Anoto launches digital pen and paper

Anoto Group, specialist in digital pen and paper technology has launched a new software package called Anoto Forms Solution, designed specifically for the European health market. 

The Norwegian specialist has designed the bundle to electronically capture and transmit data entered into paper based forms, using digital pens.

Anoto’s VP for sales and marketing, Ebba Asly Fähraeus, told E-Health Europe: “Healthcare is a focused area for Anoto. This new solution expands on our existing digital pens technology and provides clinical users and administrative staff with new digital papers which can cleverly read what the user writes with the pen and translate that into text, reducing the need for staff to spend time transcribing text later.”

Anoto’s digital pen and paper technology automatically stores what a user writes or draws. The pen records what is being written on to a form, printed with the Anoto special dot pattern.

Data is transmitted back to a PC or server, via a docking station or a mobile phone, reducing the need to type up notes.

Asly Fähraeus said: “Obviously administrative staff still need to check the output to ensure it is correct and factually the right words have been noted, but they no longer need to transcribe what a clinician has dictated themselves. They now just need to proof read and can clarify issues immediately, meaning more notes are uploaded in a much more efficient manner.”

The Solna Municipality in Sweden is one of the first customers to use the technology to keep an instant track of the treatment of elderly patients in the centre.

Liane Wallerstedt-Johansson, head of Solna’s home help service, said: “We want to make things more secure for those receiving care, their relatives and for those who work in home help.

“By properly registering every visit and every service provided for the patient in both written and electronic form, patients’ families can be reassured about the level of care being provided, and care managers can help ensure that procedures are being followed.”

She added: “If you look at how much it would cost to equip this kind of operation with PDAs, Anoto is significantly cheaper. The solution is so simple that very little training is needed to use it, and the pen itself is pretty cheap.”