January 2009 Update: Practice and Technology on AAN.com

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Published on January 23, 2009

By Neil A. Busis, MD, FAAN

Introduction

The AAN's vision is "to be indispensable to our members." Our mission is "to promote the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care and enhance member career satisfaction." The Practice and Technology section of AAN.com is strongly committed to doing our part in achieving the goals and following the standards set forth in our mission statement.

Section Performance

One way to gauge our success is to measure readership. We posted over 100 articles in our section during 2008. The Practice area of AAN.com was accessed over 895,000 times, an average of over 2,400 views each day.

AAN Blog

Overview

The AAN Blog section of the AAN.com home page contains articles covering trends in the field of neurology that are contributed by AAN members.

Top Ten Practice and Technology Articles for 2008

• Health 2.0 for Neurologists
• Effective Neurology Presentations
• Remote Consultation Offers a Valuable Alternative to Face-to-Face Medical Treatment
• Open Is Not Free: NIH Public Access Policy in the Spotlight
• ICD-10-CM/PCS: The Good News, the Bad News, and Potentially No News
• E-Readers For Neurologists
• Advances in Technology Increase Telestroke's Viability
• The Medical Economics and Management Committee Is Working for You
• Multimodal Monitoring and Neurocritical Care Bioinformatics
• Payment Policy Subcommittee Seeks Collaborative Working Relationships with Health Plans

Comment

The article Health 2.0 for Neurologists was viewed over 3,900 times—it was the most popular member-contributed article on AAN.com for 2008.

Academy News

Overview

The Academy News section of the AAN.com home page contains articles covering Academy activities as well as those of organizations such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Top Ten Practice and Technology Articles for 2008

• New E/M Templates
• AANPA Coding Subcommittee Develops Series of E/M Templates
• 2008 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Released
• Supplementary ICD-9 'V-Code' Available October 1 to Identify 'Drip and Ship' Patients
• Botox Q&A
• New Guideline Identifies Those Most at Risk of Falls
• UnitedHealthcare Premium Designation Program
• Give Me 5 Campaign to Help Public Identify Signs of Stroke
• New York Attorney General Expands Investigation to Health Insurers Nationwide
• CMS Offers Clarification on E/M Services on the Same Day as Critical Care

Comment

An article on new E/M templates was viewed over 5,800 times, the second-most read article in the Academy News section.

AANe-news

Overview

AANe-news is emailed to members twice a month. Each edition links to articles and resources on AAN.com. If the user clicks on the link, he or she is directed to the corresponding article on our website. The popularity of articles can be measured by click-throughs, which are the number of times readers choose to click on the link and read the article or download the resource.

Top Ten Practice and Technology Stories for 2008

• AANPA Coding Subcommittee Develops Series of E/M Templates (May 28, 2008)
• New Guideline Published on Natalizumab (Tysabri) (September 10, 2008)
• New Report Gives Insights on EHR Vendors (July 23, 2008)
• Effective Neurology Presentations (July 23, 2008)
• New Botulinum Toxin Guidelines Published in Neurology (May 14, 2008)
• New Guideline Published on Trigeminal Neuralgia (August 27, 2008)
• New Report Gives Insights on Vendors of Electronic Health Records (July 10, 2008)
• Health 2.0 for Neurologists (July 10, 2008)
• AANPA Coding Subcommittee Develops Series of E/M Templates (October 8, 2008)
• Significant New ICD-9 Codes Go Into Effect for 2009 (November 26, 2008)

Comment

The E/M Templates story received the most click-throughs for any story ever appearing in AANe-news.

Downloadable Resources

Overview

The AAN.com Practice area contains PDF, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and other files that can be downloaded to the user's computer. These include practice guidelines and related files:

• Reprints of the guidelines as published in Neurology®
• Clinician and patient/caregiver summaries
• Case studies with coding information
• Slide presentations
• Audio files, including podcasts
• Video

Other popular downloads include Evaluation and Management (E/M) Coding Templates and Electronic Health Records (EHR) Vendor Reports.

Practice Guidelines

Guidelines and associated tools were downloaded approximately 325,000 times in 2008.

E/M Templates

The coding templates have been downloaded 19,053 times since they were originally posted in May. New additional templates posted the second week of December have already been downloaded almost 1,200 times. The podcast on the templates has been downloaded approximately 500 times.

EHR Reports

Three EHR Vendor reports (for 2006, 2007, and 2008) are currently available. The reports were downloaded 5,184 times in 2008.

2009 Updates

ICD-9-CM, CPT, PQRI, MFS and more

We regularly update our information on ICD-9-CM and CPT coding for neurology. The Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) is very much a work in progress, and we keep you posted on the latest developments. Information on the Medicare fee schedule and related rules and regulations are updated as needed.

Future Projects

More Content

We plan to add more content on practice and technology-related subjects and about the committees and subcommittees working for our members in these areas.

Navigation Improvements

Our navigation scheme is being revised to make all our resources easier for the user to find.

Online CME

Plans for offering online CME for some of our patient safety resources are well underway. Once the pilot project is up and running and we've worked out the inevitable kinks, we plan to offer many more online CME opportunities in the coming months.

Summary

We aim to make our section of AAN.com "indispensable to our members" by providing the most current and useful practice and technology information in the most accessible manner possible.

Please Submit Your Comments!

Remember, we need your input as we continue to develop our section. We've tried to make it easy to submit your feedback and suggestions. There are three ways to let us know what you think:

• Select "Website Feedback" on the blue bar
• Click the email links found on the right of most pages
• Comment on an individual article (members only) by following the "Post a Comment" link associated with that article

Please stay tuned!

Neil A. Busis, MD, FAAN
AAN.com Practice and Technology Editor
practiceandtechnologyeditor@aan.com

Acknowledgments

The Practice and Technology Editorial Board and AAN staff made important contributions to our area. I'd like to thank them and congratulate them for work well done.

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