February 2011
	Over the past few months, you may have noticed a lot of changes in TheraManager. Most of these are related to obtaining ONC-ATCB certification. We have made all the many structural additions and modifications required to certify the program, although we are still polishing the changes. We have a testing date scheduled for the full certification requirements for all medical and mental health practices.
	We will also provide the means for you to calculate your Meaningful Use, CQMs and PQRI results. All of this will give many of you the opportunity to tap into the government's largesse, but please don't ask us the rules.Tthere are many other resources such as your professional societies, cms.gov, healthit.hhs.gov etc. You can actually register for the program now without having installed a certified program, and we will provide you with our certification number, when we have it.
	Some of the changes may be advantageous to you immediately, and something such as the changes to the Diagnosis/Problem List may unfortunately cause some of you temporary but necessary inconvenience. Other changes may be irrelevant to your needs. The February 12 update will require an :"admin" login to provide tables for these new features. These new screens are for the moment being made available for your review as we develop them. Below is a brief summary of each category of changes:
Diagnosis/Problem List Screen
	We described this new screen in the last newsletter and how it is required to meet the needs of certification. From now on the diagnosis codes used in Posting, are only remembered on this screen, and are intended to be entered by the clinician on this screen, as has always been the case.
	We also learnt that some insurance companies are now ignoring the pointer and insisting that the problem being treated is always in the first position ie number 1 in the pointer. This led to a rethink and we have introduced a new column on the problem list grid to replace the original 2 columns. This new column colored green will now define whether the diagnosis code appears on the posting screen and its position. "1,2,3,4" determines its position and order in the pointer, whereas a "O" just determines whether it just appears. The information in the previous billing and pointer columns will be transferred to the new column in the first admin login.
	The diagnosis code boxes, the pointer checkboxes and the dropdowns on the Posting and the Encounter Forms are all populated automatically from the Problem List. Any changes made at posting time are no longer remembered.
	We are also ordering the codes by Axis for DSM-IV users. The status of a code can be changed using the drop down box in the Status Column eg from Active to Rule Out etc.
Security
	TheraManager has always had encryption, passwords and access rights as required for certification. We have added a timeout that you can set at the Corporate Screen to ensure that unattended machines are logged out after a preset interval.
Electronic Prescriptions and Allergies
	We were certified with Surescripts over a year ago and have been providing drug-to-drug interaction, drug allergy, formulary information etc since then which meets the certification requirements. The Allergy Screen has been augmented to meet the requirements.
Reminders
	The program has always allowed predetermined followups for patients but a new screen Transactions | Reminders now provides for followups based on diagnosis/problem, medication, allergies and Lab Test Results. These reminders can be setup from the respective screens and then appear on the new screen. 3 Buttons provide the functionality. The first Button generates the list of patients to be reminded. The second button checks that their contact preference and information has been entered in their information. This could be phone, letter, email, automatic phonecall or email from Reminderpro or text message. The third Button actually sends the reminders by the preferred means. This screen is not quite finished yet and we will be providing the lists of patients who were sent reminders.
Clinical Lists
	A new screen Transactions | Clinical allows patients to be selected according to one or more diagnosis codes, and/or one or more medications and/or a lab-test value and by age. We are also adding a test score so that one of our forms can used as an extra selection item.
Import/Export of Medical Records
	The import and export of EMR information including medications, problem list, lab test results and notes summary in HL7 digital format has been coded into the program and is now available. This is a significant part of the certification requirements, but awaits the Health Information networks, that are being developed, for the electronic exchange, but records can still be carried in secure form on a FLASH memory.
Laboratory Test Ordering
	We have moved the Lab Test ordering form from Prescriptions to the Lab tests | Orders Tab.
	We have worked with Quest Diagnostics to integrate patient information exported directly from the program into their so-called Bridge, which we don't expect to be a permanent solution, but if you have significant volume they will install it for you..
Laboratory Test Results
	We can parse digital lab test results, view them and store them in the database both in their HL7 format and in data form so that results of specific tests can be charted over time for example,.or correlated with the dose of a med.
	We have worked with Quest Diagnostics to integrate patient export information and the receipt of test results with their Care360 product. If you are a Quest Diagnostics or a LabCorp user, or receive HL7 lab test files please contact us.
Vital Signs
	A new screen Lab Tests | Vital Signs allows for the entry of vital signs, height weight, blood pressure, heart rate temperature and head circumference. The choice of metric or imperial units is a User Setting. BMI is calculated automatically and child growth charts for height, weight and BMI can be displayed with automatic plotting of the childs history.
Behaviors I
	Certification and meaningful use requires information on smoking habits of your patients so we have added that to a Lab Tests | Behvaviors Screen.. To make this screen more generally useful, we have added alcohol consumtion and drug use.
Innoculations/Vaccinations
	There is an Innoculation/Vaccination Screen where vaccinations can be entered. It can be set up from a master file by right-clicking on the grid. The vaccinations will be capable of being synchronized with a state registry. When a vaccination is added to the patient record the correct cptcode is automatically generated on the Encounter Dialog for billing
Log
	The Transactions | Log Screen has been modified to allow searching for different sorts of changes to a patient record.
Demographics
	We have added Preferred Language, Race, Ethnicity and Advanced Directive information to the Family Screen.
	The Patient | Other Screen has also been augmented to include a listing of Information Materials given to the patient. Another gid keeps track of Patient Referrals.
	Do not ignore setting up text messaging on the Patients Screen and using it as one of your reminder means to provide patient appointment reminders.That can save you lots of time and missed appointments and we gave it to you for free.
Meaningful Use,CQMs and PQRIs
	A new screen Transactions | CQMs and PQRIs displays all the Meaningful Use Clinical Quality measures resulting from the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative. We will be providing the output for the complete set of Meningful Use CQms. We can generate output for the PQRIs on request.
Patient Portal
	The initial version of our Patient Portal already has 4 features, book and review appointments, enter demographics, complete a custom checkbox form, receive a password protected medical record.
MACs and iPads
	Use Parallels to run Windows 7 and TheraManager on a MAC. We continue to be asked about iPads. Our checkbox forms are great using any tablet when facing the patient. We have seen 2 remoting products that allow you to remote to TheraManager running either on a PC or a MAC from your iPad. One is Parallels Mobile that may come free with Parallels, and the other is iteleportmobile for about $25.
Special Deal
	We can offer a special deal for each new specialty that uses the EMR program and helps us with the customization.
	For a trial go to our website at www.theramanager.com
	If you need help that's not in one of the 1007 Help Notes, or have questions or suggestions please contact support@theramanager.com or call 908-508-8900.