Dear SIMMS MD,

We have released a new version of the radiology (SmartViewer) today for your clinic. Below you will find a brief description of the new features.

Multi-frames:

Now when you play cines, default speed from the actual image (DICOM file) picks up automatically. You can speed up or slow down the cine using the slider that pops up.

Visit List on Worklist: 

You will notice a new tab on the SmartViewer worklist called ‘Visitlist’. From that tab, a doctor can assign specific visits or investigations to himself by right clicking on the name of the patient or investigation and selecting the option ‘Assign’. You MUST contact SIMMS for this option to be turned on for your clinic.

Recorder: 

You will find a new button on the recorder with a musical key and arrow. This button allows doctors to send/submit a visit into typing stage without an audio.

New Templates functional: 

Doctors who are using templates for dictation can now configure the application so that it memorizes which templates are used with specific investigations. To do that, a user needs to right click on the investigation in question and select the template of choice. Once the setup is performed, the templates will open right away when the ‘Template’ button is clicked on. Furthermore, it is now possible to view PDF report right from the recorder without having to use search for the window that previously popped up.

Billing Codes on Recorder:

We have fixed the bug that caused problems with displaying correct billing codes on the recorder. In addition, now upon hovering over the investigation name you can view all billing codes assigned to the study. Please note that the ‘…’ indicate that there are additional codes to see.

If you have any questions regarding this update, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Dear SIMMS Users,

We would like to inform you of a few additional fixes and new features that will soon be released. Please read below for details regarding the update.

New Functional:

Filter by Minimal Study – On page Ready to Bill you will now see a filter ‘Minimal Study’ that allows users to select and bill visits that have not yet reached status ‘Ready to Bill’. For example, if a user selects from the drop-down option ‘Dictating’ all visits in statuses equal to dictating and higher can be billed. Please note that once claims are created, changes to investigations and billing type CANNOT be made.

Patient Report Filter – It is now possible to filter the radiologists by last name in addition to license number on page ‘Patient Report’.

Panel – An updated version of the panel that displays images under ‘Link Files’ or ‘Images’ page is now available. The newer version allows for better printing as well.

OHIP HC Validation – We have made minor changes to HCV mechanism. Moving forward, HCV Icon (blue question mark) will only appear when field ‘HC’ is checked off and province of Ontario is selected. In addition, extra HC verification has been put in place. Now, it is possible to validate Health Cards that contain only 10 characters.

Report Export – On page ‘Archive’ we have added an option to export final reports in text and html formats in addition to pdf. User must click on the little arrow beside the button ‘Report’ to export.

Link Files – In the bin of files to link we display max 500 files. We have added an option for users who prefer to see additional files. Now the quantity must be selected and option ‘More’ clicked to see more than 500 files

Defect Fixes:

Duplicate Investigations – the bug that has caused duplication of investigations and billing codes after deletion of the studies is now fixed.

Unlinking of Images – defect that caused loss of images upon unlinking has now been resolved.

View Claims – Blue page in Billing Module under tab ‘View Claims’ that used to appear upon clicking on button ‘Select All’ has been fixed.

Patient Reports – A little defect that cropped the text upon running the Patient Report has been corrected.

If you have any question with regards to this release, please do not hesitate to contact us. 

Sincerely,
SIMMS Team 

Dear SIMMS Users,

We would like to inform you that a new version of the application will been released this week.

New Functional:

Live Chat – With this release you will find a new button under ‘Support’ menu called ‘Live Chat’. Upon pressing on it, you will be able to chat live with a Customer Support Representative during SIMMS hours of operation (see image Chat).

Locked Reports – As per requests of many clients, we have refactored the way final reports are saved. Moving forward the system will save each new typed report as a stand-alone document. Please refer to the manual/documentation on this new functional.  

Remittance for G Codes – Status on View Cliams will now be updated properly for General Fees if they are billed under the doctor's solo number and only when the radiologists' Remittance is uploaded into SIMMS (manually or if SIMMS has access to doctor's EDT mailbox).

Claims – Users will see a new message box when they try to change investigations for claims that have already been submitted to the Ministry. The prompt will state that: "Claims have been submitted for this patient to OHIP already. Investigations attached to this case cannot be changed. If you need to edit billing codes please go to Billing View Claims and change the codes in Claims Details Window." Also, from now on the button ‘Edit Studies’ will be disabled for investigations that claims have been created for already.

Defect Fixes:

Billing Codes - Problem with wrong set of codes being picked up after changing studies through ‘edit page’ for visits with 'radiologist present' option has been resolved.

