Modern technologies in healthcare like computer-assisted physician documentation (CAPD) are helping physicians in clinical documentation, without the overheads of data entry.

1. Reducing Data Entry Issues Faced by Healthcare Professionals
A recent post in wired.com drew attention to the issue of big data. In the busy world
today, no one has the time or patience for tedious data entry. Everyone is looking for
means to avoid manual data entry and do things in an easier and better way. Just as
Microsoft’s new Xbox One recognizes users’ faces and logs them in automatically,
modern technologies in healthcare are helping physicians in clinical documentation,
without the hassle of data entry. If implemented thoughtfully, the technology has
the potential to streamline clinical workflow, increase coding accuracy and efficiency
and meet complex ICD-10 documentation requirements.
Use of Big Data Algorithms
The auto sign-in feature of Xbox One is greatly welcomed by people, as it saves
considerable time. Doctors are a very busy group, always hard pressed for time.
They can very well use big data algorithms to ensure better patient care. The
problem though, is that big data algorithms require a lot of data to be entered in the
first place. How is a busy physician to find time for data entry and also attend to a
large number of patients?
Challenges of Big Data Algorithms

2. 
The main issue with big data algorithm is its data hunger. A lot of patient data
has to be entered before you can have the expected results. For example, an
algorithm for diagnosing heart attacks may use up to 40 data elements.
Entering all that data is really difficult for physicians managing an
overcrowded emergency department.

Big data algorithms are similar to online decision support tools that are freely
available. They also have the same issue of data entry. For example, to
predict the likelihood a patient will die requires the user to enter 17 pieces of
data, including formulas that must be calculated separately.

Tools demanding large volume data entry are used less often used by doctors
and are less efficient.

Feeding data from the Electronic Health Record (EHR) to decision support
tools is also not a reliable option. Sometimes it is not clear that which data is
to be entered and sometimes the needed inputs may not be recorded exactly
in the right format or with the right details.
Computer-assisted
Option
Physician Documentation
(CAPD)
− An Alternative
A new technology called ‘Computer-assisted physician documentation (CAPD)’ has
been developed by 3M Health Information Systems and Nuance Communications to
alleviate the issues associated with big data algorithms. It uses real-time natural
language understanding (NLU) to convert the clinician’s sentences into computerreadable codes. Other benefits offered by CAPB are:

They automatically populate decision support algorithms

Provides real time decision support by automatically identifying a missing
input and immediately prompting the clinician to add it

To produce more specific ICD-10-compliant clinical documentation in real time

Ability to bootstrap by identifying important missing data and either grab it
from another source, infer it from existing data, or prompt the clinician to add
it during the normal course of documentation

Saves a lot of time by auto-generating some of the doctor’s notes, billing
notes, regulatory reporting codes, and by building a provisional set of orders
based on the doctor’s notes.
Anyway, these real time prompts cannot replace human intervention completely. It is
not going to catch every error and it may not be perfect. However, doctors cannot
waste their precious time on data entry of clinical documents. In this situation, a

3. medical transcription company can help, going beyond its traditional function of
merely transcribing notes to become a valuable data entry provider managing the
complex data entry requirements of healthcare professionals.
A professional BPO company offering medical transcription services can not only
maximize the efficiency and standardize transcription business processes, but can
also reduce a lot of the costs associated with in-house transcription departments.