Posted by: Atlas MD

February 22, 2024

What’s New in Atlas.md? AI Referrals and Chart Summaries.

Our recent AI updates have been focused on individual features such as AI Summaries and Diagnosis Suggestions. Today, we’re excited to roll out two new chart-wide, time-saving AI features: AI Referral Generation and Chart Summaries.

AI Referrals puts together a specialist referral with just a few clicks – you just need to enter the specialist concerned and the primary concern of the referral.

Atlas.md will analyze your patient’s chart and generate a referral that includes the patient’s basic information, medical history, lab results, medications, reason for referral, and more. Once you’re happy with the referral (you can edit it before you send it off), you can fax it directly to a specialist or send it via another method.

Chart Summaries does exactly what it says on the tin – summarizes a patient’s entire chart into a note that you can either send off or add directly to your patient’s chart for later review.

You can find both of these features by clicking the new AI button on your patient’s chart next to the familiar gear icon.

For a more in-depth look at how both features can save you huge amounts of time, check out our support articles on AI Referrals and Chart Summaries.

If you have any questions about AI Referrals or Chart Summaries, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at support@atlas.md.

Posted by: Atlas MD

January 26, 2024

How AI Is Liberating Doctors From Tedious Administration Work

There’s no question that the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) is in the process of revolutionizing healthcare. Whether it’s reading medical images, X-rays, and scans, making sense of huge amounts of data to help diagnoses, or creating treatment plans, the scope of what AI can do in a medical context is staggering.

While this pace of change can seem intimidating, it’s actually a game-changer for doctors seeking to focus on their true passion – delivering quality patient care.

This is the whole reason we built Atlas.md – to reduce tedious administrative tasks and free up more time for you to do what you love. 

AI is just another tool allowing us to do this. Whether it’s summarizing transcripts, creating SOAP notes, or using AI macros, our goal is to have you doing as little “work about work” so that you can spend as much time being a doctor as possible. 

In the day-to-day of running a medical practice, this means getting rid of tedious administrative tasks that would otherwise take hours to churn through.

The reverberation of this trend has been felt across all industries burdened by excessive administrative work – status updates, cross-departmental communication, and everything else that isn’t part of the core, professional raison d’etre. 

It makes sense that the deployment of AI would mean fewer humans doing this type of work  – and it’s already taking place.

Recently, ResumeBuilder surveyed 750 business leaders using AI and found that 37% of them said the technology had replaced at least some workers in 2023. 44% of them said that AI would be the cause of layoffs in 2024. 

For some, this might be a cause for alarm, but for others, it’s the necessary and inevitable streamlining of tasks that exist around actual work. 

How does this relate to your own work as a doctor?

Think about how your day-to-day used to look when you worked at a hospital. Endless forms, red tape, suffocating paperwork – the opportunity cost of this work (as opposed to seeing patients) is enormous. 

Traditional healthcare has turned doctors from complex clinical thinkers into clerks and typists. Not that there’s anything wrong with those professions – it’s just not the reason you went to a decade of medical school.

At face value, AI tools mean liberation from the mundane tasks that accompany every patient visit. 

It means you’ll spend more time with a stethoscope in your hand than a pen and paper.

It means less time doing clerical admin, and more time helping the world.

Posted by: Atlas MD

January 23, 2024

What’s New in Atlas.md? Diagnosis Suggestions.

It’s sometimes tough to deal with the January blues – the holiday season’s over, there’s still a few more months of winter ahead, and everyone’s back to work. To make things a little better and work a little easier, we’re happy to announce a new feature – AI Diagnosis Suggestions.

Hot on the heels of other AI releases (AI Summaries and SOAP Notes, and AI Macros), this feature recommends possible diagnoses based on the information available in your patient’s chart.

By analyzing recent notes and looking for relevant keywords and ICD-10 codes, this feature identifies and suggests a list of the most likely diagnoses for your patient.

Now, instead of having to trawl through your notes after a patient consultation to determine a diagnosis, Atlas.md saves you time by doing the heavy lifting for you.

When adding a new diagnosis, you’ll notice a new heading called Suggestions. Select one of the possible diagnoses from the list and it’ll get added to your patient’s chart.

One click. Huge amounts of time saved. It’s that easy!

If you have any questions about AI Diagnosis Suggestions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at support@atlas.md.

Posted by: Atlas MD

January 11, 2024

What’s New in Atlas.md? Subscription Prorating, Editable Fixed-Rate Billing Plans, Improved Date Picker, and More.

We’re always looking for ways to not only connect you with patients but also maximize your income streams. Today we’ve got a whole list of updates that do both!

