Welcome to the Medical Blog

Welcome to the BLOG that discusses latest trends in Medical industry.

Be it the EMR/EHR system in practice or the billing software, we are writing here on all of them.

Stay touched, suggest your points and coordinate in the betterment of Social Health Care.

Thanks for your time!


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Your personal web based EMR system: Google Health.

All the sectors are experiencing fast paced growth boosted by the technological advancements. Use of internet has changed not only the life styles of human beings but also the way of doing business. Technology with internet has become the backbone of every organization dealing in the 21st century.

Medical sector is also not lagged behind. Introduction of technological and scientific advancement in medical sector has added more of patient health care into the scene. Introduction of EMR/EHR software based systems into the practice, software based billing services, advanced imaging technologies like PACS and DICOM, Hospital Information System etc. has brought a new era into the medical sector. All these facilities are there to help you and to value your time and money. You can easily opt for these widely available options across all the hospitals and clinics at your home province. Yet if you are looking for the service that you can use at the ease of your personal computer system and the cup of coffee, then a service like the web based EMR is something you are looking for.


So, looking for a web based health and nutrition service or a web based EMR! You might be looking for an online medical service that can suit your medical needs and health calls. Well! In such a situation a product from Google can help you lot. No it’s not the Gmail neither Orkut nor Chrome. It is Google Health, the web based EMR of your own. I said web based EMR in the sense that you can use this nice service from Google to manage your all health and nutrition related issues in the way an EMR system does. You can manage your personal health information in one place and in a systematic way. Accessing these data is even simpler than the feeding one because you can easily look for them in one specific place. This service from Google allows all the users with a Google ID and a password to own and manage a health profile by simply filing in the medical information after logging in. You can merge different health reports and x-ray reports, radiographs, ultra sound reports etc. into a centralized online Google Health profile. Medical record is the piece of information regarding your health and nutrition and complying with the HIPAA regulations you have the full right over it.


Google health apart from the ease of access comes with other benefits like the one through which it allows you to maintain up-to-date details about your physician or the doctor. Secondly, whenever you visit a new hospital or clinic you would not require doing the same paperwork again and again. Google health will help you in keeping an updated copy of your latest medical reports so that you can save your time by restraining from getting the same tests done again and again. Changing the location, changing the job would definitely not affect your medical records now onwards; you can access Google Health from a public internet café as well. Google Health acts in a way the web based EMR systems do and so helps in integration of various reports and information from different hospitals and labs in one defined place.


You don’t need to worry about the privacy of your data at Google Health. Just like the Gmail account you have, data at your Google health account would be more than safe.

Finally OSCAR goes to the Hospital:

Don’t get fascinated when I say that OSCAR for hospital. OSCAR here denotes Open Source Clinical Application Resource and not the Oscar concerned with Hollywood.

OSCAR is a free open source software product. It is a medical software product. Open Source Software products can be downloaded freely by anyone along with the codes. They can be reviewed and redesigned for further uses. OSCAR the open source medical software comes with General Public License (GPL) which ensures that it is available freely without any cost. General Public license also bestows the rights to people to develop and distribute this medical software. OSCAR was started by the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University in the year 2001. This open source medical software was brought out with the aim of producing the web based EMR support for diverse academic as well as clinical functionaries. Since its inception in 2001 it has covered many small and big cities worldwide and the user base is growing day by day. Along with this other supportive services dealing with OSCAR have also came into the scene. Support companies with services like server installation, maintenance, user training and support have grown with the growth of OSCAR use. The user base of OSCAR as of May 2009 has reached a level of 700 – 800 users in places like BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and PEI. Ontario and BC tops the list with highest number of users. This open source medical software has experienced a tremendous growth percentage of 75% in installations in the year 2008 than the previous year. It is able to maintain a same pace in 2009 also. This web based EMR product, being an open source software product, is acclaimed widely.

A standard based approach was taken in Ontario to select the web based EMR and OSCAR has proved to be better in all of them. These tests were done with the latest and strict specifications from CMS namely CMS v3.0 specification. OSCAR can be run on ASP as well as non –ASP also. In BC the implementation and the development of OSCAR is being managed by the BC OSCAR User Group. The users and the support companies form the OSCAR community and they meet to discuss on OSCAR issues at regular intervals. And the OSCAR Canada user community is the main body concerned with the community development of this web based EMR product. Currently, the updating of OSCAR is done twice a year in the months of April and October. The updating of OSCAR and other upcoming events of OSCAR are aired for the community through the Roadmap Page on the OSCAR Canada website. There are some big contributors to the project OSCAR and they are: large institutions like McMaster University, McGill, City of Toronto, OSCAR support companies, user groups and independent clinics and users.

