Dictaphone To Sponsor Health Information Management Work Group

By Tracey E. Schelmetic, Editorial Director, Customer Interaction Solutions

The health care industry has ever been one of the neediest sectors when it comes to knowledge management. Patient data, billing data, pharmacy records, lab tests, imaging results and distributed patient records from the plethora of specialists it often takes to serve a single patient have traditionally been scattered to the wind: only occasionally and accidentally did all this information ever come together in a comprehensive way. And let's face it: when a company's lack of data integration means your new dining room table's delivery is delayed a few days, it's annoying, but it's not life-threatening. An unconscious or debilitated patient being given a medicine to which she is allergic, because that information didn't carry to the health care professional attending her now -- well, that will ruin far more than her Sunday dinner.

Dictaphone Corporation today announced it is sponsoring the American Health Information Management Association's Foundation of Research and Education (AHIMA/FORE) work group on data content in the electronic health record (EHR). The work group will serve a critical function in assisting AHIMA members and the healthcare industry as a whole in their transition to e-HIM -- an environment in which patients' health information is managed electronically.

Dictaphone is a supplier of dictation, transcription and speech recognition systems and services for the healthcare industry. The company now focuses entirely on the technologies behind paperless electronic patient information. (You'll recall that Dictaphone sold its enterprise business recording solutions division to NICE Systems back in June. At that time, Dictaphone announced that it was making the sale to better enable it to concentrate fully on the healthcare market. It's the company's intent to "help healthcare organizations save money and improve patient care by increasing the speed, accuracy and usability of their medical documentation.")

The EHR Data Content Work Group is gathering to map data definitions from a variety of clinical and quality reporting data sets to the EHR and then to develop guidelines to help health information management and technology professionals create data dictionaries at their own facilities. The work group's materials will also help identify standard data content for the EHR at the global level, assist providers in relating health information in the EHR to direct quality care improvement and national quality reporting requirements at the local level, and educate the industry on the importance of data content standards.

"Dictaphone is deeply committed to the success of the work group in determining these essential building blocks of the EHR," said Don Fallati, senior vice president of marketing and strategic planning for Dictaphone. "As a company, our vision is to ensure that data is not merely collected but fully used to inform clinical and business decision-making. The work group's output will help the industry take a giant leap forward toward this vision."

To read the full article, visit http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-dictaphone-sponsors-key-electronic-health-information-management-work-/2005/aug/1177188.htm or www.dictaphone.com.

Tracey Schelmetic is editorial director for CUSTOMER INTER@CTION Solutions. For more articles by Tracey Schelmetic, please visit:

http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100007&nm=Tracey%20E.%20Schelmetic

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