To start, Subscription Prorating lets you charge a patient for the remaining days of the month in which their subscription starts. So if a patient signs up mid-way through January, you can charge them for the remainder of that month, rather than waiting until February.

Next, let’s talk about prescription management. Atlas.md’s auto-completer is really helpful when suggesting and remembering your usage instructions and reasons for prescribing medication. But sometimes it can remember a little bit too much. Now, if you don’t want those suggestions on the auto-completer list when dispensing medication, you can simply delete them by clicking the small X next to each item.

On the report management side, we’ve updated our date picker so that selecting date ranges from months or years ago can be done quickly and easily. So if you need to pull a custom report from 2015, you can do so in one or two clicks by selecting the month and year dropdown menus.

Finally, remember fixed-rate billing plans? Well, now instead of having to create entirely new plans when you want to change something, you can edit existing ones. It’s important to note that when you do this, it’ll affect all existing subscriptions under that plan.

Saving time and increasing your bottom line? That’s what Atlas.md is for.

If you have any questions about any of the features outlined above, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at support@atlas.md.

Posted by: Atlas MD

December 20, 2023

Health Systems Are Substantially Increasing IT Budgets in 2024: Here’s Why DPC Isn’t

In March, the US administration released its National Cybersecurity Strategy to expand health IT spending and defend critical health infrastructure from cyberattacks. 

The reason? 

Because countless hospitals, both large and small, and other healthcare facilities, were the victims of increasingly large-scale data breaches. 

According to the 2023 Mid-Year Horizon Report, there were 327 data breaches reported to the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights in the first half of 2023 alone.

This trend shows no sign of slowing as we move into 2024; there’s been a substantial surge in digital health and information technology investments, with more than 85% of health systems increasing their budgets in response to cyber threats.

One study based on a survey of 144 provider executives by the Healthcare Financial Management Association, found an average increase of 18.3% in digital and IT budgets from 2019 to 2023.

This heightened focus on cybersecurity and technology demonstrates the pivotal role that technology plays when providing effective healthcare, but it’s not ubiquitous among all healthcare players.

There’s a noteworthy exception in the industry:

DPC Clinics: A Different Approach

Unlike traditional healthcare providers who need to constantly invest more in cybersecurity to keep their data safe, most DPC clinics don’t have this concern.

Doctors launching DPC clinics enjoy a distinct advantage – a model where security, digital EMRs, and other digitalization aspects are not just addressed but continually maintained and upgraded. 

This contrasts sharply with the scenario painted by the figures quoted above, where the majority of healthcare providers are grappling with budget constraints and cybersecurity threats.

The membership fees paid by doctors to DPC platforms contribute not only to the security of their systems but also to ensuring that their EMRs are as modern as possible.

By entrusting the responsibility of maintaining cybersecurity and digitizing EMRs to a specialized platform, DPC clinics can direct their focus and resources toward the thing that matters most –  providing quality patient care.

This model not only ensures a secure and digitized foundation from the beginning but also provides ongoing value through continuous maintenance and improvement. 

In a rapidly changing healthcare landscape, DPC clinics leveraging innovative solutions blaze a path forward – one where security and digitization are not burdens but integral components of a seamless healthcare experience.

Posted by: Atlas MD

November 21, 2023

What’s New in Atlas.md? AI Macros.

We’ve always placed a big emphasis on using macros to simplify workflows and create better, more comprehensive notes. With AI Macros, we’re enhancing that experience using artificial intelligence.

AI Macros work with and analyze the content of the note you’re writing to perform specific tasks and save loads of time.

Currently, this feature works with two macros:

  • Find Possible ICD-10 Codes searches the content of the note for any possible ICD-10 codes and compiles a list of results in the same note. Once you save the note, any added ICD-10 codes become links that allow you to search across your whole account database for other patients with the same codes.
  • Suggest Differential Diagnoses analyzes the content of the note you’re writing to suggest possible conditions or diagnoses.

To use an AI Macro, simply type “#ai” when working on a note, and Atlas.md’s macro-autocompleter will bring up a list to choose from.

AI Macros not only save valuable time but also help you navigate and analyze medical information more effectively. And while there are currently only two AI Macros available, we’ll be adding more in the future to enhance your workflow even further.

For more information about AI Macros, check out our support article.
 
And if you have any questions or suggestions about AI Macros, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at support@atlas.md.

Posted by: Atlas MD

October 11, 2023

What’s New in Atlas.md? Fixed-Rate Billing Plans.

Alongside normal subscriptions, Atlas.md has always given users flexibility in how they charge patients with age-based pricing sets and service fees. Today, we’re extending that flexibility and rolling out a new way of selling subscription add-ons with Fixed-Rate Billing Plans.

