Alan K. Gonsenhauser, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Biscom, in a recent editorial at Becker’s Hospital Review.
Looking to grow your channel opportunities? Then be sure to attend Channel Vision Expo (CVx), collocated with ITEXPO Austin 2012 taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. Stay in touch with everything happening at Channel Vision Expo. Follow us on Twitter.
Edited by Braden Becker