NEWS BRIEFS
NEWS BRIEFS
AMA to develop medium-length descriptors
The Chicago-based American Medical Association (AMA) is adding new medium-length clinical descriptors to its Year 2000 version of the Current Proce dural Terminology (CPT) manual.
The new descriptors will be made available as part of the fall 1999 release of CPT 2000. The new medium-length descriptors take advantage of increased computer capacity to provide more informative clinical detail in condensed descriptors, according to an AMA spokesman.
Because the length of some of the CPT descriptors may exceed the capacity of some data and reporting systems, the AMA has maintained a set of 28-character short descriptors. These have not always been able to convey the desired level of clinical information.
To prevent disruption for existing users, the AMA will retain the current short descriptors as an option.
Intelligent Medical Objects, a software development and management consulting firm in Northbrook, IL, will provide consulting services to the project.
Physician use of the Internet grows by 42%
Regular use of the Internet by doctors has increased by 42% in the past three months and 875% since 1997, according to the results of a survey conducted by Healtheon Corp.
More than 63% of the physicians surveyed say they use e-mail daily, and 33% have used e-mail to communicate with patients, according to the study results.
The study showed that doctor-patient communication via e-mail has jumped 200% in the past year and nearly 20% in the past three months. A similar survey in 1997 showed virtually no electronic communication between doctors and patients.
Healtheon, based in Santa Clara, CA, provides Internet commerce services that link providers and consumers to health care institutions.
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