Transforming Ophthalmology Documentation: A Glimpse into the Future with FHIR and AI

Quick Notes:

1. O.N.C.'s standards are increasingly stringent. Your software could be falling out of compliance
2. Treating Medicare and Medicaid patients with non-compliant software puts your revenue at risk
3. EHR companies that try to fit multiple medical sub-specialties end up with few happy users

Ophthalmologists and optometrists face too many obstacles when it comes to documentation, whether it's through traditional paper methods or Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) not tailored to their specific needs. We'll explore the difficulties associated with both approaches and introduce our revolutionary solution that's transforming the way eye care physicians manage patient data.

Enter FHIR - The Future of Health Records:

Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is the latest standard developed by HL7 and mandated by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). FHIR represents a new era in storing and transmitting health records, offering a standardized and interoperable framework for data exchange. Unfortunately, most current health-record software is not built on FHIR. The government's standardization efforts will benefit vision care in several ways:

1. Interoperability: FHIR ensures seamless interoperability between different health systems, allowing ophthalmologists to access and share patient data effortlessly.
2. Specialized Templates for Ophthalmology: FHIR supports specialized templates tailored to the unique needs of ophthalmologists, enabling more accurate and comprehensive documentation of eye care encounters.
3. Real-time Data Exchange: FHIR facilitates real-time data exchange, enabling ophthalmologists to access the most up-to-date patient information and make informed decisions promptly.

Enter AI - How Standardized Data Will Feed LLMs:

As we look ahead, artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to revolutionize the way ophthalmologists document patient encounters. AI-powered tools can assist in automating routine documentation tasks, reducing administrative burdens, and allowing eye care professionals to focus more on patient care.

1. AI Scribe: AI-driven voice recognition technology can transcribe spoken words into text, making documentation faster and more accurate. This can significantly improve the efficiency of data entry for busy ophthalmologists.
2. Image Recognition: AI can analyze medical images, such as retinal scans, to aid in diagnostics. This not only enhances the accuracy of diagnoses but also contributes to a more comprehensive patient record. Image recognition can also be used to digitize forms too.
3. Predictive Analytics for Treatment Planning: AI algorithms can analyze historical patient data and recommend treatment plans for other patients. This proactive approach can lead to faster encounter documentation, and a more comprehensive claim to ensure doctors are getting paid for their hard work.

Are You Still on Paper?:

1. MIPS: CMS is cracking down further on practices that haven't made the switch to using an EHR. Doctor's who choose to treat Medicare and Medicaid patients but still use paper are at risk of losing up to 9% of their reimbursements in penalties.
2. Time-Consuming Retrieval of Records: Traditional paper-based documentation requires extensive time for retrieval. Searching through physical files for patient records can lead to delays in decision-making and hinder overall efficiency.
3. Legibility Issues: Illegible handwriting is a notorious challenge in the medical field, and ophthalmology is no exception. Misinterpreting critical information due to poor handwriting can compromise patient safety and lead to inaccurate diagnoses and treatments.
4. Inability to Visualize Changes Over Time: Tracking the progression of eye conditions is essential for effective treatment plans. Paper records make it challenging to visualize changes over time, hindering the ability to make informed decisions about patient care.
5. Prone to Damage Without Backups: Physical records are susceptible to damage from natural disasters, accidents, or even simple wear and tear. Without digital backups, valuable patient data can be lost, compromising continuity of care.
6. Slower Generation of Insurance Claims: The manual nature of paper documentation significantly slows down the generation of insurance claims, leading to delayed reimbursements and impacting the financial health of ophthalmic practices.

Why EMRs Have Overpromised and Under-Delivered:

1. Failing to Meet Newer Certification Demands: The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (O.N.C.) continuously updates the certification criteria for compliant electronic health record software, and as such, we've seen several software companies give up on maintaining their certification. This is most likely due to the age of their data, and the level of effort it would take for them to adapt it to remain compliant. Also, it's important to note that several of these software companies have changed in ownership and have downsized their development efforts, compounding the difficulty in modernizing to remain complaint.
2. Changes in Leadership Leave Doctors High and Dry: Today's EMR companies are struggling to keep up with the latest of regulations. Some have recently even declared bankruptcy, leaving doctors stuck with no support. Others are being bought and sold to larger companies that are excited to take on the revenue but aren't reinvesting in their services.
3. Built for General Medicine, Not Ophthalmology: Too many EMRs are designed with a broad focus on general medicine, overlooking the unique requirements of vision-care. This means doctors end up losing time fighting to make a sub-optimal workflow work. This often also means having to "hack" your way through documenting objective data in comment fields since several EMRs aren't detailed enough for eye care.
4. Slow Feature Rollouts: EMRs often suffer from slow feature rollouts. This is usually because they've outsourced their engineering and product teams since they consider their product 'feature complete'. Previously, companies had to re-certifiy their products based on every change, leading to slower updates. Now, thanks to SVAP, health record software can iterate faster and continue to optimize a practices' workflow because the work shouldn't be considered done until doctors feel that their software is a force multiplier, not just tedious paperwork.

Enter Moyae - Helping Doctors Become Faster Than Ever:

The shift towards FHIR and the latest advances of generative AI mark an exciting and transformative period for ophthalmology, and Moyae is taking on the challenge:

1. Faster Encounter Documentation: Doctors using Moyae are completing their documentation faster than ever before. This means more time with patients as well as the ability to see more patients. We created this platform because we knew doctors were tired of working overtime to complete their documentation, and dealing with 6-8 different apps that barely work together to make their practices work.
2. Laser Focus on Vision Care: Rather than continue to 'boil the ocean' like so many other EMR companies, Moyae only caters to vision-care because we believe software should be adapted to a doctor's workflow, not the other way around.

We can't wait to show you more so reach out to schedule a demo or sign up on our home page to be sent a short video demo!