Interfacing to EMRs
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 for free. Since many systems adhere (even loosely) to interfacing standards in the industry, we can easily connect and interact with many systems - in fact, we have yet to meet a system to which we cannot talk.
Many of these systems have their own transcription modules, but none are as full-featured as the Emdat system. With our ability to accept dictation from so many devices and still deliver an end product seamlessly through our web-based InQuiry work flow application, we look at our transcription offering as the best out there. But with our ability to integrate with practically any system, we don't see ourselves competing with these systems, but rather complementing them. Our system *is* the transcription module for your system, if you want it to be. And with some of these vendors, we've worked hard to integrate more deeply than just a transfer of data.
Recently, our ShadowLink application took interfacing to a whole new level, providing a more robust communications tool. With ShadowLink, we've seen interfaces become easier to build, much more reliable, and a breeze to maintain. But that was just the start...
In 2007, Emdat is focusing further on system integration. Besides a major update to ShadowLink, we're adding interfacing tools to every part of our system. In InQuiry, chosen users will be able monitor interfaces. Through InCommand and Client Maintenance, users will be able to adjust ShadowLink's configurations, and even alter and create new data mappings. Users will be able to start sending us data and receiving standard transcribed results via ShadowLink with just a few clicks of the mouse. And ShadowLink itself has many new features, from additional notifications to easier setup.
I plan to use this blog to describe more of the functionality that is planned with ShadowLink and our interface system over the course of the next few months (as well as other development efforts in progress). Of course, if there are any suggestions for features in this system, we are always listening to your feedback.