OSCAR is one of the finest web based EMR software in the category of open source software products. It has excellent Chronic Disease Management Flow Sheets for the disease like Diabetes, Hypertension, CHF, COPD, asthma, HIV and INR. OSCAR is also equipped with Chronic Disease Management audit tools. The Chronic Disease Management Flowcharts come with added features like the customization per patient. These charts and sheets help in improved tracking of patient wise customized care. This web based EMR software also contains maternity forms, reports and audit tools, preventive care and immunization modules, enhanced prescribing, and many other up-to-date features.

Medical Software in HIS sphere:

Automated health practice management systems, e-prescribing, CAT scanners, heart rate monitoring with software are a few of the names from the medical area in the 21st technology driven century. From the patient’s personal data to the cardiographs everything has got the driving force of technological advancement. Introduction of PACS or Picture Archiving and Communication System and DICOM or Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine has changed the way of imaging in the medical practices. Similarly the introduction of EMR/EHR medical software has changed the way of medical record keeping. In most of the hospitals and clinics in EU, US or Canada you would notice the use of medical software like an EMR system in practice very well. Likewise the introduction of medical software for billing purpose is another important contribution of modern technology. Medical billing software used in billing has introduced the comfort of coordination among other medical services like lab report of patients and its coordination with proper insurance claims etc.


Medical Software is the modern technological term that has driven the medical sector to an unalterable stage of advancement. The introduction of various medical software products has changed the way of management and even the administration concerned with hospitals and clinics across EU and US. Medical software use even in health informatics like HIS is of great help. HIS or Hospital Information System is the platform covering all the medical related clinical as well as administrative sections. From the simple hospital discipline management to the management of health records, financial records, and other medical reports all are covered under this single umbrella named HIS.


Hospital Information System or simply HIS is the information system assisting all the administrative, financial and clinical aspects of a hospital or a clinic. HIS also known as CIS or Clinical Information System comprises of a comprehensive, integrated information system covering all the papered and non-papered software based clinical as well as administrative medical areas of concern. A simple HIS construction can be understood as the sphere covering the entire medical aspects from EMR systems to the software based billing services. A proper HIS is always aimed at achieving best possible support towards the health care of patients and an adequate management by deploying either medical software products or machineries along with responsible technicians/persons. Radiology information system, Laboratory Information System, PACS, etc. are the sub categories of Hospital Information System. EMR, EHR, software based billing services, insurance claims, patient care, profit drive, hospital management, administrative works all belong to the sphere of HIS.

The advantage from HIS includes well maintained decision support system in healthcare, exchange of information towards the betterment of the healthcare services, coordinating the standards of ancillary services with the primary one, enabling referring physicians and doctors to access all the studies and reports via a single user interface etc. In a nut shell a proper HIS with adequate medical software support is the demand of the time, conforming to which can rise your business in the medical sector to an incredible level.

How do you dash your medical bills!

The world is moving fast. You need to be with the speed of the business otherwise you would be out of the business. You have to tackle both the speed of technological advancements and the needs of your business. You should be able to deliver quality service that satisfies your clients or customers and at same time minimizes the cost of ancillary services. All these things are equally applicable to the medical business. Perhaps in the medical business the concern of satisfaction or the demand for the best possible health care services are more than in case of others. So, in such a situation, outsourcing the services of secondary importance is obviously a good available option to provide better health services. The service of secondary importance that is commonly outsourced in medical business is the billing service. Most of the hospitals and clinics across EU and US outsource their medical billing services to a third party service provider. It’s really a good solution towards the time management as well as increased profitability.


Outsourcing of medical billing services is a good option but you need to choose the best service provider for the same. You can make the agreement only after giving a fair look on various factors like their charges either in percentage base or in flat rates. Sometime the agreement pricing of such a service provider is found to be a blend of both the percentage and flat pricing. This is called hybrid pricing. Just after the percentages pricing the most commonly used pricing method is the hybrid one.
The very first factor that comes alive when the outsourcing of medical billing services is pronounced is the experience of the service provider. You cannot rely on a company without any experience in this field. So, you can simply ask for a list of its clients. A good list of companies will automatically denote the level of experience you should look for. Sometime companies outsmart by giving only two or three references and these two or three references actually turn out to be their hired workers who would post very favorable opinions and testimonials. Secondly you should choose the service provider for your medical billing services according to the pricing methods of your desire and requirement. Along with the pricing method the associated concern is the frequency of pricing. You should look for the frequency whether they post the charges daily or weekly or monthly. Next point of issue to evaluate the service provider is to look for the frequency of submission of claims. Transmission of claims on a daily basis is the most feasible one. Selecting the billing service provider by the status reporting frequency is another vital point of concern. The account receivable status reporting should be faster within a period of one week or within a period no longer than the time frame of 3 months. Apart from these, the customer support from the service provider be it in the technological knowledge, any monetary issue or the introduction of a new physician requiring training should be with best quality.


Finally, the service provider to whom you choose to outsource your medical billing services should be able to deliver the highest possible ROI.

