iPad Health Care App From ADP Enables Charting, Billing, Messaging

Automatic Data Processing, a business outsourcer known for its payroll, tax and benefits processing applications, has unveiled an iPad version of its AdvancedMD cloud medical practice software.

ADP acquired AdvancedMD, a developer of cloud health care IT applications, March 1, 2011.

The new iPad app allows doctors to access electronic health records (EHRs) as well as perform scheduling and billing from the Apple tablet.

ADP announced the new iPad app along with AdvancedMD’s summer release of its cloud software on July 17.

The summer release allows doctors’ practices to schedule patient appointments as well as perform messaging and charting functions in the new iPad app. Color coding in a scheduling component on the iPad app matches that of the cloud application.

In addition, the iPad app allows doctors to dictate notes into patient records as well as view data such as lab orders, Steven Zobell, vice president of product development for ADP AdvancedMD, told eWEEK.

Doctors can also interact with office staff by sending and receiving secure messages without being tethered to a desktop, he said.

The AdvancedMD iPad app will be available for free download later this summer from the Apple App Store.

Doctors have doubled their use of tablets since 2011, Manhattan Research reported May 10. When the company decided which mobile operating system to build its app on, the Apple iOS was the clear choice because doctors’ prefer the platform, Zobell noted.

Approximately 75 percent of doctors own an iPad or plan to purchase one within six months, according to an April 2012 survey of physician digital behavior by Webcasting firm ON24 and health care marketing services company MedData Group.

Still, Zobell noted that the cloud version of ADP’s applications would run on other devices’ browsers, including the Windows 8 Pro environment of the new Microsoft Surface tablet, he said.

As for a native app, Zobell said he would consider Windows 8’s “Metro” style if it gets enough market adoption.

“The RIM PlayBook is dying a silent death, and that’s why we wanted to focus on the iPad,” Zobell added.

In addition to the new iPad app, ADP’s software as a service (SaaS) platform now has a new look.

“We’ve taken time to revamp the look and feel of the application,” said Zobell. ADP wanted to integrate the app completely with the company’s cloud platform to avoid workflow interruption, he said.

The platform now includes additional billing options, such as the ability to manage payments and collect balances.

In addition, ADP has also added easier charting and workflow for the pediatric portion of its EHR database. The workflow accommodates vaccine entry and growth charts.

The ADP platform now allows practices to incorporate photos into patient records, a feature that could help prevent medical identity errors and keep doctors from referring to the wrong charts, said Zobell.

ADP’s summer release also includes support for the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 diagnostic coding system, which the federal government has required practices to use by 2014.

ICD-10 streamlines identification of health plan names into a standard length and format, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

ADP plans to add built-in training on its cloud platform to allow practices to learn how to code according to ICD-10 guidelines.