What's New

September 30, 2003

 
Doctor Recommended: PDAs Are Good Medicine

With nearly one in three doctors owning PDAs, a recent AvantGo survey uncovers why medical professionals are among the fastest adopters of mobile technology. High on their list of mobile requirements were the ability to access clinical information and the latest medical news anytime, anywhere. Click here to read the entire article.
posted by Kent 9:01 AM | |

September 29, 2003

 
Drug Reference Comparison

Daniel Weiswasser recently e-mailed me regarding drug reference comparisons, and was kind enough to provide a link to an article that might be useful to anyone trying to decide which Palm OS drug reference application is best for them.

Pamela Corley's article was originally published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association in October, 2002, and compares ePocrates Rx Formulary, Lexi-Drugs Platinum, mobileMICROMEDIX, and the Tarascon ePharmacopoeia. Although some of the programs have changed a little in the past year, the comparison should still be pretty valid.
posted by Kent 8:57 AM | |

 
Needlestick Injury Prophylaxis

Rob Spence has developed a new application to help in the treatment of needlestick injuries in the emergency department. PalmPEP is a PDA-based post-exposure prophylaxis tool for medical care and surveillance. This was a joint development between Wright State University and the Centers for Disease Control. It is provided free of charge.

You can download it at www.emedinformatics.com

Choose the PalmPEP option on the left.
posted by Kent 8:51 AM | |

September 25, 2003

 
Vanderbilt Nursing School Leverages PDAs

Vanderbilt University School of Nursing has selected Skyscape's smARTlink handheld references for use in the school’s Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program.

"Having mobile versions of the same trusted textbooks I would normally assign to my students is extremely advantageous. And with Skyscape’s technology combined with the student discount program, the PDA references provide more value," said Renee McLeod, program director, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. "Skyscape’s technology enables my students to seamlessly smARTlink from the Five Minute Pediatric Clinical Consult to Stedman’s Dictionary or A2Z Drugs, whether in an 'open-PDA' exam or in their clinical site."

In addition, Dr. McLeod along with Marilyn Hall from San Diego State University were recently granted funding from the National Library of Medicine to examine the way school nurses access and use electronic digital data on the Internet and on their PDAs. A large part of this study involves teaching these nurses how to access the Internet and use their PDAs and medical reference software effectively. The results of this yearlong study titled, "Clinical Effectiveness Using Handheld Technology" are slated to be available in the fall of 2004.
posted by Kent 12:26 PM | |

 
Palm App for Mental Health Professionals

Vesteon Software's IPDA-II (Initial Psychological Disorder Analysis) is a Palm OS application for determining a possible course of action for clients of mental health professionals.

According to the company, IPDA-II helps users to determine an initial diagnoses of an Axis-I or Axis-II psychological disorder via answering guided "Yes"/"No" questions leading to a result. IPDA-II also saves and displays client's histories, initial diagnosis, demographics, medications & progress notes on the handheld.


posted by Kent 12:22 PM | |

September 24, 2003

 
Hurricane Outage

For those of you wondering why updates have been so spotty of late, Newport News, VA was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Isabel last week. Much of our area is still without electricity and other utilities. Until things are back to normal (which could take several weeks), updates to this site will be infrequent. In the meantime, PalmDoc will help keep you current. :-)
posted by Kent 11:38 AM | |

 
Diagnosaurus

McGraw Hill and Unbound Medicine have just released a free differential diagnosis tool cleverly named "Diagnosaurus", adapted from CURRENT Medical Diagnosis and Treatment. The program provides access to more than 1,000 differential diagnoses, covering more than 500 symptoms and signs, and 700 diseases. Information is alphabetically categorized and searchable by disease, symptom and organ system. The symptom selections are all hyperlinked with cross-references to related diagnoses within the program. All in all, a very interesting and unique program!

Source: Palm Bouelvard
posted by Kent 11:33 AM | |

September 10, 2003

 
BluefishRx Version 3.50 Update

This is the latest free update to the BluefishRx Prescription Writer. This update contains a new dedicated patient Rx window, which allows you to quickly see the medications a patient is currently taking and toggle these medications between Active, On-Hold or Discontinued.

Other new features in this release enable you to:

• Generate multiple prescriptions for a patient and process them in one batch.
  
• Choose the Rx print format for your state.
  
• View available pharmacies in alphabetical order.
  
• Access ICD-9 and CPT coding tools from the BluefishRx home page.
  
• Enter more detailed patient demographic data.
  
• Extend BluefishRx use to your Physicians Assistants. Prescriptions written by a Physicians Assistant now print the supervising doctor’s information as required.

Download the update and latest manual here.

