MedAptus, which develops charge capture technologies, has partnered with  Northbrook, Ill.-based Intelligent Medical Objects to help bring increased search capabilities to ICD-10 users.

Intelligent Medical Objects' IMO Problem (IT) search engine will be integrated in MedAptus' Professional Charge Capture solution. Offering an advanced search capability, officials say it will provide clinical users with a faster diagnosis search experience and a higher degree of accuracy when completing charge documentation using ICD-10 codes.

[See also: ICD-10 delay should be one year, says HHS.]

Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO) develops, manages and licenses medical vocabularies and software applications. As an integrated component of MedAptus, the IMO Problem (IT) offering will provide end-users with a way to search for billing diagnoses in a clinically advantageous way, MedAptus officials say. The search utilizes more than 260,000 terms expressing clinical intent while at the same time providing the correct coding for that intent.

MedAptus' Professional Charge Capture is used by provider organizations ranging from single-specialty practices to large academic medical centers. Officials say the improved ICD-10 clinical keyword brought by IMO will help enable a more simple, effective and timely charge capture process for physicians, end-users and administrative support staff.

"We've been preparing for the ICD-10 transition for several years now with particular focus on how to enhance physician usability of our product given the massive coding changes that the larger vocabulary will demand," said Ryan Secan, MD, chief medical officer of MedAptus. "We evaluated several different keyword search solutions and determined that what IMO has to offer is the best in the marketplace, the best for our end-users."

[See also: ICD-10 indecision.]

The IMO search is one of several usability enhancements that MedAptus is making to ease physician adoption of ICD-10 within Professional Charge Capture, Secan added, noting that, "customer feedback indicates that our multi-pronged approach to diagnosis code selection will provide physicians with the necessary tools for managing patient workloads and care demands while adjusting to the new coding requirements."