Medical Transcription Industry Celebrates Health IT Week

Announces Support for Healthcare Reform that Promotes Patient Safety and
Increases Accuracy of EHRs

Also announces "Digital IT Platform" solution for secure & seamless exchange
of information.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As health information managers
and professionals across the country celebrate the health information &
technology industry this week, the Association for Health Care Documentation
Integrity (AHDI) and the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA)
announced their support for a healthcare reform package that improves
electronic health records (EHRs) as well as patient safety.

"Medical transcriptionists represent a workforce that is critical to the
accurate and safe transition to the EHR that will improve patient safety,
ensure the accuracy of health records, and free up doctors to do what they do
best - attend to their patients' needs," said Susan Lucci, President of AHDI.
"We look forward to continuing to work with Congress, the Administration, and
with healthcare professionals to implement reforms that will lead to a smooth
transition to the EHR with a focus on patient safety first."

Today, MTIA, in conjunction with ICSA labs, an independent division of Verizon
Business, announced the formation of the Medical Transcription Service
Consortium (MTSC) to drive improved coordination of care and digital record
exchange among hospitals, physician offices, and healthcare clinics through an
effective framework, and secure and private IT platform.

According to MTIA, currently 8% of physician-patient encounters are documented
via electronic medical records; by comparison, more than 80% employ the
dictation-transcription process for this purpose. MTIA estimates that over 1.2
billion patient notes are dictated and transcribed annually, and currently the
majority of those records cannot be imported into electronic medical records
in digitally useful formats.

Working with Verizon Business, the consortium plans to offer an industry
solution for medical transcription service providers to exchange medical
records in digitally useful form. Verizon Business expects the platform to be
available later this year.

"The IT platform under development will serve as an open, yet secure
foundation for the transfer of digital patient data among physicians,
hospitals, clinics, and other health care providers," said Rajeev Kapoor,
global managing director of healthcare for Verizon. "Leveraging Verizon
Business' broad portfolio of advanced IT, hosting and security solutions,
professional services expertise and global IP network, the new platform will
help MTSC members drive efficiency and improve patient outcomes as the
adoption of electronic health records accelerates."

"This is an exciting time for the medical transcription industry, and we are
excited about our position in the process as we continue to evolve," said
Linda Yaniszewski, Chair of the MTIA Board of Directors. "The
dictation-transcription process remains physicians' preferred means of
documenting healthcare encounters. The process provides physicians with a
quick and efficient documentation method. The patient narrative produced by
the process offers physicians a rich and detailed source of information for
clinical decision-making and helps facilitate proper reimbursement. By making
the dictation-transcription process a key component of the transition to EHRs,
healthcare enterprises, EHR vendors, and policymakers can ensure the
government's multi-billion-dollar investment proves a fruitful one for
physicians and patients."

AHDI and MTIA have also been working with members of Congress and the Office
of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to ensure
that the Coordinator's definition of meaningful use recognizes the importance
of structured narrative reports.

"These days, more people pay attention to their credit scores than they do
their health history and records," said Nick van Terheyden, a physician and
Executive Committee member of the Health Story Project - an alliance of
healthcare vendors, providers and associations working to produce data
standards for the flow of medical health information. "Most Americans just
rely on their primary care physicians to maintain their personal health
records and are not aware that narrative history could be replaced with
electronic health records."

As founding members of the Health Story Project, AHDI and MTIA will be working
with other members of the alliance this year to develop a public campaign to
protect structured narrative reports to ensure patient care is delivered
safely and more effectively by delivering more information to the clinician at
point of care.

"Through our relationship with Health Story, we plan on spending the next year
educating policy leaders on the important role that the medical transcription
industry plays in the public health sector," stated Peter Preziosi, PhD, CEO
of AHDI and MTIA. "Our Digital IT Portal initiative underscores the importance
of a robust and accurate transition to EHRs and ensures enormous growth
potential for a workforce dedicated to patient safety, the highest standards
of accuracy and to ensuring doctors can spend their valuable time with the
patients who need them."

About AHDI
The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), formerly AAMT,
has been the professional organization representing medical transcriptionists
since 1978. AHDI sets standards of practice and education for medical
transcriptionists, administers a dual credentialing program, has established a
code of ethics, and advocates on behalf of the profession. There are nearly
100 component associations of AHDI, each of which holds regular educational
meetings and symposia. For more information, visit www.ahdionline.org.

About MTIA
The not-for-profit Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) is the
world's largest trade association serving medical transcription service
operators. Its mission is to create an environment in which medical
transcription companies can prosper, grow, and deliver the highest level of
healthcare documentation services. For more information, visit www.mtia.com.
The two associations formed a strategic legal partnership in 2007 to pool
critical resources and collaborate on key initiatives focused on optimizing
healthcare delivery by providing timely, accurate and relevant clinical
information.

About Health Story Project
Health Story is an alliance of healthcare vendors, providers, and
associations, including AHDI and MTIA, which has pooled resources over the
previous three years in a rapid-development initiative to produce data
standards for the flow of information between common types of healthcare
documents and electronic health records. Visit www.healthstory.com for more
information.

SOURCE Association for Health Care Documentation Integrity; Medical
Transcription Industry Association

Lea Sims, CMT, AHDI-F, Director of Professional Programs, AHDI/MTIA,
+1-209-352-7328, lsims@ahdionline.org