Development of a universal medical form reader

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Founded in 1994 and based in Markham ON, York Card Technology Inc. is a digital health service provider operating under the name YMS (ymsmd.com). The company supplies Ontario healthcare practitioners with the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software applications required to bill, schedule, and manage patient information electronically. YMS faces an automation challenge connected to creating and processing various forms used by medical professionals. The process for adding forms that are new to the YMS system is entirely manual and often takes days to complete, which negatively impacts the company's profitability. In order to address this challenge, YMS is partnering with Seneca's Professor Al-Shatnawi to develop a software solution to automate the process of new form digitization. The resulting proof-of-concept Universal Form Reader (UFR) will analyze new Portable Document Format (PDF) forms and extract attributes and keywords, such as patient name, age, etc. The UFR will have a significant impact on YMS' bottom line and, equally important, it will pave the way for advanced research and development activities supporting cost reduction and proactive patient care opportunities.