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New product eliminates need to transcribe written notes

Patient Safety Quality Monthly, March 9, 2005

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A new automation package from Scotts Valley-based Satori Labs Inc. eliminates the need for transcribing written notes to a personal digital assistant (PDA), according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

"We have realized that forms automation is not a 'nice to have,' it's a 'need to have [in healthcare],'" said Roy Feague, founder and chief executive officer of Satori Labs, a mobile information management company. "We're trying to create transparent technology-something that helps you without you being aware of it."

More than 30,000 people in the United States die each year because of transcription errors, he said. "The ambiguities of handwriting leave that open."

The product includes a special pen embedded with a tiny camera and LED. A user writes in ballpoint on paper segmented into topic sections and printed almost invisibly with a pattern of dots that tells the pen what piece of paper or form it's on and where it's located on the paper.

When the user is done writing, the written information is sent from the pen via Bluetooth-based wireless radio to the PDA included in the package. Handwriting recognition software decodes the user's gestures.

The user verifies the information, which is then sent wirelessly to a PC or other system, saving the user data entry or transcription time.

To read the complete Santa Cruz Sentinel article, click here.

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