Orbit Telemedicine launches to simplify the CME workflow for doctors working from home
Backed by the Tufts University School of Medicine Office of Continuing Education, Orbit’s patent-pending technology simplifies credits for all 50 states at a time when demand for telemedicine visits is surging
April 5, 2020
Berkeley, CA—In response to the surging demand for telemedicine services, Transcend Review Inc. (Berkeley, California) has launched Orbit Telemedicine together with the Tufts University School of Medicine Office of Continuing Education to specifically address the needs of physicians working from home. By harnessing its patent-pending browser extension for Google Chrome (laptop & desktop), Orbit enables physicians to convert their existing web browsing during patient care into over 75+ topic-specific credits required by states and medical boards. Because credits are earned and tracked automatically, Orbit takes care of the busywork that normally starves physicians of their precious free time.
With the expanding COVID-19 epidemic, physicians are now embracing web technology en masse to transmit their clinical skills to patients across the country. Recognizing the tremendous benefit of remote visits during the pandemic, both state and federal governments have relaxed regulations on use of teleconferencing platforms during visits, and improved reimbursement for remote visits. Where just a few months ago telemedicine was on the vision board of quaint Silicon Valley startups, there is now a tidal wave of telemedicine physicians empowered to span the range of services from Primary Care to Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Orbit started four years ago out of personal necessity in a collaboration between physicians and engineers from Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and Caltech. Borne out of the concern for physician burnout, Orbit’s patent-pending technology was designed to automate the recurring burden of CME compliance. By installing a plugin (a.k.a. browser extension) on their Chrome laptop or desktop browser, physicians automatically track and request credit for visits to peer-reviewed sites. They tag individual articles with topic tags that earns them credits for state-specific or board-specific topic requirements, like Medical Ethics (TX), Fluoroscopy (CA), Patient Safety (ABA), SAM/SA-CME (ABPath or ABR), Breast (MQSA), and 75+ others. Orbit then processes these visits and issues AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ certified by the Tufts University School of Medicine Office of Continuing Education.
Where physicians have occasionally contemplated retirement due to the hassles of license renewal, Orbit has rescued physicians from the last-straw insult of mindless CME activities. For the majority of physicians in Orbit, the option to place these regulatory burdens on autopilot gives them a chance to focus more on patients and family, and less on traffic-school-quality “educational” experiences. The CME burden is amplified in telemedicine with multiple state licenses and practice from home where state-specific requirements are onerous, and travel-dependent sources of credit like conferences are less readily available. In the age of COVID-19, Orbit has become a welcome sanctuary for physicians unable to attend traditional conferences, either restricted from travel or crushed by the onslaught of patients in various degrees of respiratory failure.
With the various software technologies that telemedicine physicians already use to deliver healthcare remotely, the Orbit plugin for Chrome is built for these digital natives. And if CME automation can help even one physician from retiring early, the Orbit Telemedicine team will have done its job.
— Orbit Staff