Typing - Defect with ‘studies to type’ count not updating immediately after finishing the report has been corrected. Also, bug experienced by some typists with regards to studies showing up in their worklist that do not belong to them has been successfully resolved. A lot of other minor enhancements on page ‘Type’ have been implemented. These include report preview optimization and restriction of typing investigations that typists have no access to.

Stats – Several minor bugs pertaining to generation of statistics in SIMMS have been eliminated and Stats module has been optimized. 

Images - Problem with image duplication after editing studies experienced by a few users has now been fixed. 

Investigations – recent problems experienced by some users with duplication and deletion of investigations after studies have been checked in but then edited have been eliminated. 

Batching of faxes – The issue with the new function that allows a user to un-batch reports for faxing purposes has been resolved. Please refer to the previous release letter for details on how it works.

Templates & Reports - With this release a lot of customizations and changes to reports and templates have been done. Those clients waiting for optimizations, fixes and changes to their reports and templates will be informed on individual basis.

Locked Reports Functional

Final Report becomes a Locked Report right after the system picks it up for delivery (via fax or email) back to the referring doctor.

All consecutive changes to the report do not overwrite the information in the original file, but create new stand-alone Reports. These stand-alone reports will not become locked, until they are picked up for the delivery once again.

Type Visit Page – Restore Button:

Button Restore retrieves text from the original typed and locked report(s) for the selected investigation(s). If the investigation is not selected or there is no locked report generated for it previously, then the button will be disabled.

VisitDetails Page:

Button Report History opens all documents connected to the visit in question (Reports & Locked Reports for all investigations under that visit). Button is disabled in cases where there is not a single locked report for the visit,

Button View Report opens a version of the report that is compiled from all previous documents for the selected investigation(s). In case there is not investigation selected or report/locked report previously generated a user will see a warning. 

Button Edit Report opens a window for editing the report. Text displayed in the window is compiled from all previous documents (Reports & Locked Reports) for the investigation(s) in question (see below for further explanation).

Button Final Report on Status Page or Archive Page opens the version of the text that is compiled from all previous documents for all investigation under the selected visit.

Edit Final Report Page:

Upon opening Edit Report Window, system displays the last version of text compiled from all previous documents (report & locked report) for selected investigations. After editing the text, the system will save the text it in either one of the following ways:

a)      Create a new stand-alone document or Report, in case the original text was generated from a Locked Report. This will then become the last version of the document.

b)      Update text in the Report, in case the original text was pulled form a Report that has not been locked. This will then become the last version of the document.

Please note: Extra caution must be exercised when editing text for visits than contain multiple reports. If a user selects all investigations, edits, and saves the text, that report then becomes the latest version for all investigation.

Dear SIMMS MD,

Soon we will releasing an updated version of the Smart Viewer. With this memo we would like to inform you of the new features added to enhance usability of the application.

Loops/Cines

Reading doctors who dictate cardiac studies and use loops/cines function in SV will be glad to know that we have enabled playing of 4 loops at the same time for doctors’ reading ease.

New Workflow logic for users of Templated Docs

For convenience of those doctors using Templates/Electronic Worksheets for reporting, we have reworked the way the workflow occurs in SV. Moving forward, for those clients/clinics that implement ‘templated docs’ function, dictating doctors will not have to click multiple times to get to the screen of the required template. Doctors will simply have to open up a case/visit and the template will run automatically if they are used. Also, doctors will have the ability to configure which templates are used with which investigations on their own.

New History Tab

In the work-list window we have added a new tab for History. It displays everything that the doctor has dictated over the past 3 days and includes the images for those dictated patients (see image below).

Cobb Angle in Smart Viewer

The Cobb Angle has been added for the doctors’ convenience. To use the Cobb angle tool select it from the tools menu in Smart Viewer and make the measurement along the joints by using the left button of the mouse. The angle will be measured automatically (refer to the images below).

Size of Measurements

We have increased the size of the measurement annotation.  This will allow the doctors to conveniently use the available tools, even with a high resolution monitor. 

Billing Codes & Notes in Smart Viewer

Reading MDs can now view the billing codes that are assigned to each investigation, which can be found on the recorder.  The feature helps to instantaneously verify that the clinic is billing correctly for the dictated cases. To view the set of billing codes linked to the investigation(s), simply scroll over the name on the recorder and wait for a roll-over tooltip to appear (see below). Also, the Notes button on the recorder is now working and is highlighted pink if there has been a note left with the patient’s visit over the last month.

DICOM Tags & New Button

We have added the ‘exposure index’ and ‘technologist’s initials’ to the tags that are seen in the corner of each image. If you do not want to see DICOM tags at all please press letter “O” to hide the tags.