What's New

February 16, 2003

 
Neat Web Site Alert

I don't know how this site slipped under my radar, but if you haven't yet visited Family Practice PDA, you should definitely check it out. The site's creator, Tim Allen, is a second-year resident at St Luke's Family Practice Residency in Milwaukee, WI, and has put together an extensive collection of Palm OS tutorials that should be of particular help to beginners. He's also written a number of his own original applications, many of which are available as freeware (thanks, Tim!)
posted by Kent 9:53 AM | |

 
Handheld Patient Investigation Tracking Solution for the Mobile Health Care Professional

Torlesse Systems Pty. Ltd. of Melbourne, Australia is pleased to announce the latest release of the premier hospital ward round aid, WardWatch, for the Palm Computing Platform. A 30-day trial version of WardWatch v3.0.3 is available for immediate download from http://www.torlesse.com/wardwatch/.

WardWatch is the original ward round patient tracking application for the Palm, first release in November 1997. WardWatch is a general-purpose patient investigation and tracking solution designed for health care professionals; especially residential medical and allied health staff; It is intended to record investigations, medications and dosages, and consultations as requested by the senior Consultant (Specialist) or Registrar during Ward round and to record the results of these investigations for recall in later rounds and on the desktop.

Hamish McGovern of Torlesse Systems said, "The latest release, v3.0, represents a major step forward with a complete desktop companion for MS Windows. Users can now create, edit, print and delete patient records on the desktop and synchronize these changes with WardWatch on the Palm. Users of WardWatch have been asking for this capability for sometime and we have been working on it steadily over the last 12 months."

Features of WardWatch Desktop Companion include:

• Hotsync of patient and event records with Windows desktop companion
• Patient view or event view
• Rapid creation, modification and deletion of patient and patient records information on desktop.
• Sorting of patient records on any field headers; name, age, sex, MRN, bed, ward, and consultant, and diagnosis.
• Sorting of patient event records on fields; date, type, status, test, result, note, created
• Lookup function for searching for a patient's record.
• Printing of selected patients and events to desktop printer.
• Multiple palm user capabilities.
• Requires Windows 98/Me/NT4/2K/XP and Palm Desktop 3.0 or greater

WardWatch is now sold as either WardWatch Standard for $US 15.00 (the WardWatch Palm Application) or WardWatch Deluxe $US 45.00 which includes both the Palm application and the desktop companion. Discounts are available for bulk purchases and students. Visit http://www.torlesse.com/purchase.htm to learn more.
posted by Kent 8:46 AM | |

February 11, 2003

 
Skyscape Brings the Power of Handheld Devices to Nurses

At the HIMSS Conference & Expo, Skyscape will introduce one of the first solutions targeted to the nursing community. Priced at $199.95, it includes a Palm m130 color handheld and a leading "powered by Skyscape" nursing reference. This offering, geared toward those nurses looking to purchase their first PDA or upgrade their existing handhelds, will be available for purchase at www.skyscape.com/nurse beginning on February 14, 2003. Pre-orders will be taken at HIMSS.

Skyscape is offering the Palm m130 color handheld, customized with one of two software offerings:

• DrugGuideT is the handheld version of the well-known Davis's Drug Guide for Nurses published by F.A. Davis, which provides a detailed and up-to-date drug resource for nursing practitioners. It includes more than 1,000 drug monographs covering more than 5,000 trade and generic drugs as well as herbal products; more than 150 drug classifications, both therapeutic and pharmacologic (if available); more than 500 commonly used combination drugs, including the dosage amount of the active generic ingredient.
  
  
• RnNDHT is the handheld version of the popular Nursing 2003 Drug Handbook published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, which gives access to available forms, actions, indications and dosages, adverse reactions, interactions, effects on lab test results, contraindications, I.V. administration (where applicable), nursing considerations, patient teaching, and appendices, with applicable links to monographs including herbal medicines, infusion rates, therapeutic drug monitoring guidelines, selected local and topical anesthetics.

