Posted on behalf of Eric Tallberg, Product Manager
We have all been there: scripting into an application that just isn’t working as it should and it’s not obvious why. Often those who operate in a Citrix environment find a lot of scripting tools to be infuriating due to the old OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology in use and a lot of mouse-clicks that are screen resolution-dependent. Or some “traditional” applications just don’t work well with scripting tools that will hook into all available data. This is infuriating when trying to confirm that data has changed in a significant way and working with OCR technology is simply a hassle to try to utilize as it is solely text-based, and that’s if the OCR engine properly translates the screen!
Scripting tools have often found work-arounds to some of the problems, but it’s nearly impossible to know when a color-difference is the only indication that the screen “changed.” This simply isn’t a workable solution with almost all of the scripting tools out there. Some EMRs are Windows-based, thick-clients, but parts of the interface are generated “on the fly” which often means there are no true hooks into that part of the screen.
Luckily Summit Healthcare Services has solved a lot of the issues with regards to scripting into these environments. Utilizing an OCRPlus engine which relies on text-based, but also image-based engines. This engine allows the Summit Scripting Toolkit 8.0 to operate in a far more fluid way within a Citrix environment or with the EMR’s that utilize some on-demand screens. The engine will recognize a screen in its entirety to include colorization and shading differences. This will allow Summit Scripting Toolkit 8.0 to recognize those subtle changes, allowing for better consistency and easier to add logic that will actually do what you want the script to do. Conditional statements based on an image of the screen, or a partial area of the screen will be simplified to give the script-writer the best, most efficient means.
Think about writing a script in a Citrix environment that works! While Citrix opened up a whole realm of opportunities for cost savings, it really put a damper on automating some of the tasks that were already saving money. Now you’ll have the best of both worlds.
This was a short introduction on what’s ahead for 2018 and the Summit Scripting Toolkit 8.0. Look for a follow up entry from Paul Actis next week on some of the specific features that will be included and possibly a sneak preview to the functionality at work!
We’ll be at HIMSS demo-ing the Scripting Toolkit as well as our other Automation and Integration solutions. Visit us at Booth #162, or contact [email protected] to reserve a booth meeting.
