Beyond Paper: Celebrating the Evolution of Fax as an Intelligent Conduit of Health Data

From an antiquated technology that predated telephones to one of the most secure and compliant modes of modern, intelligent data exchange, fax has come a long way over the past two centuries. Despite criticism from stakeholders who don’t understand healthcare’s overreliance on this platform, fax is still the most commonly used technology in this industry — at least 70% of healthcare providers still exchange medical information via fax.

Many of these fax-detractors, who see this tool as an obstacle to seamless data interoperability, often ignore that fax is sometimes the only and best option for smaller healthcare organizations with limited resources like post-acute care facilities, substance use disorder clinics, birthing centers, and others that aren’t as far along in their digital journey.

By simply recognizing the essential role that fax still serves in many of these facilities, we can start to appreciate the evolution that this technology has undergone as it has transformed from a clunky, paper-based system into an advanced digital solution that provides a vital conduit for securely and intelligently exchanging health information today.

The evolution of modern fax

Despite the evolution of fax technology from its 1843 mechanical origins, the concept of a paper-based desktop fax machine continues to prevail, detracting from the full potential of today’s digital solutions. The mere mention of “fax” often elicits eye-rolls and derisive comments, conjuring images of clunky machines and archaic processes. However, this negativity ignores the significant evolution fax technology has undergone in its 180-year history — a journey of advancement that virtually every other technology, from the automobile to the telephone, has also embarked on.

At HIMSS this year, a few folks playfully rallied against fax, distributing t-shirts that advocated for its demise. Yet, this lighthearted dismissal continues to promote a fundamental misunderstanding of modern fax capabilities. The reality is, fax solutions are far removed from their antiquated predecessors. This trust-worthy tech tool is here to stay, as demonstrated by other vendors across the exhibit hall floor showcasing its enhanced capabilities through artificial intelligence (AI) integration. It’s time to retire the outdated stereotypes and recognize fax for what it is: a continuously evolving and critical communication method.

Now, the newest generation of present-day digital cloud fax solutions incorporate AI like natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to achieve intelligent data extraction, unlocking the ability to pull information from faxes as well as scanned images, PDFs, and even handwritten text. This advanced technology is revolutionizing the way businesses manage and process document workflows and tackling major challenges in the healthcare industry: transforming unstructured data into actionable intelligence to reduce manual effort, accelerate referral and billing processes, and empower healthcare providers to speed up care delivery.

The superpowers of digital fax

The vast majority of healthcare data is unstructured, with 80% of medical information buried in formats that aren’t machine readable or computable — hindering clinicians from analyzing or even accessing vital details. Without the ability to transform this information into standardized, structured data, healthcare organizations will wrestle with incomplete views of the patients they treat, impeding the delivery of both communication and care.

Thanks to AI-powered fax innovation, health systems can use these advanced tools to automatically extract data from images, scans, and handwritten notes, transforming unstructured information into structured data. This powerful tool delivers information directly into clinicians’ workflows, reducing both the need for manual data entry and the room for human error.

This streamlined solution is a gamechanger for clinical care and efficiency: It’s intelligent enough to instantly improve productivity, but also pragmatic enough to be easily accessible and implemented without requiring extensive IT infrastructure overhauls.

A future-forward foundation

Although fax may not initially come to mind in conversations about innovation and interoperability, this ever-evolving digital toolset holds the power to shape the future of healthcare data exchange. This solution makes it possible to bring HL7/FHIR data into the fold, consistent with HIPAA standards and data protection regulations.

By embracing the potential of digital fax to uplevel information exchange, healthcare organizations can unleash valuable insights and streamline cumbersome workflows — ensuring all stakeholders have the timely information they need to improve health outcomes.

eFax^®: Leading the digital fax revolution

Over the past 25 years, we have evolved our digital fax offering from an online fax service to a robust, fully cloud-based solution that redefines the way organizations and businesses of all sizes securely communicate and manage document workflows.

eFax has transformed into a comprehensive digital communication platform, encompassing multiple access points (apps, APIs, web interface) for fax and healthcare-specific protocols (FHIR, HL7, Direct Secure Messaging), while also incorporating artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and large language model technology for data extraction and conversion, advanced electronic signature capabilities, and other cutting-edge features.

Learn more about the evolution of eFax in this eBook: The Evolution of eFax and Leadership in Digital Cloud Fax Technology.

Johnny Hecker

CRO and EVP, Operations