A wide variety of additional handheld nursing references are available at www.skyscape.com/nurse. Now, every RN, LPN, NP and nursing student can customize their handheld with exactly the information they need for their specialty or environment.
posted by Kent 6:14 PM | |

 
Just What the Doctor Ordered: New Mobile Computing Solution from Sprint Improves Hospital Care by Giving Physicians Remote Access to Patients’ Vital Information

In this press release, Sprint today introduced a mobile computing solution designed to improve patient care and make hospitals more efficient. The solution gives physicians remote access to critical patient information via virtually any wireless and Web-enabled device, allowing doctors to more frequently monitor a patient’s status – and even make changes to a patient’s orders – without having to physically be in the hospital.

The solution has the ability to notify a doctor if a patient’s vital signs fall below a pre-determined level set by the doctor. This allows doctors to be immediately notified of a potentially life-threatening situation, regardless of whether they are at home or even out to dinner. Sprint’s mobile computing solution transmits text- and graphics-based messages to physicians using Sprint Web-enabled PCS phones, the Handspring Treo 300, wireless and Web-enabled Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) such as the Palm and HP iPaq, and laptop computers.
posted by Kent 6:05 PM | |

February 10, 2003

 
Palm Assists Healthcare Providers at Point of Care

Some of the nation's largest and most innovative healthcare organizations are turning to Palm, Inc. to streamline business processes and improve overall patient care. Refer to Palm's press release for details.
posted by Kent 6:13 PM | |

February 6, 2003

 
Rounding With A PDA

Here's an interesting article in ACP Journal Club dealing with PDAs in the application of evidence-based medicine. Thanks to Steve Burdette for the link!
posted by Kent 7:22 PM | |

February 5, 2003

 
Medical Freeware to the Rescue

On a subject that is near and dear to my heart, this article in Health Data Management discusses the widespread application of medical freeware programs.
posted by Kent 5:57 PM | |

February 4, 2003

 
Doctors Deliver Compelling ROI Capturing Charges at Point-of-Care

ChargeKeeper has been chosen to support revenue generation through more efficient and accurate billing at the University of California at San Diego and Children’s Hospital of Orange County, California. PatientKeeper announced today that doctors in each of the two independent hospitals will soon be using their handheld technology to recoup charges for service at the point of care, resulting in faster processing, accuracy in billing, and streamlined work flow which cuts staff time.

PatientKeeper’s mobile handheld technology is based on an enterprise-wide platform that integrates all of a hospital’s existing IT systems and allows secure communication between doctors and their choice of handheld device. While the ChargeKeeper application drives an immediate ROI, PatientKeeper’s Clinical Application Suite addresses patient safety at point of care through on demand lab results, medication lists, allergy alerts, and patient information management.

These most recent PatientKeeper customer wins add to a broad base of hospitals and health systems which have already implemented PatientKeeper’s mobile technology, including Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System, the University of Maryland Medical Center; Glens Falls Community Hospital, Glens Fall, New York; North Shore - Long Island Jewish Health System, New York, and a host of others.
posted by Kent 6:31 PM | |

 
Tungsten T gets "Affordable"

Today, Palm announced a $100 price reduction for the its flagship Tungsten T handheld, bringing the price down to $399.

Palm also dropped the prices on two other models, the m515 and the m130. Both devices now cost $50 less than they did yesterday, with the m515 now going for $299 and the m130 selling for $199. The company is banking on the price reductions to boost sales during the notoriously slow winter months.
posted by Kent 6:24 PM | |

February 3, 2003

 
The Medical Letter Handheld Edition

The Medical Letter, a trusted authority in medical education, has provided timely, important content for generations of healthcare professionals. Now available for Palm OS-compatible PDAs, The Medical Letter's Handheld Edition gives immediate access to the terse, relevant content healthcare professionals have previously enjoyed in print, online, and on the desktop computer.

The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics is an independent, peer-reviewed, nonprofit publication that offers unbiased critical evaluations of drugs, with special emphasis on new drugs, to physicians and other members of the health professions. The Medical Letter Handheld Edition contains issues of The Medical Letter, beginning with January 2001, including clinical studies, pharmacology, adverse effects and cost information for each drug. Dosage/cost tables and references for each article are also included. New articles are added monthly.

Gianna Zuccotti, M.D., M.P.H., Deputy Editor of The Medical Letter, said "this new program expands our family of medical information resources for the handheld. It allows physicians and other health care professionals the convenience of having instant access to 'The Medical Letter's' analysis and recommendations wherever they go."
posted by Kent 7:36 PM | |

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