Just arrived in Charlotte, NC for the CDIA board meeting. Flew the 340 down. There was a nice tailwind to yield a 250mph ground speed. Took right at 2hrs. Here is the view en route from the right window.
On Thursday evening, we had our annual holiday party. Pictures probably shouldn't be allowed, but someone passed this innocuous one along of Nathan, Liz and Debbie. Was a good time for all.
Yesterday evening was my baby girl's cotillion. Rachel has grown into a wonderful young lady. I was proud to be her escort, and she and her fellow debutantes were beautiful.
I flew to Gatlinburg, TN on Friday to present to the Southeast chapter of AHDI. This group consists of individual, corporate and educational AHDI members who reside in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee or Georgia. Brian accompanied me, and we had a nice time. These ladies are a close-knit group and rented a spectacular cabin for this event. We saw old friends and made new friends alike.
The subject was speech recognition editing, and we included structured data as a bonus topic. As with most transcription groups of any size, there were a number of MTs who currently edit speech recognition results and love it. Others were reluctant. We had a candid conversation that was intended to spark additional thought and planning.
Today, I flew up to La Crosse, WI to speak to the WI/MN Chapter of AHDI. The title of the presentation (as requested) was Technology and Transcription, Where do We Go from Here? I focused on editing back-end speech recognition results (as with InfraWare's First Draft service) and on structured data via the CDA standards developed by the Health Story Project. The group of about 100 attendees were very engaged in the subjects and had great questions and comments. Many approached me after the presentation to discuss how the presentation helped them connect some dots and put the industry transformation into perspective. Naturally, I was delighted.
I've been a little under the weather this week, but it was a beautiful day for a the trip. It was just a little over 2hrs up, and a little less than 2hrs back. A special thanks to Debbie Krapfl's son Sean who picked me up and returned me to the airport. The WI/MN group has a great organization full of wonderful members.
I have been flying N25EB for almost a year now, but with help from two friends, and my daughter/co-pilot it was just today that I finally got some decent aerial photos of her. The pictures below are left: over downtown Terre Haute with the Sycamore Building below the tail of the plane. (InfraWare occupies the 9th & 10th floors.) Center: over rural Illinois fields. Right: The twin beech C45H, a WWII era plane with radial engines that was used to take the pictures.
It was a cloudy day and took some maneuvering to stay clear of the rain to get good shots. Many came out nice, and we might do it again on a sunny day.
Thanks to Jordon Brown for donating his time and airplane to take the pictures. He even removed the rear door so we could get some nice clean shots without looking through plexiglass. And, thanks to Matt Tegtmeyer who brought his awesome camera and sat it the rear of an airplane with no door to take the pictures! It's great to have such nice friends.
I was informed yesterday that I had been elected to the CDIA (formerly MTIA, Medical Transcription Industry Association) board of directors.
Now, more than ever before, influencers in healthcare documentation decisions need to hear how our industry is a critical part of the formula for success. They need to hear how little the transcription service costs when compared to the value of a physician’s time. They need to hear how many corrections transcriptionists make to dictated reports by catching errors. They need to hear how studies show that point-and-click reports lack the richness of a free flowing narrative and also tend to obscure the critical observations with excessive template text. They need to hear how patients only get a few precious minutes with their provider, and they don’t want that time buried in a computer screen. Most importantly, those influencers need to hear that the medical transcription industry is completely on board with the broad objectives of structured medical records and that we are the safest, most expedient path to realize those goals. And, naturally, we need to welcome related service activities into our association while our members diversify their scope of services by adapting to the post-HITECH era.
I appreciate the confidence my peers have placed in me, and I will commit myself to collaborating with them to help refine and promote these messages.
The InfraWare corporate offices occupy the 9th and 10th floors of the Sycamore Building in Terre Haute. We've been in this location for 8 years. On Tuesday, shortly before 2pm, we felt the building sway like never before. It was moving several inches in each direction. Later, we learned of the earthquake centered in Mineral, VA. We suspected a distant earthquake from southern Indiana but never guessed in might have been from 600 miles away. It does make sense though. What we felt wasn't a rapid vibration like you see in footage from near the epicenter. Instead, it was a slow, steady rocking of the building. Much like the waves from a pebble in the water get wider as they move out from the center, we experienced a much lower frequency shaking. It is still hard to believe it was felt so strongly such a far distance away. No damage or injuries.
Dane, Brian and I spent Wednesday through Saturday in Phoenix at AHDI's Annual Conference and Expo (ACE). As in past years, we enjoyed the opportunity to interact with existing customers, prospective customers and industry partners. The picture below is Brian in front of the company airplane at the Phoenix Deer Valley Airport against the beautiful mountain scape and blue skies just before we departed.
My youngest daughter, who I lovingly refer to as Number Nine, is gainfully employed! She started working at McDonald's today. This is a picture of her with Mikee, our older daughter who helped her get the job, in the background and training her.
