EPN - Electronic Prescribing News

One day, regional sales manager Bryan Valenti suggested a way for Rosen, president and CEO of the information technology company, to improve his dirt-moving efficiency: Buy a wheelbarrow.
Sometimes, the problem is so absorbing that the obvious solution is obscured.
That describes Rosen's track record in marketing a system for physicians to simplify the prescribing of medications by applying the latest technology.
In 1989, he came up with the idea for RX Writer. It was a terrific idea and it flopped.
Rosen, a computer program developer by trade, pursued other interests. In 1998, he founded Lille Corp., which is named after his grandmother.
At about the same time, Rosen revisited his idea of an advanced technology for recording prescriptions. He called in eScribe. It caught on.
Doctors, pharmacists, hospitals and health insurance companies all agreed that replacing handwritten scribbles with a clear, concise, complete and accurate record had advantages. There would be fewer mistakes and greater efficiency.
"We had a great product and we couldn't give it away." said Rosen, recalling the rejection of RX Writer.
Doctors are busy people. They barely had time to listen to his pitch, and less time to learn the intricacies of a new technology of handheld computers. Then there was the cost of the equipment.
Doctors were comfortable with dictating notes and medical histories into a recording device. They were less comfortable with miniature keyboards.
When he rolled out eScribe, he played to the preferences of his customers. The input is dictation-based. The results are accessible from any standard computer. For those who crave the comfort of a paper in hand, the system provides hard copies.
"If there is resistance to your product, don't assume that it's the fault of the product. Doctors wanted my product; they just didn't want the process. I changed the process," Rosen said.
Beyond simply submitting prescriptions, eScribe permits the compilation and updating of complete patient medical records.
Because all the information is stored in an electronic database, the system eliminates the need to resubmit historical data or information that has remained unchanged since the last treatment or visit by the patient.
The eScribe system accommodates doctor dictation--with either on-site or off-site transcription. Data also can be entered through a desktop computer, laptop or a handheld device.
Once entered, the electronic record is available round the clock through the office computer network or over the Internet over a secure Web connection that protects patient privacy. It can be accessed at the doctor's office, at home or at a hospital. A standard office printer can provide a hard copy for the patient's permanent record.
Lille Corp. collects a subscription fee for use of the eScribe system. The price varies depending on the level of service.
There is no need to invest in new, expensive electronic hardware. The system works on virtually all existing platforms.
In addition, eScribe is a management tool to transfer data to the pharmacist for filling a prescription, or to the health insurer for filing a claim. Rosen said eScribe increases office efficiency and productivity and reduces the number of errors commonly associated with the manual transcription of medical records and prescriptions.
Data from the system can be manipulated to provide information about trends and patterns among patients within a group.
"I've been using eScribe for six years," said Dr. Louis Papandrea of Capital Cardiology Associates in Albany. "I can't begin to tell you how much time I have saved with dictating my notes."
Because the medical history is on file electronically, Papandrea said the time he might spent quizzing the individual or flipping voluminous paper files is spent more productively dealing with the patient.
The correlated eScribe data on multiple patients of a busy private practice make it easier to alert patients of news about specific drugs or the availability of new clinical trials, said Dr. Geoffrey Serfilippi of Pulmonary & Critical Care Associates in Albany.
He resorted to eScribe again when it was necessary to notify patients that a local referral service suddenly closed its doors. The advisory directed patients how to locate a new provider.
Those are the types of features Rosen envisioned when he first offered the RX Writer system that was well-conceived, but ill-received.
"I could start a lonely inventors' club of the founders of failed electronic prescription companies," said Rosen. "It would be made up of the sons of doctors who caught the computer bug."
This son of a doctor, however, found his wheelbarrow.
rgroneman@bizjournals.com | 518-640-6808


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