I recently attended the 2013 Epic User Group Meeting in Verona, Wisconsin. The event saw an estimated 8,500 health care professionals on-hand for a variety of presentations and peer-to-peer educational sessions.

The conference gave our company a great opportunity to showcase some of our latest innovative implementations of the Epic Welcome software with our health care kiosks. Some of the most common features that are implemented with the Epic software and our kiosks are:

Patient self-check-in functionality – This allows patients to check-in to their doctor's office or hospital through an automated electronic interface, which provides a highly efficient user experience and also allows the health care provider to streamline their admin staff.

Patient payment functionality – By allowing the patient to electronically pay for their co-payment, these systems streamline the check-out process for both the patient and the healthcare provider.

Card scanning – By scanning the user's healthcare ID card and their driver's license, the provider can ensure that it has the latest customer information in its systems.

Electronic signature – With an electronic signature pad, electronic consent forms can be digitally signed to give them full legal authentication.

Wayfinding systems – With wayfinding functionality, the kiosk can provide a patient with directions within a specific building or inter-office directions for multiple buildings throughout an entire hospital campus.

Document printing capabilities – Adding a printer to the kiosk allows the patient to print a copy of office policies, their patient consent forms, and even directions provided by the wayfinding systems.

One of the newest pieces of functionality to be integrated into the Welcome software is biometric scanning functionality, which allows a system to identify a person based on unique identifiable biological information, such as fingerprints or the iris of the eye. The Welcome software supports integration with multiple different types of biometric scanners.

Overall, the 2013 Epic UGM show was a great opportunity to showcase the latest healthcare innovations. We look forward to continuing to push the envelope with new functionality that will provide better and more efficient patient experiences in the health care industry.