Protocall
Physicians are constantly on the lookout for new medicines that can improve patient care. Getting pharmaceutical samples into the hands of physicians for evaluation is the responsibility of companies like ProtoCall, a division of PDI Shared Sales. The company offers pharmaceutical manufacturers a reliable, affordable means to market new products or extend the profitability of existing medicines while giving physicians convenient access to samples.
Recognizing the need to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the distribution tracking system, ProtoCall deployed a forms processing solution that features Kofax Ascent Capture, the Ascent Advanced Forms Modules and VirtualReScan (VRS) image enhancement.
The Challenge
To track each drug sample provided to physicians, ProtoCall's sales force completes a handwritten tracking card customized by each drug company. The card includes data on the drug being evaluated, the quantity of samples given, the practitioner's business information and any additional materials that the pharmaceutical company deems necessary. Adding to the complexity of capturing accurate data for the system, there are fifteen different types of cards, each including two pre-printed fields and as many as 10 to 12 handwritten fields of information including checkboxes, dates and quantities.
The original process required the company's 500 field representatives to mail the completed cards to ProtoCall headquarters. Once received, the cards were then subject to a slow, labor-intensive process that entailed the scanning of each card, checking cards against established business rules, correcting and then validating the information against the company's drug and practitioner database. Although the personnel handling the cards had a working knowledge of the data and the applicable business rules, there were always limits to how fast the information could be scanned, entered and validated. Plus data integrity could not always be guaranteed.
"ProtoCall's prior system was similar to the current workflow, but it was just too slow and created too many opportunities for inaccurate information to be entered into the system," said Dave Thomas, ProtoCall's director of information technology. "We needed an infrastructure that could operate much faster and offer intelligent editing capabilities beyond just character recognition. The next-generation system had to incorporate automated data validations and effectively improve efficiencies throughout the company."
The Solution
ProtoCall selected a data capture solution based on Kofax Ascent Capture, Ascent Advanced Forms Processing Modules and VRS to streamline the efficiency of its system.
"ProtoCall had been using Kofax with an old Bell & Howell 6338 scanner since 1997 and were pleased with the results," Thomas said. "However, the company felt that adding the Kofax forms modules would enhance the Kofax system. By implementing forms processing with Ascent, ProtoCall has been able to convert scanned document images into clean and verified data for export into the company's document and content management systems."
The prior system required sorting each type of form into a separate batch for scanning. The new system eliminates this requirement. Each batch can now contain many form types thanks to VRS and the Advanced Forms Modules.
"The new solution provides a more logical workflow," Thomas added. "Now, we can scan a group of cards as they arrive from the field without any sorting."
As many as 15 different types of cards are scanned into the Ascent application using a Bell & Howell 8080D scanner with Kofax VRS technology. VRS analyzes each scan, determines optimum exposure settings and converts it into a highly readable, black-and-white images. Simple to use, VRS has been proven to improve OCR results. It also reduces file sizes and alerts users to a variety of scanning problems — including scanner jams and folded corners. ProtoCall's system also uses a Kofax Adrenaline scanner controller which provides reliable, high-speed scanning and additional image enhancement features.
Once scanned, the Ascent Advanced Recognition Module captures required data. This component automatically recognizes both machine print and handwriting with a high degree of accuracy. It removes boxes from the drug-tracking card while leaving the characters intact. Individual character edits are completed with the Advanced Forms Corrector Module, a high-volume, data-correction tool that enables personnel to confirm or correct any characters that were rejected by Recognition. Benefiting from its speed and ease of use, employees can now quickly and efficiently repair the data with minimum keystrokes.
Finally, the Advanced Completion Module validates the data and business rules, some of which are quite complex and require an assortment of lookups against a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database. It then delivers the clean and verified data to Legato Systems' ApplicationXtender solution, a workflow and document management system, and to the company's SQL 2000 database for storage.
The Bottom Line
"ProtoCall has made significant improvements in efficiencies since implementing the new system," Thomas said. "Data integrity is much more accurate and reliable because the company has been able to diminish the ‘garbage in, garbage out' syndrome. In addition, we've seen marked improvement in the speed and output of data-entry personnel since they no longer have to keep learning new business rules for each new card that becomes part of the system. As a result, ProtoCall employees can more easily handle an increase in their workload with negligible additional time."
