MedTech E-NEWS

May 2009

Dear Medtech E-News Reader,

I would like to thank all our Medtech sites that have recently given me some frank and useful feedback on where we can improve the program. This national “snapshot” showed me many resourceful ways that our customers are configuring our software and revealed a key issue of the need for specific customized training. Of the 58 issues raised, 30 were related to configuration issues that simply needed some one-on-one training to resolve. To address this issue we are offering a set day each month where our customers can book in a single hour of training and buy the right information to make the best use of our software. Other smaller issues that were identified during my visits have lead to several enhancements that will be added into Versions 7.1 and 7.2 which are due for release in the next 1-2 months.

A second key area identified was the Care Plans. Government initiatives that address chronic disease management require practices to better identify and manage patients that fit into certain criteria. Medtech has a unique advantage in this area; we have used our Advanced Forms to create a Clinical Dashboard. This will be accessed via an icon that opens up to a list of clinical factors and Care Plans. An alert will glow green, yellow or red beside each item, based on programmed rules, to show which items require action. The advantage is clear, a way to quickly manage patient needs and provide the correct workflows.

In keeping with the need to examine patient data, we are introducing a second application, our Clinical Audit Tool (CAT). The CAT allows our practices to examine their data, quickly “mine” the patient lists that require more attention and take fast action with sending out recalls and other follow-up measures. The CAT complements the Clinical Dashboard to maximize a practice’s clinical care and financial returns.

Two further advances are very close (within a few months) to delivery: Medtech Evolution and the Manage My Health internet portal. These products provide the next platform for practice innovation by allowing customer service to be extended to the mobile phone, PDA or home laptop. As a result, this greater communication will improve the doctor-patient relationship and reduce administration costs.

Finally, I would like to invite you to attend our User Group meetings that are being arranged to help communicate the very practical steps we are taking to advance our software functionality beyond all contenders. I have been quite deliberate in waiting to have products in hand before running these User Group meetings to ensure a shorter delivery time. I look forward to meeting you at the upcoming meeting and discussing these improvements.

Kind regards,
Bruce Burns
Primary Health Sector Manager

PRACTICE INCENTIVES PROGRAM eHEALTH

We are happy to announce that Medtech is now working with NEHTA and has become an Eligible Supplier for Secure Messaging. Practices that are running on the following product versions (or above) by the 31st of July will meet the secure messaging requirement:
• MedTech32, version 7.0
• MedTech Evolution, version 1.0

If your current software version is lower than what is stated above, please contact Bruce Burns on 03 9698 4411 to discuss cost-effective upgrade options so that we can help you secure your incentive payment.

To view the latest NEHTA Eligible Suppliers List, please click here and download the PDF file.

MEDTECH USER GROUPS - FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Medtech warmly invites you to attend our User Group meetings, which will be held in each major city starting from the month of May. The meeting is designed to be an informative session where we’ll be discussing and demonstrating our latest and future technological developments. This would also be a good opportunity to meet some of our staff and fellow Medtech users. The topics that we’ll be covering during the meeting include:

• Medtech32, the fixes and enhancements that will feature in subsequent software releases
• Clinical Audit Tool (CAT)
• Patient Clinical Dashboard
• Medtech Evolution
• Manage My Health patient portal
• Your thoughts and feedback

The User Group meetings will run from 6:00pm to 7:30pm and venues will be announced closer to the dates (listed below) after we determine the number of attendees. Below is the propsed User Group schedule:

Sydney - 21st of May
(RSVP by 19th of May)

Brisbane - 28th of May
(RSVP by 22nd of May)

Victoria - 2nd of June
(RSVP by 25th of May)

Canberra - 4th of June
(RSVP by 25th of May)

Adelaide - 11th of June
(RSVP by 1st of June)

Perth - 18th of June
(RSVP by 8th of June)

If you are interested in attending any of the sessions listed above, please register by contacting Dayna Lau on 03 9690 8666 or email dlau@medtechglobal.com.