More updates are planned for October.
posted by Kent 9:30 PM | |

September 9, 2003

 
Liability Insurer Offers Discounts on ePocrates

MedAmerica Mutual, a liability insurer specializing in serving emergency physicians and their medical groups, is offering the doctors it insures a subsidy toward the purchase of ePocrates Rx Pro software.

MedAmerica Mutual distributed over 500 PDAs during 2001 at a fraction of the retail price, along with the original version of ePocrates Rx to their insured physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners.

The company said this project was conducted under a risk management initiative. The goal was to enhance patient safety by having medication information electronically available at the patient's bedside.

"Time lends credence to the value of embracing innovative ways to increase patient safety. ePocrates has proven its value in the Emergency Room. 91% of the respondents to our most recent survey of PDA users indicated that using ePocrates as a drug/medical reference tool or drug calculator reduced the potential for serious medication errors," said Gloria Everett, CEO, MedAmerica Mutual RRG, Inc. "ePocrates fits into our strategic vision by providing us with an effective patient safety tool."

Source: PDA Street
posted by Kent 1:54 PM | |

September 8, 2003

 
Palm Offers Healthcare Customers Free PDAs

Palm recently introduced a program that rewards healthcare organizations buying Palm-branded handheld computers in volume.

The Healthcare Purchase Promotion, which ends Feb. 29, 2004, offers healthcare organizations a set number of free PDAs based on the total purchased. Organizations that purchase 30 Palm handhelds will receive three additional PDAs free, those that purchase 100 handhelds will receive 12 free, and those that purchase 500 will receive 72 free.

The offer is good for Palm's Tungsten T2, W and C PDAs as well as Zire 71 handhelds. Healthcare organizations may order directly from www.palm.com or through any of Palm's authorized resellers.

To receive the free handhelds, organizations must send a copy of the invoice for their volume purchase and a completed promotion claims form to their vendor. The forms can be downloaded online at www.palmone.com. The free PDAs will be sent to the purchaser within four to six weeks.

Healthcare organizations eligible to use the purchase program include hospitals, pharmacies, group practices, medical laboratories, clinical trials, pharmaceutical firms and healthcare procurement companies.
posted by Kent 9:58 PM | |

 
Are PDAs the Future of Healthcare?

PDAs' diminutive size is a key to their growing success, and an obstacle to greater use. So says this article on www.mobilehealthdata.com.
posted by Kent 9:51 PM | |

 
Pocket Emergency Medicine

Skyscape's Pocket Emergency Medicine gives house staff and medical students instant access to the essential information they need for patient care in the emergency department. Users can quickly search an alphabetical list of 57 chief complaints or a listing of head-to-toe traumatic injuries, pediatric emergencies, or environmental exposures and get succinct, bulleted information on history, typical findings, critical studies, and ED interventions. Procedures for airway management are also included. The student or resident can customize this handheld reference by adding notes and comments or creating new personal topics.
posted by Kent 9:47 PM | |

September 7, 2003

 
Evidence Based Medicine To Go

Use ebm2go to deliver up to date medical information to your Palm Powered device. Registration is free. After registering, simply download and install the ebm2go application. Updates thereafter will be automatically sent to your PDA with each HotSync. Some of the information (such as the drug formulary) in ebm2go is specific to Canada, but much of it should be useful regardless of where you practice.
posted by Kent 11:26 PM | |

 
PocketMedicine.com

PocketMedicine.com has added several new titles recently. PocketMedicine.com was founded in August of 2000 by Lewis Reines, a medical publisher with long experience in editorial and executive positions in the medical publishing business. It was his view that the use of handheld devices by healthcare professionals was an area of great potential for growth, and that the most effective medical content for use on those devices was going to be that written expressly for the handheld platform. That is, original content, written and edited by recognized authorities, for use at the point of care. All of PocketMedicine's publications are new and original; they are not books which have been repurposed for use on handheld devices. Click here for a list of available titles.
posted by Kent 11:19 PM | |

September 3, 2003

 
Common Simple Emergencies

Dr. Daniel Bothma recently sent me a streamlined iSilo version of Common Simple Emergencies by Drs. Philip Buttaravoli and Thomas Stair, a popular text containing detailed instructions and illustrations on how to treat 168 everyday medical emergencies. I've had my own version of this file available for downloading on the Medical Files page for quite some time, but Dr. Bothma's version has a lot of extraneous HTML edited out, resulting in a smaller, easier to use file. I've replaced my version of the file with his, which you can download here.
posted by Kent 10:02 PM | |

September 2, 2003

 
Redi-Reference Clinical Guidelines Updated

Redi-Reference Clinical Guidelines puts concise yet complete summaries of the most important national clinical guidelines at your fingertips. The most recent update was released today.

Redi-Reference provides periodic updates for one year after the date of purchase, so that the textbook remains current as new guidelines come out, or current guidelines are changed.
posted by Kent 10:21 PM | |

Visit the Archives for previous news items.