Novel Medicare Solutions Pvt. Ltd., provider of clinical and practice management software for doctors in India has, backed by 3 years of R&D, developed Easy Clinic to seamlessly fit with an Indian doctor’s workflow. Its Chief Operating Officer, Girish Mohata, shares with eHEALTH the challenges and opportunities in the field of medical practice management.

Q. Use of practice management software by physicians is still substantially low in India. How ready do you think the Indian market is for a product like Easy Clinic?

A. The primary and secondary medical practices in India have been slow in adopting modern technologies compared to other service oriented industries. However, there already are doctors, who feel the need for higher standards of running their practice and better care delivery. We have come across doctors using word processors and spreadsheets to record notes, using generic overseas software, as well as trying their hands at some sub-standard local packages, due to lack of options. The first measure we undertake is to reach out to such doctors over the course of 2 years. They are the power users who will set the trend for others to follow.

In a longer-term view, there are a large number of doctors who already use computers for emails, letter writing, basic accounting and browsing the Internet, yet do not use software dedicated to their profession. We plan to demonstrate that Easy Clinic can easily bring together divergent clinical and practice management activities into a cohesive whole, record a doctor’s action, and intelligently generate medical records in the background, thereby creating a broader appeal in the medical community.

Q. What are the special features offered by Easy Clinic? How does it value-add a doctor’s clinic?

A. We have spent over 3 years in designing and developing Easy Clinic to seamlessly fit with a doctor’s workflow. Most clinical software focus on better patient care as the primary objective. We consider that to be a by-product. Easy Clinic focuses on the doctor and is designed to assist the doctor, thus, automatically leading to better care delivery. This makes a huge difference in the adoption and usability of Easy Clinic. It enables a doctor to maintain electronic health records and manage their practice better without being slowed down

Each aspect of a doctor’s workflow has been thoroughly researched and catered to through customisation options in Easy Clinic. Special emphasis has been given on making all the processes easy to use and fast to accomplish. For example, prescribing of drugs or investigations can be done in less than 10 seconds; clinical notes can be written quickly using self defined shortcuts; bills to patients can be recorded with a single click and many more such features.

The drugs database in Easy Clinic has been licensed through CIMS India and is updated quarterly. This empowers the doctor with the latest drug information at the click of a mouse. It also reduces medical errors by automatically prompting against drug, allergy, or pregnancy interactions.

Practice management features such as accounting have been designed to suit a doctor rather than an accountant. They are extremely simple and intuitive. For example, a doctor can bill a patient with a single click and record expenses using simple voucher entries. Easy Clinic automatically generates their day book, form 3C and other financial reports.

Easy Clinic records and presents data intelligently which enables informed decision making, automates routine tasks, prompts on clinical and drug related actions, provide quick, hassle-free accounting and makes the doctor’s day much more organised and error free. Internally the doctor will be able to see a substantial improvement in the management of patient health records and the practice as a business. Externally the patient will enjoy a sense of professionalism from the practice as a whole.

Q. Since its launch earlier this year, you must have received user feedback about Easy Clinic. Has there been any further development of the product since it was launched, based on recommendations of users?

A. Easy Clinic was launched in April 2008 and we have received a lot of positive testimonials and feedback from beta users and customers.

At Easy Clinic, our aim is to become synonymous with medical software in India. We realise this goal can be reached only by having our ears very close to ground. This mantra has been driven across our team of software developers, database designers, team leaders, and medical informatics professionals. The result is that from its inception the design of a feature is always externally focused. We also look at what value-addition it brings forth to the doctor’s desk. After all, doctors are the best judges of it. Therefore, we are committed to listening very carefully to our end-users.

Q. What is the approximate implementation time and cost for Easy Clinic?

A. Easy Clinic is an out-of-box, ready-to-use product. It takes about 15 minutes to install on a computer. Once installed, a wizard walks the user through the important start-up settings and Easy Clinic is ready to fire. Easy Clinic is very simple and intuitive to use right from the word go. To make it even easier, we provide a number of video tutorials for the user to watch and put Easy Clinic to use, right from day 1.

“Easy Clinic is an out-of-box, ready-to-use product. It takes about 15 minutes to install on a computer. Once installed, a wizard walks the user through the important start-up settings and Easy Clinic is ready to fire. Easy Clinic is very simple and intuitive to use right from the word go.”

A single doctor license for Easy Clinic is priced at INR 20,000, which includes a 1 year annual subscription. After the first 12 months, there is an annual maintenance and upgrades subscription priced at INR 8,000. The annual subscription includes quarterly updates to the drugs database, periodic application version upgrades, ongoing telephone and online remote support.

Q. What is the support service system like for Easy Clinic? Are software updates available online?

A. Easy Clinic comes with a comprehensive help manual and a number of video tutorials to assist the doctor as soon as it is installed. Easy Clinic users are also backed with a dedicated and intelligent support team. We offer a number of support solutions including online support, phone/email support, remote assistance and more.

Easy Clinic has a Web update module, which notifies the user when an update is available. The user can download and install the update with a single click, at their convenience.

Q. Does Novel Medicare plan to offer only clinical solutions, or diversify into other areas of medical data management? What other products/innovations does Novel Medicare have lined up in the near future?

A. At the moment, we are focussed on developing clinical solutions and incorporating best practices from around the world into our solutions. We have two more versions of Easy Clinic in the pipeline, which we plan to release over the next 12 months, Easy Clinic Rx and Easy Clinic Professional (suited for multi-doctor and corporate clinics).

Our business model lays out an organic growth for the company. As such, going into the future we will venture into other areas of medical informatics.

Q. Is Easy Clinic available in languages other than English?

A. Easy Clinic is available only in English at the moment.

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