Allscripts EHRs to Support Online Patient Consults

Allscripts will integrate its electronic health records with the Online Care patient-physician consultation software of American Well.

University of South Florida Health will be an early user and will offer the consultation services at The Villages, a large over-55 residential community near Tampa. Allscripts expects the connected systems to be available in January 2013, and demonstrated the service on Aug. 15 during its user conference in Chicago.

Forty state Medicaid plans reimburse for telehealth services and 16 states mandate private insurance coverage for the services, says Ido Schoenberg, M.D., chair and CEO at American Well.

New features in the latest version of Online Care include mobile availability for patients, one-click connectivity between a patient and physician, capability to transfer a patient to an affiliated provider following an online consultation, and the ability to plug certain devices into patient and physician computers to transmit data and readings during a consultation. The devices include derma-cams to examine skin conditions, opthalmoscopes, stethoscopes, otoscopes and spirometers.