Mental Health Doctors Cross the Digital Divide

Free Electronic Medical Record system — Practice Fusion — releases a psychiatric module for mental health professionals in advance of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Practice Fusion announces today the release of a fully-integrated module specific to psychiatry in an expansion of its free, web-based Electronic Medical Record system. Mental health providers can effectively run an entire practice from one free, secure application and qualify themselves for federal EMR stimulus money.

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The new psychiatry module includes over a dozen templates for anxiety, depression, organic mental disorders, substance abuse and more. Each template was developed by practicing psychiatrists based on APA guidelines and complete with integrated DSM-IV codes. Providers also have the option to customize templates as they chart, allowing flexible wording and structures specific to their patients' needs.

"It has been rewarding for me to work with psychiatrists and mental health providers to create this EMR module," said Robert Rowley, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Practice Fusion. "Often medical software gets the details wrong; the little things that end up annoying you on a daily basis. We really focused on getting this module right for psychiatrists. For me, that has been the best part: knowing that we are doing something that will directly help mental health providers, essentially, because we asked practicing psychiatrists to help design it."

Psychiatric providers represent one of the largest groups of active physicians in the U.S. In 2006, there were over 37,000 active providers in psychiatry alone not including sub-specialties such as child psychiatry and other mental health providers. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 57.7 million adults suffer from diagnosable mental disorders in the U.S. and mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the US and Canada.

Specialty-specific EMRs are an increasing necessity as more providers across the US make the switch from paper charting to electronic systems. Practice Fusion's psychiatry module has the advantage over others in the market by coupling the heavyweight functionality that comes standard in its EMR with the custom features needed by specialty doctors. Practice Fusion's EMR is supported by a community of 38,000 users in the US.

"Practice Fusion has been a major asset to my practice for years," said New York psychiatrist, Vatsal Thakkar, MD. "The fact that I can have that same system tailored to my specialty with all the functionality and ease-of-use that I already get from Practice Fusion, is fantastic. The fact that it's free just makes me smile."

Practice Fusion's free, web-based EMR includes charting, scheduling, e-prescribing, lab integrations, document management and secure messaging – everything a medical practice needs to replace legacy paper record systems. When mental health providers enroll in the free system online, they will automatically be provided access to the new psychiatric module and templates in their account.

Practice Fusion is presenting its new module at the American Psychiatric Association's Annual Meeting, May 22–26 in New Orleans. Representatives will be available in booth 217 for live demonstrations as well as to answer questions.

About Practice Fusion

Practice Fusion provides a free, web-based Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system to physicians. With charting, scheduling, e-prescribing, billing, lab integrations, unlimited support and a Personal Health Record for patients, Practice Fusion's EHR addresses the complex needs of today's healthcare providers and disrupts the health IT status quo. Practice Fusion is the fastest growing EMR community in country with more than 38,000 users in 50 states. The company is backed by salesforce.com and Morgenthaler Ventures. For more information on Practice Fusion, please visit practicefusion.com.

About EMR Incentives

On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law a plan for economic recovery designed to pull the United States out of a deep recession. Encompassing $789 billion in funding for stimulus programs, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) included $19 billion under the HITECH Act to promote the adoption of Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology in healthcare. Individual doctors and eligible medical providers can receive $44,000 or more for "Meaningful Use" of an EMR system starting in 2011.

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Robert Rowley, MD

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SOURCE Practice Fusion