(Rockville, MD - April 6, 2007) The American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has entered into a licensing agreement with Cedaron Medical, Inc. to develop a comprehensive point-of-care (POC) electronic documentation system for speech language pathology (SLP) services that will be known as SLP Connect.
Designed to meet the documentation and billing needs of speech language pathologists treating the adult population, the system will incorporate ASHA's National Outcomes Measurement System (NOMS) as a component.
Using SLP Connect's state-of-the-art platform, speech-language pathologists will be able to customize the software to their individual workflow, document all components of patient care, and track outcomes. In addition, they will be able to schedule their patients and communicate directly with their billing systems without repeating any steps. With a few keystrokes, clinical managers will be able to produce management reports on patient care operations from their offices. In addition, registered NOMS users will be able to access national and facility based outcomes measures for benchmarking patient progress.
To facilitate consistency and accuracy of clinical documentation for treatment, reporting, and billing, the licensing agreement will allow SLP Connect to incorporate ASHA-developed documentation and billing templates based on ASHA's terminology and practice as reflected in ASHA's Preferred Practice Patterns and other practice policies. Also, ASHA will develop advisory groups to create templates for the documentation system. Cedaron's software will allow for real-time systems updates when necessary to reflect changes in the use of diagnostic and procedure codes.
"Accurate documentation and record keeping are critical to ensuring coverage of services," according to ASHA President Noma Anderson. "We look forward to working with Cedaron to create SLP Connect and to offer speech-language pathologists a tool that will assist in these efforts."
SLP Connect will be compatible with APTA Connect, which will allow for a common electronic platform for therapists. The launch date is set for March 2008.
ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 127,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists identify, assess, and treat speech and language problems including swallowing disorders. Additional information on NOMS can be found on ASHA's Web site.
Cedaron Medical, Inc. was founded and began technological development in 1990 with partial funding from a NASA grant (SBIR).
###