Medquist to particpate as Implementer in the HIMSS10 Interoperability Showcase

Demonstrating the value of standards-based health information technologies, MedQuist Inc. (Nasdaq: MEDQ), a leading provider of technology-enabled clinical documentation services, is participating as an Implementer in the HIMSS10 Interoperability Showcase at booth #233 in Hall C of the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The Showcase is part of the 2010 Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference & Exhibition being held from March 1-4.

The 2010 Showcase will incorporate the initial, proposed metrics of Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and other connected systems as part of its real-time demonstrations. At the Showcase, MedQuist will be creating structured documentation from transcription that adheres to standards specified by the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), recognized and accepted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This structured documentation can then be sent to EHRs and RHIOs.  

"Dictation and transcription solutions provide a pathway for realizing the benefits of the EHR. As the industry completes the journey to an EHR environment, MedQuist is committed to assisting healthcare facilities during that transition," says V. "Juggy" Jagannathan, MedQuist vice president of Research. "Our customers are able to maintain the efficiency of current processes, and also derive the benefits of EHRs using MedQuist technology-enabled service solutions."

HIMSS 2010 attendees can track their EHR and PHR (Personal Health Record) through the Showcase, designed as a HIMSS Health Information Exchange (HIE)-based environment with realistic demonstration of complex healthcare scenarios. These settings use the standards-based Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) framework and Specifications of the HITSP.

This is the third time that MedQuist has participated in the Interoperability Showcase.  The company has long supported and implemented interoperability standards as an active participant in IHE, and is the only Medical Transcription Service Organization (MTSO) involved in the 2010 Showcase. Recently, MedQuist also successfully demonstrated secure information exchange in the IHE Connectathon, the North American healthcare IT industry's largest interoperability testing event, held in Chicago in January.  

In addition, MedQuist is a member of the Health Story Project, an alliance of healthcare vendors, providers and associations that since 2006 has been pooling resources in a rapid-development initiative to define and publish data standards for the flow of information between common types of healthcare documents and electronic medical record systems. Adoption of these standards will unlock the valuable data from transcribed narratives and make possible an unrestricted flow of this data into the EHR.