THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 6, 1994 TAG: 9406070455
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KATHLEEN BUTLER, SPECIAL TO BUSINESS WEEKLY
DATELINE: 940606 LENGTH: Long
Already the company's products are winning praise from the health care community. In 1992 the system was named the most innovative health care technology solution of the year at the Healthcare Innovations in Technology Symposium.
{REST} The systems use a combination of high-tech computer hardware and software to scan documents - such as medical records and land deeds - and store them.
What makes the product unique, says company president Mark Jones, is the ability to accurately scan older, faded and yellowed documents so they are legible, as well as the ability to store millions of pages of data that can be retrieved with a few clicks of a button.
For Glenn Ferdman, FORE Librarian of the FORE Library of the American Health Information Management Association, OASIS Systems' O-Scan for Reference Libraries has meant the difference ``between night and day.''
Before the system was installed in 1992, when association members requested copies of journal articles, librarians would have to search for the appropriate subject file, then find the correct article, photocopy the article and finally refile it.
Today a librarian searches for the article by computer, then prints and mails it or faxes it directly from the computer to the association member.
The library isn't OASIS' only client. Louisiana Tech University has contracted with OASIS to install a medical records management system to support a new program studying electronic medical records.
And Virginia Beach is using a similar system to scan its property records onto disks, Jones says.
Though Jones declined to release annual sales figures for the privately held company, he says current revenues are less than $1 million and that the company is ``holding our own'' in terms of profits.
To help build sales, Jones says he hopes to join hands with a larger systems integration firm that can help distribute the product.
``I see this as a high-growth area for the company,'' Jones says.
\ OASIS, short for Optical Archiving for Scanned ImageS , got its start in 1987 as the imaging research and development arm of Q.E.D. Systems Inc. Q.E.D. has provided computer information management, engineering and logistics services to primarily government clients since 1969.
In 1992, after potential clients showed great interest in OASIS' systems and software, Q.E.D. Systems incorporated the subsidiary, Jones says.
Though OASIS' computer systems can scan and store just about any type of document, the company's main focus has been on developing a product for the health care industry, Jones says.
``The medical field is just dying for this technology, because they've been working in a paper-based world for so long,'' Jones says.
Each optical image processing system incorporates a personal computer, scanner and optical disk jukebox. The jukebox can hold up to 2,000 disks, each containing between 12,000 and 14,000 land deeds, between 20,000 and 25,000 single page images or up to 1 million pages of text, said Joe Alvey, a software development engineer with the company.
The largest available jukebox has eight disk drives and holds 20,000 disks. Like a musical jukebox, the optical disk jukebox selects the appropriate disk and moves it into the disk drive.
Unlike other data storage systems that require operators to key in most of the information, OASIS' systems require little typing. An operator simply scans the documents onto optical disks. The software uses a Microsoft Windows format, which uses visual, rather than technical, prompts.
That means a user can look at the computer screen and with a computer mouse ``click'' on the desired subject or document, without having to type a name or Social Security Number that could be entered wrong.
``When you reduce keystrokes, you reduce errors,'' Alvey says.
And by using what's called an image optimizer, he says, the operator can select the proper shading or brightness to properly reproduce yellowed documents or documents with different markings.
\ To protect confidential information, such as medical records, the system has several levels of password protection built in, Jones says. That means an emergency-room receptionist, for example, might be able to view medical records, but not print them, while certain physicians would have access to view, print, fax and even delete medical documents.
Systems range in price from $15,000 to $250,000, depending on the size and scope of the product, Jones says. A system requiring a larger jukebox and more specialized software will be more expensive than one with a small jukebox.
Though the technology OASIS uses has been available for a decade, the cost of equipment was too high until recently for most potential clients, Jones says. A scanner that now costs $5,000, he says, sold for $30,000 a few years ago.
Many companies, cities and hospitals have relied on microfilm. Though microfilming documents works, each time a microfilm plate is pulled from its case and printed, the quality goes down, Jones says.
Also, finding the right plate can be frustrating, he says. OASIS creates an index to make searching for the right document easier.
The indexing system can also help researchers, Jones says. A doctor, for instance, can request the medical records of every patient in the past six months who has complained of chest pains.
To help develop and market the software and system, OASIS joined hands with the American Health Information Management Association in Chicago to develop a prototype.
With many requests for information daily - many of them for journal articles - librarian Ferdman says the system has sharply reduced the turnaround time to process requests.
``It's not real sophisticated,'' Jones said, ``but it works for them and it's saving them a lot of time and money.''
by CNB