Microsoft and American Academy of Family Physicians Work Together To Help Doctors Navigate Technology Choices

Practice Management System Guide Helps Doctors Spend More Time with Patients

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 01, 2002

Contact:
Amanda Denning
American Academy of Family Physicians
(800) 274-2237, Ext. 5223
adenning@aafp.org

LEAWOOD, Kan. — Microsoft Corp. and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP announced a software guide resulting from a study of nine practice management systems used in doctors’ offices, to help doctors identify the most appropriate software for use in their practice. Practice management software is designed to increase efficiencies by automating billing, insurance claims, appointments and other office tasks. By implementing practice management software solutions, doctors will be able to spend more time caring for their patients.

The initiative was announced during the AAFP’s Annual Leadership Forum, April 26, in Kansas City, Mo., by Dr. Warren A. Jones, president of AAFP. “We developed this initiative with Microsoft as a response to requests from our physician members to help them evaluate and select software for their medical practices,” Jones said. “The goals of this initiative are to give physicians confidence that these solutions and vendors have been carefully evaluated by the AAFP and Microsoft. By taking the guesswork out of such a complicated decision, we help doctors focus on what they are trained to do — provide high-quality patient care.”

The practice management software was evaluated based on needs and requirements of family physicians. The AAFP and Microsoft established criteria for the evaluations that included the following:

The quality of the software functionality and how well it meets the needs of family physicians
The quality of the software’s technical architecture, as well as its reliability and use of industry technology standards
Customer satisfaction with the software
The financial viability of each vendor in a challenging economic environment

The following vendors and products were evaluated:

Compusense, Inc., Ntierprise
e-MDs®, topsSuite®
Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc., Prime Practice
InfoSys, Inc., MedSys
MedStar Systems, LLC, MedStar
NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc., NextGen EPM® (Enterprise Practice Management system)
Millbrook Corporation, Millbrook Practice Manager 2001
PerfectPractice.MD, PracticeManager.MD
Visionary Medical Systems, Inc., The Visionary Office

“It can be a bewildering task for physicians and their office staff to select the right technology and software for a medical practice,” said Ahmad Hashem, M.D., Ph.D., global healthcare industry manager at Microsoft. “The AAFP and Microsoft wanted to help physicians by providing them with a benchmark evaluation of products that makes it easy to review software for their practice.”

The AAFP and Microsoft plan to continue to evaluate medical practice software and to issue ongoing reports to family physicians.

# # #

Founded in 1947, the AAFP represents more than 93,000 physicians and medical students nationwide. It is the only medical society devoted solely to primary care.

Nearly one in four of all office visits are made to family physicians. That is 215 million office visits each year – nearly 48 million more than the next medical specialty. Today, family physicians provide the majority of care for America’s underserved and rural populations.

In the increasingly fragmented world of health care where many medical specialties limit their practice to a particular organ, disease, age or sex, family physicians are dedicated to treating the whole person across the full spectrum of ages. Family medicine’s cornerstone is an ongoing, personal patient-physician relationship focused on integrated care.

To learn more about the American Academy of Family Physicians and about the specialty of family medicine, please visit www.aafp.org.

For more information about the AAFP's positions on issues and clinical care and downloadable multi-media on family medicine and health care, visit the AAFP Media Center.

For more information about health care, health conditions, and wellness, please visit familydoctor.org.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.