A-Life Medical Introduces ImageCoder for Diagnostic Radiology Coding; Newest Automated Coding Application Enhances A-Life's Comprehensive Suite of Products.SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 20, 1999-- A-Life Medical, Inc., the leader in advanced Natural Language Processing Natural language processing Computer analysis and generation of natural language text. The goal is to enable natural languages, such as English, French, or Japanese, to serve either as the medium through which users interact with computer systems such as (NLP (Natural Language Processing) The capability of understanding human language. If the language is spoken, voice recognition plays an important role in converting the sounds to individual words. Then, natural language processing figures out what the words mean. ) technology for the medical industry, today announced ImageCoder(TM), the new automated medical coding and document handling system for diagnostic radiology, diagnostic ultrasound diagnostic ultrasound n. Use of ultrasound to obtain images for medical diagnostic purposes. , nuclear medicine, and simple interventional procedures. ImageCoder produces fast, accurate medical records coding using A-Life's patent-pending LifeCode(TM) technology. ImageCoder is able to understand information and extract data automatically from a physician's transcription. Using A-Life's revolutionary LifeCode system, ImageCoder is able to "read" transcribed radiology reports and accurately assign complex ICD-9 and CPT CPT See: Carriage Paid To codes. In doing this, the product increases productivity and profitability, accelerates revenue turnaround, assures regulatory compliance, and streamlines business operations Business operations are those activities involved in the running of a business for the purpose of producing value for the stakeholders. Compare business processes. The outcome of business operations is the harvesting of value from assets . "In today's medical arena, success means balancing the urgent need for appropriate reimbursement Reimbursement Payment made to someone for out-of-pocket expenses has incurred. with managing strict and complex regulations, punitive compliance audits, and shrinking profits," said Eric Corkhill, vice president of sales and marketing for A-Life Medical, Inc. "Accurate, compliant coding is critical in the radiology specialty. Medical records coding needs to produce reliable, consistent results without costly bottlenecks. ImageCoder automates the coding and document handling processes to ensure reliability, efficiency, and above all, compliance." In addition to automating coding, the ImageCoder is a complete information handling and document storage system for radiology reports, including interventional reports. Users eliminate costly data entry steps, manual matching and reconciliation of source documents, and paper storage costs. The system allows nearly instantaneous retrieval of physician reports and employs flexible sorting and searching capabilities. Additionally, ImageCoder's set of management reports include valuable reports that identify documentation deficiencies in radiologists' reports that impact reimbursement and compliance. "The ImageCoder requires minimal hardware or capital investment," said John J. Roach, vice president of information systems for A-Life. "Representing the latest in client-server technology, A-Life installs an ImageCoder client server system at the customer's site, which is interfaced to their billing and/or radiology information system A Radiology Information System (RIS) is used by radiology departments to store, manipulate and distribute patient radiological data and imagery. The system generally consists of patient tracking and scheduling, result reporting and image tracking capabilities. (RIS RIS rabies inhibiting substance. ). The client server system transmits patient demographics and transcribed radiology reports to A-Life's national Data Center, where the charts are fully coded. An automatic interface then transfers results directly back to the customer's billing or RIS system, completing the data loop and eliminating time-consuming data entry." A-Life's revolutionary ImageCoder and LifeCode technology demonstrate a dramatic increase in productivity, efficiency, and accuracy never before seen in the radiology specialty. Based on NLP and artificial intelligence, LifeCode completely and compliantly codes medical events -- with little or no human intervention -- including provider- and payor-specific rules such as reviewing limiting diagnosis lists. Coding results and source documents are archived by A-Life for up to 10 years, significantly reducing off-site storage concerns. About A-Life Medical, Inc. A-Life Medical, Inc. is a high tech medical informatics medical informatics, n the field of information science concerned with the analysis and dissemination of medical data through the application of computers to various aspects of health care and medicine. company that specializes in automating text processing in the medical industry. A-Life uses advanced natural language processing techniques that emulate human understanding of language. With these techniques, A-Life has successfully taught a computer to "read" narrative text associated with physicians' charts and to automatically assign complex ICD-9 and CPT codes (including E&M service levels in Emergency Medicine) used for billing and data collection. A-Life's current focus is on coding in the emergency medicine and radiology specialties, with plans to expand to other areas of medicine, including inpatient services inpatient service Managed care A service provided to a hospitalized Pt. Cf Outpatient service. . Founded in 1996, A-Life Medical is a privately held company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. headquartered in San Diego, California “San Diego” redirects here. For other uses, see San Diego (disambiguation). San Diego is a coastal Southern California city located in the southwestern corner of the continental United States. As of 2006, the city has a population of 1,256,951. . For more information on A-Life and its products, call 858/268-9999 or visit A-Life at www.alifemedical.com. LifeCode and ImageCoder are trademarks of A-Life Medical, Inc. All other company, product, and service names are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or service marks of other companies. |
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