The healthcare industry is a huge consumer of paper. Even though today’s EMR systems allow the creation of medical records electronically, paper is often used for historical purposes and to transfer information from providers to insurance carriers and patients. The lack of timely access to a patient’s medical information is both dangerous and costly, especially in the event of an emergency situation. This problem is all too apparent in the United States today with 85% of medical providers relying on archaic paper charts for record keeping, leaving the patient to recall pertinent medical information, often in times of crises. By some accounts, this poor access to information is to blame for nearly 100,000 patient deaths each year caused by medical errors (Institute of Medicine, 1997). In addition, information availability has often been blamed for inefficiencies in health care such as redundant testing and red tape. These inefficiencies combined with other problems contribute towards the $1.6 trillion spent on healthcare each year.

This information is essential to support diagnosis and treatment, to protect the safety of the patient, to limit inefficient testing redundancies, and to both measure and improve quality of care. The current healthcare market is fragmented with minimal, if any, connectivity between these electronic record systems. In many large health systems, exclusive use of paper records compels the medical record department to physically mail a copy of the patient record to the requesting entity. The health system infrastructure has a long road ahead to enable seamless transfer of patient health records electronically between health providers. This problem is exacerbated when attempting to link health systems internationally so that patients have access to their records in foreign countries.

ScanSoft Imaging tools help put an end to the traditional reliance on paper records in a medical environment. PaperPort eliminates file cabinets and wasted time searching for patient information by making it easy to organize documents and photos electronically. Its intuitive thumbnail-based Visual Desktop allows pages within documents of all kinds - including scanned paper, TIFF, PDF, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint® and more - to be instantly located, viewed and organized without leaving your desk! Quickly create and assemble secure PDF medical records, which can be reordered, merged, and shared with just a few mouse clicks. Use PaperPort to ensure every employee has access to information 24/7. PaperPort is the best way to manage your digital "paperwork" and stop wasting time looking for paper documents scattered around your office. It's like having a filing cabinet right on your desktop!

OmniForm enables healthcare organizations to automate form completion and data management. It is specifically designed to assist everyone in your organization that needs to design, distribute and fill out forms, and manage form data. Easily convert your paper forms to digital, design from scratch and manage the data collection digitally with no programming experience. Its versatility enables you to implement a forms process on a workstation or Tablet PC using PDF, HTML, RTF or our own intelligent OFM format. Form data is automatically filled from previously entered data, digital signatures are supported, attachments can be added, and calculations, field validations are automatic. Databases are automatically created for each form for easy data analysis. Data can be exported to ODBC compliant EMR databases such as MS Access and Oracle. OmniForm is the best way to stop filling forms by hand and re-keying form data.