With the help of Kofax, ProtoCall increased the number of forms processing capacity to 4,000 per day. Not only has the company improved the efficiency and accuracy of its system, but it is now better positioned to handle the ever-increasing quantity of new pharmaceutical companies that it represents — all of which helps physicians bring important new medicines to their patients.
Recognizing the need to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the distribution tracking system, ProtoCall deployed a forms processing solution that features Kofax Ascent Capture, the Ascent Advanced Forms Modules and VirtualReScan (VRS) image enhancement.
The Challenge
To track each drug sample provided to physicians, ProtoCall's sales force completes a handwritten tracking card customized by each drug company. The card includes data on the drug being evaluated, the quantity of samples given, the practitioner's business information and any additional materials that the pharmaceutical company deems necessary. Adding to the complexity of capturing accurate data for the system, there are fifteen different types of cards, each including two pre-printed fields and as many as 10 to 12 handwritten fields of information including checkboxes, dates and quantities.
The original process required the company's 500 field representatives to mail the completed cards to ProtoCall headquarters. Once received, the cards were then subject to a slow, labor-intensive process that entailed the scanning of each card, checking cards against established business rules, correcting and then validating the information against the company's drug and practitioner database. Although the personnel handling the cards had a working knowledge of the data and the applicable business rules, there were always limits to how fast the information could be scanned, entered and validated. Plus data integrity could not always be guaranteed.
"ProtoCall's prior system was similar to the current workflow, but it was just too slow and created too many opportunities for inaccurate information to be entered into the system," said Dave Thomas, ProtoCall's director of information technology. "We needed an infrastructure that could operate much faster and offer intelligent editing capabilities beyond just character recognition. The next-generation system had to incorporate automated data validations and effectively improve efficiencies throughout the company."
The Solution
ProtoCall selected a data capture solution based on Kofax Ascent Capture, Ascent Advanced Forms Processing Modules and VRS to streamline the efficiency of its system.
"ProtoCall had been using Kofax with an old Bell & Howell 6338 scanner since 1997 and were pleased with the results," Thomas said. "However, the company felt that adding the Kofax forms modules would enhance the Kofax system. By implementing forms processing with Ascent, ProtoCall has been able to convert scanned document images into clean and verified data for export into the company's document and content management systems."
The prior system required sorting each type of form into a separate batch for scanning. The new system eliminates this requirement. Each batch can now contain many form types thanks to VRS and the Advanced Forms Modules.
"The new solution provides a more logical workflow," Thomas added. "Now, we can scan a group of cards as they arrive from the field without any sorting."
As many as 15 different types of cards are scanned into the Ascent application using a Bell & Howell 8080D scanner with Kofax VRS technology. VRS analyzes each scan, determines optimum exposure settings and converts it into a highly readable, black-and-white images. Simple to use, VRS has been proven to improve OCR results. It also reduces file sizes and alerts users to a variety of scanning problems — including scanner jams and folded corners. ProtoCall's system also uses a Kofax Adrenaline scanner controller which provides reliable, high-speed scanning and additional image enhancement features.
Once scanned, the Ascent Advanced Recognition Module captures required data. This component automatically recognizes both machine print and handwriting with a high degree of accuracy. It removes boxes from the drug-tracking card while leaving the characters intact. Individual character edits are completed with the Advanced Forms Corrector Module, a high-volume, data-correction tool that enables personnel to confirm or correct any characters that were rejected by Recognition. Benefiting from its speed and ease of use, employees can now quickly and efficiently repair the data with minimum keystrokes.
Finally, the Advanced Completion Module validates the data and business rules, some of which are quite complex and require an assortment of lookups against a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database. It then delivers the clean and verified data to Legato Systems' ApplicationXtender solution, a workflow and document management system, and to the company's SQL 2000 database for storage.
The Bottom Line
"ProtoCall has made significant improvements in efficiencies since implementing the new system," Thomas said. "Data integrity is much more accurate and reliable because the company has been able to diminish the ‘garbage in, garbage out' syndrome. In addition, we've seen marked improvement in the speed and output of data-entry personnel since they no longer have to keep learning new business rules for each new card that becomes part of the system. As a result, ProtoCall employees can more easily handle an increase in their workload with negligible additional time."
With the help of Kofax, ProtoCall increased the number of forms processing capacity to 4,000 per day. Not only has the company improved the efficiency and accuracy of its system, but it is now better positioned to handle the ever-increasing quantity of new pharmaceutical companies that it represents — all of which helps physicians bring important new medicines to their patients.