SPOTLIGHT ON TECHNOLOGY & TECHNIQUE

An entire clinic, in the palm of your hand

Electronic Medical Assistant holds patient data in computer, phone or tablet.

By Robert Stoneback, Associate Editor

The staff of Aaron Cohn, MD, no longer has to decipher his handwriting. They also no longer have to spend hours typing and writing out patient notes, running the risk of noncompliance with Medicare regulations.

The reason: For the last two-plus years, Dr. Cohn and his ophthalmic practice staff at Riddle Eye Associates in Media, Pa., have been using Electronic Medical Assistant, a tablet-based EMR system. After seeing someone in the examination room, Dr. Cohn clicks a button on the program to send an electronic prescription to the front desk for the patient to pick up, without ever needing to put pen to paper.

“That’s a time saver,” he says.

Dr. Aaron Cohn’s practice uses the EMR program Electronic Medical Assistant to keep track of patient data; they can use tablets, smartphones and desktop computers.

BY DOCTORS, FOR DOCTORS

Modernizing Medicine, a company founded in 2010 by entrepreneur Dan Cane and dermatologist Michael Sherling, MD, created EMA with the goal of bringing patients and doctors together. Today, Mr. Cane serves as CEO and Dr. Sherling as chief medical officer, and their company has grown to 500 employees. With coding for eight different medical specialties, including ophthalmology, dermatology, plastic surgery and gastroenterology, EMA has 10,000 medical providers-users, including over 1,000 ophthalmologists.

Nineteen physicians are on staff at Modernizing Medicine, four of whom are ophthalmologists. Dr. Sherling said in a separate interview that the company’s ophthalmologists also practice at least one day a week.

Besides the Apple tablet, EMA can also be used on Apple and Android smartphones and from a desktop computer.

VIRTUAL EXAMS

Dr. Cohn’s clinic first adopted EMA shortly after he joined about three years ago.

Among its features is the “virtual exam room,” which allows access to the most recent exams for any patient in the clinic’s database. A digital chart also lists data points from previous visits, including IOP levels, central retina thickness, visual acuity, keratometry and pachymetry information.

Riddle Eye Associates uses an iPad at the clinic for EMA; with the program open on the iPad, Dr. Cohn or the other staff members can use the tablet’s built-in camera to take an image of a patient’s eye. EMA can then instantly add the image to the patient’s file.

EMA can also show a patient’s clinical history, such as whether she wears glasses, smokes or has conditions like dry eye, arthritis, hypertension and glaucoma. A patient’s data can be easily reviewed and updated following each visit, and EMA can automatically apply ICD-10 codes for each condition. For instance, when Dr. Cohn clicks a patient entry recommending cataract consultation, the ICD-10 code is added to the patient’s data.

EMA can also list the previous ICD-9 codes and their equivalent listing under ICD-10.

Dr. Cohn can also use EMA to assist with dictations. The program takes medical data and diagnoses from the patient’s file in order to create a dictation in an hour, a process that would usually take a month, Dr. Cohn says.

EMA automatically adapts based on each users’ preferences. Dr. Cohn likes keeping “patient education files,” which have conditions like glaucoma explained in layman’s terms for use in his clinic. He can immediately click on these files and print them for his patients, as opposed to spending time writing down all the details. And these instructions are much easier for patients to read, since they don’t rely on interpreting a doctor’s poor handwriting.

TEMPORARY SETBACKS

Dr. Cohn’s partner at Riddle Eye Associates, Anthony Antonello, MD, had previously used paper charts, notes and prescriptions for the 25 years he has worked at the clinic.

According to Dr. Cohn, the transfer over to an electronic system took his partner a few months to get used to, resulting in fewer patients seen per day while he adapted. Today, he’s comfortable with the system and is back to his previous patient load. They both appreciate that EMA allows the two partners to share information much more efficiently.

The fact that a small company created EMA is also a plus for Dr. Cohn. Though Modernizing Medicine has grown substantially since the program was released in 2010, its principals still listen to their customer-physicians regarding updates and fixes, according to Dr. Cohn.

One feature of EMA that’s become even more important to Dr. Cohn since he began using it: It allows him to finish reports from home, using his iPhone. With a family of three children, including a baby, his wife no doubt appreciates it as well. OM