5 Strategies for the proper billing software:

A proper medical billing software product in practice is something that can save your time as well as money. The medical billing software supports several health and nutrition related sectors. The primary health care service providers as well as professional such as medical administrative staff members and doctors can get the help of this software supported service. A medical billing software product can cover a number of functions in the medical health care sector. This software with various codes and levels enables physicians and doctors to have complete medical information of the patients. All the tests, reports, x-rays are registered by this software. And due to this huge importance in the medical sector, a billing software product requires a good planning which addresses the technical as well as administrative issues very well.

A 5 part strategy towards the implementation of a billing software product can really help in proper planning and working of the software product.

1. Set the vision: The first strategy is to define the vision. You need to imagine the bigger picture in a near future. You have to set the goals that you want from the installation/implementation of billing software. While setting these goals the coordination among the billing services and other health related services should be given utmost importance. There should be proper definition for each and every data coordinating analysis, planning, and monitoring. Use of data towards the achievement of quality and speed in services also should be given a good touch. Use of data derived from the billing software product into the betterment of services must be in the place.

2. Trap the opportunities: While considering the vision for your medical billing software product, you would notice different tiny or big opportunities coming your way either in technical form or in any ancillary form. Sometime outsourcing of medical billing services to a third party can prove to be worthy. Give a good look on them and trap the most suitable and efficient opportunities.

3. Look for the benefits: While implementing a medical billing software product into your medical unit, you must be able to define it as per its benefits. The first benefit that all the billing software products bear is the ease of automation. The hospital administration can simply access those data on patient or information on insurance company with a single click. The implementation of a billing software product always comes with the plus point of reducing paperwork and hefty filing systems. Reduced paperwork and hassle free access to patients’ data saves time and money. A proper billing software product always reduces the risk associated with accuracy in manual preparation of documents. A wrong documentation in billing may cause you financial losses, since insurance companies require accurate and appropriate documents for reimbursement. Without proper documents you cannot submit claims to your insurance company. So, with billing software the risk of wrong billing or slow billing can be eliminated.

4. Go with the Law: The compliance with HIPAA rules and regulation protects the confidentiality of the concerned patients. So, at the time of implementing a medical billing software product you must look for this concern of data confidentiality.

5. Select the right vendor: last but not least you should be able to find the right software vendor that meets your clinical as well financial requirements. Depending upon different factors ranging from the price tags to the customer support services, you can select a vendor as per your requirements.

By applying this simple 5 strategy plan you definitely can select and choose the best medical billing software product for your medical unit.

The best EMR Software: How to choose it wisely!

Boosted speed of communication, boosted speed of transportation, lightening fast life style is the theme of WWW dominated modern life. Yes, these are the factors adding to the fast moving modern life style. But when it comes to the health segment, it is seen that that the services are not as fast as the other services are. The very beginning, the record keeping of the patient is the first stage from where this concern starts. Well, with the introduction of Electronic Medical Record system the lightening fast style has also entered into the area of medical record keeping. An EMR software in place helps in proper management of patients’ medical record in the form of an electronic format which is easily accessible by the computers on that network for the purpose of health-related services.
The electronic medical record includes reports of the patient, documents relating to the conditions as per his past, present or future physical and mental health, test reports, x-rays, and financial and personal information. To choose the best EMR software that you decide to install at your clinic or hospital or your lab you must look for its ability to perform some standard tasks. One of the tasks an EMR Software should be capable of doing is the capturing of patient data. By the term capturing I mean the ability of the software to capture the data entered through a rule defined database system with the help of any computer system used with. The data gathered hence works as the primary data. Secondly, the EMR software you choose should be able to integrate with other related fields or systems. It should be able to incorporate with other systems like financial, administrative, technological and clinical department. It should have the perspective of coordinating with management, billing, laboratory orders and reports, pharmaceutical prescriptions and the drugs store as well. The next important factor you should look for while installing EMR software is that it should always be helpful in getting insight while making a clinical decision. These insights range from diagnosis of the patient to the prescription of medicines as per recommendations. Almost all the EMR software available now a day has built in PDR-based medication dictionaries which provide doctors with Adverse Drug Event (ADE) alerts. It also provides the doctor generic drug recommendations and dosage recommendations. Depending on a patient’s diagnosis, EMR software also can make treatment recommendations. Regular check up interval reminders through EMR helps the concerned doctor and his staff to get updated about the patient. And good EMR software also makes alerts for the doctor in a situation like emergency. The next point of consideration for EMR software to be installed is the ease of accessibility. Ease of accessibility means the availability of required data like charts, reports, x-rays for an interpretation just at a single click. The next big issue concerned with the installation of EMR software is the security issue. All the EMR software with good security concern comes with enhanced administrative modules enabling the administrator to manage the accessibility to the database of electronic medical records of patients.
Last but not least, the EMR software you are about to install should be able to deliver a proper service towards the care of each and every patient whose records are feed into it.