Microsoft and American Academy of Family Physicians Partner To Help Doctors Navigate Technology Choices

KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 29, 2002 — Microsoft Corp. and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) today announced a software guide resulting from a study of nine practice management systems used in doctors’ offices to help doctors determine the best software for use in their practice. Practice management software is designed to increase efficiencies by automating billing, insurance claims, appointments and other office tasks. By implementing practice management software solutions, doctors will be able to spend more time caring for their patients.

The initiative was announced today at the AAFP’s Annual Leadership Forum in Kansas City, Mo., by Dr. Warren A. Jones, president of AAFP. “We developed this initiative with Microsoft as a response to requests from our physician members to help them evaluate and select software for their medical practices,” Jones said. “The goals of this initiative are to give physicians confidence that these solutions and vendors have been carefully evaluated by the AAFP and Microsoft, and that they provide appropriate, reliable systems. By taking the guesswork out of such a complicated decision, we help doctors focus on what they are trained to do — provide high-quality patient care.”

The practice management software was evaluated based on needs and requirements of family physicians. The AAFP and Microsoft established criteria for the evaluations that included the following:

  • The quality of the software functionality and how well it meets the needs of family physicians

  • The quality of the software’s technical architecture, as well as its reliability and use of industry technology standards

  • Customer satisfaction with the software

  • The financial viability of each vendor in a challenging economic environment

The following vendors and products were evaluated:

  • Compusense Inc., Ntierprise

  • e-MDs® , topsSuite®

  • Greenway Medical Technologies Inc., Prime Practice

  • InfoSys Inc., MedSys

  • MedStar Systems LLC, MedStar

  • NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc., NextGen EPM®
    (Enterprise Practice Management system)

  • Millbrook Corp., Millbrook Practice Manager 2001

  • PerfectPractice.MD, PracticeManager.MD

  • Visionary Medical Systems Inc., The Visionary Office

“It can be a bewildering task for physicians and their office staff to select the right technology and software for a medical practice,” said Ahmad Hashem, M.D., Ph.D., global healthcare industry manager at Microsoft. “The AAFP and Microsoft wanted to help physicians by providing them with a benchmark evaluation of products that makes it easy to review software for their practice.”

The AAFP and Microsoft plan to continue to evaluate medical practice software and to issue ongoing reports to family physicians.

About the American Academy of Family Physicians

Founded in 1947, the American Academy of Family Physicians represents more than 93,500 family physicians, family practice residents and medical students nationwide. It is the only medical specialty society devoted solely to primary care.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information about the Academy of American Family Physicians:

Please visit http://www.aafp.org/.

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