Charges aren't lost in the physician's office as they can be in the institutional setting. The physician is typically within 15 feet of a computer, in an office environment that's been customized and optimized for his/her workflow. However, when the physician leaves the confines of the office--going to a hospital or traveling between hospital and clinic sites--this supportive administrative environment is lost. In these situations, the physician relies upon only paper, a cell phone, and a handheld as a tool bench. The handheld must become the replacement for the office computer.

Gantry: What role have handhelds played in fueling the interest in charge capture solutions?

Ying: Mobile devices are commodities--they don't drive applications per se. Mobile devices really have little influence on the evolution of mobile clinical data; instead the application has driven the adoption of the technology. Cell phones exist because of the application they provide. Mobile access to clinical data is driving providers' adoption of mobile charge capture solutions. By equipping providers with better and faster access to patient data, providers meet the data accessibility challenge, improving patient care and decreasing medical errors.

Gantry: Prior to the emergence of handhelds, how did providers manage charge capture?

Ying: The physician's office administrator would print out a piece of paper every morning and afternoon for each physician. This piece of paper would include the latest patient census. A set of charge codes would be preprinted on this paper for the physician to check off on each patient. The physician would literally fold up this piece of paper, using it as the sole recording tool during hospital rounds, etc.

The physician would scribble down charge codes next to each patient's name on the list as services were provided, along with resulting diagnoses, which could generate the scheduling of additional clinical procedures and tests. If there were a consult the previous night, and the data didn't get logged on this piece of paper, the physician would need to go back to the office to retrieve the missing clinical data and then modify the charge codes. It was a very manual process.

Gantry: What are the barriers that MercuryMD encounters to convincing providers to invest in Charge Capture?

Ying: We generally don't run into problems. Our customers are primarily hospitals; our users are physicians. If a hospital is interested in providing clinical data via our solution, they'll make the investment. The investment is actually quite small in comparison to the business gain. Providing mobile access to clinical data drives demand for mobile charge capture. A physician can't code unless they have all the clinical data at hand. It's great now that we have mobile clinical data access; we can finally do charge capture.

Gantry: When was MData first released?

Ying: We began our corporate mission back in September 2001. We commercially deployed MData in January 2002.