|
Anoto’s digital pen and paper technology has helped public sector workers become more productive when out and about
 Whilst writing his doctorate back in 1996, Anoto founder Christer Fåhraeus envisioned a high-tech pen that could help him get through his paperwork more quickly and efficiently. Not long afterwards, Fåhraeus’ concept was transformed into the world’s first digital pen. Today, Anoto Group is the company and world leader behind the unique technology for digital pen and paper, which enables fast and reliable transmission of handwritten text into a digital format.
Anoto works with a global partner network to create user-friendly form solutions for efficient capture, transmission and storage of data within different sectors. However, the single greatest beneficiary has been the public sector, in particular, health and social care.
Over the past few years, Digital Pen and Paper technology has helped hospital staff and home care providers become more productive and save costs. It has allowed clinicians to focus on patient care rather than onerous administration tasks, and it has eliminated costly sources of error by eliminating manual double entry.
How DPP technology works
Digital Pen and Paper technology works by remembering what has been written or drawn on special, dotted paper, and transmits this data back to a PC or server. The digital pen writes just like a normal ballpoint pen, but has a tiny infrared camera at its tip, which reads and records the movements of the pen relative to a pattern of grey dots printed on normal paper. The dot pattern can be generated using a standard printer.
Digital Pen and Paper technology is ideally suited to form-based processes such as those commonly used within both health and social care.
For mobile staff, Digital Pen and Paper allows them to fill in forms on the move without the need to return to the office and type them up later in the day. Users can either send the data back to the office via Bluetooth and a mobile phone – or wait until they return to their desk to dock the pen and instantly transfer the information.
This gives them more time to schedule additional visits, meaning they see more patients throughout the working day, which in turn helps to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Digital pens can store up to 40 A4 pages before they need to be docked for downloading and battery charging.
Improving elderly care
North Yorkshire and Selby county councils are using Anoto Digital Pen and Paper across almost 120 users within the NHS, social care and housing agencies. The pens were introduced to improve procedures for assessing older people's care needs under the UK government’s Single Assessment Process (SAP). Council workers gather information on health and welfare from each individual in a form. Once completed, the information on the form is transferred securely into a shared database, using a mobile phone. The information is then available to other agencies, carers and family members. Both councils have received positive feedback from their staff as well as the elderly people in their care and their families.
Shortening waiting lists
Anoto Digital Pen and Paper technology has helped reduce waiting lists for breast cancer screening in France by shortening the time it takes to analyse mammograms from up to three hours to less than 30 minutes.
Faster processing of the results means that screening centres can meet the legal requirement of sending out results within two weeks of the examination, and schedule new appointments more quickly. And because the examiners’ notes do not have to be re-typed – a task usually performed by administrative staff without any medical training – accuracy was boosted to more than 95 per cent.
Simplifying emergency care documentation
For physicians in the emergency department, getting patient information into the computer system quickly and accurately is critical. At Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, a Digital Pen and Paper-based system has helped simplify this process significantly.
Consultants print off the appropriate forms at the start of their shift, which they then complete with the digital pen when examining patients. Periodically during shifts, they dock their pens and the complete documentation is uploaded to the hospital’s IT systems, where the data is checked for completeness and cross-referenced with billing information and quality of care markers.
Physicians took less than 15 minutes to learn how to use the digital pens and the department was able to realise substantial savings compared to traditional solutions.
For more information
www.anoto.com
|
