MacPractice 3.0 Scheduled for 3rd Quarter Release

5:00 PM EDT, May. 3rd, 2007 · by John Martellaro · News

MacPractice, a developer of Macintosh medical practice software, has announced that version 3 of MacPractice will be released in the 3rd quarter. The new version is server-based and interfaces to many more third party clinical and accounting products.

The new version also isolates the modest sized business/patient data from the potentially much larger clinical data, such as images.

"The initial release of MacPractice 3.0 separates accounting data from patient attachments making it possible for MacPractice 3.0 to back up accounting data to a .Mac account automatically, separately from photos, x-rays, scanned documents and files which may reside on a separate volume. With many more healthcare providers storing a greater volume of electronic clinical information, MacPractice 3.0 offers superior data management and security options," Mark Hollis, President, Director of Client Relations at MacPractice said.

Currently, MacPractice comes in four versions: MacPractice DDS for dentists, MacPractice MD for physicians, MacPractice DC for chiropractors, and MacPractice 20/20 for optometrists. These versions will be updated and released concurrently with the new server-based foundation in the 3rd quarter.

The server-based software will also establish the foundation for future releases of three new versions: MacPractice EMR, MacPractice Digital Radiography, and MacPractice Tooth Chart all to be released in 2007.

Currently, over 1650 health care offices have chosen MacPractice for their practice management.

TMO spoke with Mr. Hollis. He told TMO that MacPractice software is developed with Xcode, is Cocoa-based, written in Objective-C and uses MySQL as the database. They are also working in an initiative that will allow participating labs to send encrypted laboratory results directly to the MacPractice software, eliminating the need for document handling in the medical office.

Each package is a Universal Application and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Pricing depends on the version and the various features enabled but generally starts at about US$1500 to $2500.