Doctor-Patient Communication Gets the Rx it Needs

Chart-MD, an online toolkit launched today, provides patients with the resources they need to take a more active role in their care. Using the latest technology, Chart-MD offers patients a free, more efficient way of communicating with their physician and provides small medical offices with an inexpensive electronic medical record solution.

If you have ever had a doctor’s appointment, you understand the limited one-on-one time you get with a doctor due to physician’s heavy patient loads and overflowing paperwork. Chart-MD, an online toolkit launched today, provides patients with the resources they need to take a more active role in their care. Using the latest technology, Chart-MD offers patients a free, more efficient way of communicating with their physician and provides small medical offices with an inexpensive electronic medical record solution.

Designed and developed by a physician, Chart-MD is a comprehensive Web-based toolkit that utilizes infrastructure that is already available within small medical offices. It is simple enough to implement and employ without an IT department, with various components costing less than $50 per month.

Chart-MD does not replace the one-on-one time with a physician; it enhances the patient’s involvement with his or her own care. In between appointments, patients can track prescription information, record medical symptoms, receive lab results, schedule appointments online, find answers to important medical questions and ask questions of their physician and front office.

“Technology has become an essential part of all business, with the exception of doctors’ offices,” says Chart-MD Chief Executive Officer James Loynes, M.D. “Physicians need to offer technology-savvy solutions in order to keep up with their patients’ needs. I developed Chart-MD to take better care of patients. There are many solutions available that claim to offer the solution for electronic medical records but they are not obtainable for a small private practice—they are too expensive and need IT support in order to run effectively.”

Chart-MD will help medical offices reduce operating costs while improving efficiency and patient satisfaction. The front office will save time by scheduling appointments online. Chart-MD also provides physicians a fast and secure way to communicate lab results with patients, track screening tests and monitor individual patients’ symptoms and medical histories. By using cutting-edge technology, physicians will be able to gather more accurate patient information and store it in a more efficient manner.

“As a family practitioner, I have been very interested in adding electronic medical records to our office’s computer system to improve our documentation, expedite information sharing for billing and referrals and decrease overhead costs related to chart generation, maintenance and filing,” says Rebecca Botticelli, M.D. “To this point, however, this has just been too costly to reasonably consider with the software systems on the market. I have been using Chart-MD; it serves my office needs at the same monthly cost as my personal cell phone service. My patients have found it easy to use. The patient-interactive features of Chart-MD are a timely tool as I seek new ways to encourage proactive prevention and patient-centered care.”

Chart-MD is HIPAA compliant. The Chart-MD toolkit is secured on dedicated servers with a 256-bit encryption SSL. All patient information is password protected.

“As a software professional and technology user, I’ve been waiting for my healthcare providers to catch up with the rest of world in terms of data sharing,” says Scott Gray, early adopter of Chart-MD. “I get a monthly e-mail with diagnostics regarding my mini-van but, before Chart-MD came along, I was in the dark regarding my own medical data. With Chart-MD, I am an informed member of my healthcare team and can take a more active role in my own care.”

Dr. Loynes designed Chart-MD after successfully developing Flash-Med.com, an online tool that provides information to physicians, nurses, physician assistants, medical students and patients. Flash-Med.com has more than 300,000 users per month and more than 1.5 million pages served per month.

Patients wanting to use Chart-MD should talk with their physician. Please visit
www.chart-md.com for more information.

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