The lives of doctors are about to change drastically thanks to Prophysys, Inc. Prophysys is introducing The ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™, a new software application designed to help physicians deal with documentation and coding requirements. Physicians are facing increasingly burdensome coding and documentation requirements imposed by third party payors and the federal government. "Physicians are under pressure to effectively document their records in order to reduce liability, maintain their income, improve patient care. The new documentation guidelines for Evaluation and Management Services from Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), although temporarily suspended, will be implemented in some form during the next calendar year," says Newton Bullard III, M.D., one of the key designers." These documentation guidelines include the responsibility that each patient encounter generates medical record that is complete and legible and contains the reason for the encounter, relevant history, physician examination findings, prior test results, assessment or clinical impression, plan of care, the date and legible identity of the physician performing the service. Many physicians do not conform to this stringent documentation and it was with this problem in mind that The ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™ was developed. A team of developers with over 80 years' experience in health-care information systems -- including software design experts, medical billing specialist, and physicians -- began developing this product in 1997. It was first debuted at the Technology Fare sponsored by Academy of Medicine in March 1998. The response to the product was dramatic. Prophysys began selling the product in May 1998. The ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™ represents the synthesis of a number of emerging technologies. It is a continuous speech, voice activated interactive software application that simplifies and streamlines the essential documentation of each individual patient encounter of any kind while providing a framework for the effective coding of the encounter. Simultaneously it creates a patient or practice repository of clinical information that allows physicians to access prior encounters and generates useful information about practice performance. The ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™ documents physicians/patient encounters and in less time than any competitive system while reducing or eliminating transaction cost and reducing office staff workload. It assists the physicians in coding his or her encounters, directs physician behavior through user-friendly assisted information flow, and addresses of basic flow of medical examination in unusually clear comprehensive terms. In addition The ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™ supplies group practices with individual physician behavior and referral patterns, supports laboratory requirements for diagnosis related testing, supports managed-care pharmacy requirements, and provides remote access for all on-call physicians. A perfect example of the usefulness of this program is for the typical obstetric practice, with remote access provided to patient records so that any of the obstetricians call would be able to access all of the patient records during the patient's labor. According to AACP News, HCFA statistics show that 30 percent of all claims paid contain physician documentation errors. This claim review showed that the 46.8 percent of claims had insufficient documentation and 36.8 percent had failed to satisfy medical necessities. Also, due to a fear of litigation, many physicians conduct more detailed examination than what they actually document. Medical economics has stated"... coding to conservatively could mean a $45,000 annual income loss to an internist and a $60,000 loss to a family practitioner." "There's no extra money in medicine," says Dr. Bullard. "You can't make more money because you can't make more time. Most doctors are working as hard and as much as they possibly can. The cost of The ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™ is less than what the doctors are currently paying for transaction services." The ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™ means using technology to work more effectively to help physicians help their patient." With all the searchable databases in The ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™, doctors can use the power of the computer to provide more comprehensive patient care. "What were working on is being able to add templates for disease specific management," says Dr. Bullard. "It's like routine maintenance logs for your car. The average internist has multiple preventive care guidelines that he or she should be following for all of his patient. With the,ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™ he finally has a tool to help him as well as his patient." The flexibility of The ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™ makes it the most physician-friendly product in the field of automated transcription. Standardized medical templates are easily supplemented by user input through touch screens and voice recognition technology. This allows the program to be tailored to an individual or group practice and their style of medicine. Patient encounters can include not only the encounters that involve physician intervention, but also encounters that record medication refills or even referral requests. For each encounter, the appropriate documentation is suggested by the program. This provides a measure of comfort for physicians as well as personnel that they are meeting or exceeding all of the documentation guidelines based on regulations proposed by the AMA and HCFA. As the physician uses a program, quality of care improves as well as the documentation. Rapid recall of past medical history in other historical information facilitates the patient encounters. By providing a written framework of clear, concise and complete encounter records, The ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™ allows the physician to improve quality of care while maintaining compliance with insurance and governmental guidelines. The ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™ helps doctors increase their efficiency and the efficiency of their office staff's. It is designed to allow physicians to maintain the quality of care that their patients have come to expect while providing additional benefits that allow them to compete in the changing world of medicine. Doctors like The ENCOUNTER ASSISTANT ™ for obvious reasons: it simplifies their lives, increases profitability, reduces litigation risk, and improves patient care. Patients will like it, too. Medication refills will be handled more efficiently than with any current system. Referrals will be more efficiently tracked and documented, thus reducing frustration for both patients and physicians. Annual testing will be better tracked and managed by the physician's office, which will reduce patient concerns and improve the quality of care.