CLINICAL AUDIT TOOL

Medtech has developed its very own Clinical Audit Tool (CAT) which will soon be available for practices to purchase. The CAT has been designed to help practices with improving the quality and management of clinical data, and can also be used to assist with performance-based funding by meeting criteria based on government- and divisional-specified statistical data collection initiatives. The key features are listed below:

Real Time Data Capturing

The CAT extracts real time data from the PMI database, whereas other CATs in the market use a batch system which typically saves snapshots as XML files before applying the filter

Integration with Different Practice Management Software Products

The CAT is designed to be able to integrate with non-Medtech practice management software products

Advanced Reporting Capabilities

The CAT can generate reports for various statistical data collection directives based on criteria and indicators given by government and divisional agencies like the Australian Primary Care Collaboratives (APCC) and the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA)

Action on the Results

Users have the ability to send recalls, reminder letters or text messages to patients that appear in the data lists generated by the CAT

Browser-based Tool

The CAT has been developed as a stand alone browser-based tool. This will assist with easier integration with practice management software products and present practice staff with an advanced user interface

For more information on the Medtech Clinical Audit Tool, please feel free to contact Bruce Burns on 03 9698 4411 or bburns@medtechglobal.com.

MEDTECH EVOLUTION - "EXTEND YOUR REACH!"

Medtech Evolution is a powerful and easy-to-use practice management and clinical system that builds upon the feature-rich Medtech32 software program.

Benefits
• Reach your patients that need chronic care
• Reach your own clinical and financial objectives
• Link to Manage My Health, a web portal that manages electronic patient records that can be accessed anytime, anywhere

• Satisfy government requirements for data capture and analysis
• Experience a faster workflow

Key Features
• A care plan dashboard to easily and closely monitor patient progress and recalls
• Enhanced data capturing capability allowing effective management and reporting of data
• Customisable modules to suit your requirements and work flow
• Complex clinical and financial reports that can be generated on request
• Medtech Evolution is built on SQL server using the Microsoft.NET framework to cater for the evolving portability of data capture

If you would like to start managing your practice more efficiently, please contact Bruce Burns on 03 9698 4411 or bburns@medtechglobal.com

TRAINING

Training Workshop Feedback
We had a fantastic response to our first free online Training Workshop in which the enhancements and new features of Version 7 were discussed and demonstrated. We thank all of those who took the time to participate, and the feedback that we’ve received will help tailor future Workshops to become more relevant to the current needs of our customers.

New Training Initiative

In response to our Training Workshop feedback, we have decided to introduce a new practical way of supplying training to our customers. Many customers found that a four hour block of training was hard to schedule so we are providing one or two days a month where customers can book and pay for a single hour of training. We also discovered, after a number of site visits, 30 problems experienced by customer sites were directly related to insufficient advanced training. The cost of training will be $200 (excluding GST) per hour. Don't let a lack of knowledge stop you from using our program well. If demand is high, we'll add extra dates to accomodate more training sessions.

Training Dates

Thursday, 18th of June

Friday, 19th of June

Friday, 17th of July

Friday, 7th of August

The way to take full advantage of this process is to email Marlene Santos, msantos@medtechglobal.com, with the areas that you would like greater knowledge. We can then call you back to customise a suitable list of training items.

EVENTS

General Practitioner Conference and Exhibition (GPCE)
Medtech is scheduled to attend the Sydney GPCE which will be held at the Sydney Showgrounds in Homebush Bay on the 22-24 of May. If there is anything you need to speak to us about, we warmly welcome you to visit our stand (no. 1204) however if you have a more detailed question to ask, we encourage you to book an appointment prior to the event so we can make the right staff member available at a time that suits you. To make a booking, please contact Dayna Lau on 03 9690 8666 or email dlau@medtechglobal.com. For more information regarding the GPCE, please click here.

Rural Health West General Practitioner Conference and Exhibition
Thank you to all of those who visited our stand at the Rural Health West General Practitioner Conference and Exhibition. It was our first time exhibiting at the event and we found it a very valuable experience as we were able to discuss issues faced by doctors and practice staff working in rural areas. In order to improve our services for Medtech users in these areas, we will be working closely with the New South Wales State Division of General Practice to trial training via video conferencing through the division network.

CUSTOMER SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Public Holiday Office Hours
Head Office will be closed on Monday the 8th of June as we’ll be celebrating the Queen’s Birthday in Victoria. Please organise your practice’s sales and account queries around this date. The Help Desk, however, will remain open from 9:00am – 5:00pm, Eastern Standard Time.

Help Desk

Usual operating hours: 8:30am - 5:00pm local time, Monday to Friday
Phone: 1800 148 165

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