Now, next to using age-based tiers or customized subscriptions, you can set billing plans with standardized, fixed rates. These can then be added to patients’ billing plans as subscriptions.

So if you’d like to create a standardized family plan that includes two adults and two children, for example, you can easily set it up and charge it to patients as a subscription.

On top of that, we also improved the patient billing organization and brought everything together on one page. Now you can find all Billing Plans, including age-based pricing sets, fixed-rate pricing sets, and service fees, under Account > Patient Pricing Settings.

These updates will not only help you find everything related to patient billing more easily but will also provide you with even more ways of providing services and increasing your revenue.

If you have any questions about Billing Plans, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at support@atlas.md.

Posted by: Atlas MD

September 28, 2023

What’s New in Atlas.md? AI Summaries and SOAP Notes.

Picture this – after recording a consultation with a patient, you upload the audio file to Atlas.md and transcribe the conversation to the patient’s chart. You stare at the wall of text, the ums, the ahs, the you knows, and think tiredly, “If only there was a way to instantly summarize this information.”

Well, now there is. Thanks to Atlas.md’s integration with generative AI, you can now summarize transcriptions and generate SOAP notes.

After you’ve uploaded an audio file and transcribed it into your patient’s chart, you’ll notice a new AI button that allows you to do two things:

  • Summarize the transcribed conversation
  • Generate a SOAP note for documenting and communicating patient information 

Whatever action you take will appear on your patient’s chart, in the same thread as the audio file and the transcription.

These magic buttons are a huge time-saver, and we’re so excited to see how users use them and transform their workflows! This is also just the first of many AI features we’ve planned to make running your EMR faster, easier, and more intuitive.

Until then, if you have any questions about how AI summaries or SOAP notes work, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at support@atlas.md.

Posted by: Atlas MD

August 28, 2023

It’s the Burn, Not the Out

If you’re reading this or have decided to become part of the DPC movement, it’s because you’ve experienced burnout.

This isn’t just bad for providers, but also for patients, families, and healthcare systems — and in 2023, it’s worse than ever.

Based on the latest report from Medscape:

  • 53% of physicians say they’re burned out
  • 23% of physicians say they’re depressed
  • Female physicians are affected more severely than male physicians
  • Self-employed physicians report less burnout
  • Burnout is blamed on bureaucratic tasks and long hours

While none of this is really surprising or new, it’s that last point that deserves attention.

Often when we think of burnout, we get the impression that providers have nothing left to give. They’re worn out, depleted, spent.

But what if the problem wasn’t the fuel left in the tank, but the flame itself? The flame that used to burn bright and consistently when you were in med school or just starting out at your first practice?

Maybe it’s not the quantity of the work overwhelming providers but the quality of it. Churning through appointments to make more money is hardly meaningful, and neither is drowning in the subsequent endless seas of paperwork.

A lot of providers want to do work so that they have more time to enjoy life — and that’s completely understandable.

But most physicians aren’t afraid of work – it’s why they got into healthcare in the first place – but of doing banal work.

The solution, then, is to focus on doing work that matters. Reignite the flame. Spend time doing the things that made you passionate about healthcare in the first place:

  • Working hard
  • Finding creative solutions to problems
  • Being of service to others
  • Helping patients
  • Changing lives

It’s about finding work worth doing, and doubling down on that work, rather than getting caught in the work that pays the bills but starves the soul.

The stoics believe that the secret to happiness is work worth doing.

That feels true. And maybe that’s true for burnout too — the secret to burnout is work worth doing.

Posted by: Atlas MD

August 17, 2023

What’s New in Atlas.md? Audio Transcripts.

We recently released the Audio Playback Support feature to send audio files directly into Atlas.md from your device or computer. Today we’re happy to announce another audio-related feature that should make charting and content organization much easier: Audio Transcripts!

Transcribing anything used to mean starting and pausing audio files and jotting down the content as you went along.

Now, you can turn audio files into searchable text-based content with a single click, simplifying the process of finding and editing notes, understanding problems, archiving patient conversations, and much more!

Imagine seeing patients, recording visits, and having those notes automatically added to your patient’s chart with two easy clicks. It’s another way that Atlas.md lets you spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork.

The whole process is really straightforward. When you upload an audio file, Atlas.md will automatically start transcribing it.

While it works, we recommend checking out other patients’ charts, managing your billing, or getting a coffee refill.

The point is, you don’t have to wait for the transcription to finish – we’ll notify you once it’s ready and attach it to the original note so you can view the audio file and the transcript in the same place.

If you have any questions about Audio Transcripts, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at support@atlas.md.