What's New

November 30, 2004

 
Phones Ring Up Reference Apps

Select applications from Skyscape's suite of medical reference software now will run on smart phones from Samsung. The new Skyscape Constellation for Samsung Phones is available to customers who purchase the Mobile Medical Solutions for Samsung Phones software from the Samsung or Skyscape.

The system is available for $179 and includes subscriptions to medical reference applications from Skyscape, UpToDate, and Merck. The software can be used on select Samsung smart phones, including the i500, which runs the Palm OS operating system and the i700, which runs the Windows Mobile operating system.

The Skyscape Constellation offers access to medical references including:

• The Little Black Book of Primary Care
• PocketMedicine's Treatment Strategies in Infectious Diseases
• AHFS Dosing Companion
• The Medical Letter's Handbook of Adverse Drug Interactions
• Drug Interaction Facts: Herbal Supplements & Food
• Drugs in Pregnancy and Lactation, Sixth Edition
• PocketMedicine/Checklist of Laboratory Interpretation
• The Archimedes medical calculator
• Skyscape's ARTbeat technology, which offers access to MedWatch Drug Alerts, CDC Spotlights and CDC Preventing Chronic Disease

Source: Mobile Health Data
posted by Kent 7:32 PM | |

November 27, 2004

 
Skyscape's 5MCC Updated

The ever-popular Five-Minute Clinical Consult has been updated for 2005. Now included:

• Dynamic updates throughout the year.
• Fully customizable by allowing users to add notes and create new personal topics.
• More than 100 algorithms help guide your diagnostic and treatment choices, based on presenting signs and symptoms.
• Additional drug information provides increased detail to help refine your prescribing choices—including drug class, warnings, formulations, interactions, and pregnancy category.
• 77 new guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force assist in screening, counseling, immunizations, and chemoprophylaxis.

posted by Kent 8:02 AM | |

 
Medtron Teams with Ingenious Med for Charge Capture

Ingenious Med, a provider of next-generation, healthcare industry software, and Medtron Software Intelligence Corporation, announced a strategic alliance and integration of Ingenious Med’s critically acclaimed handheld software and MEDTRON’s Medical Practice Management Solution to create the MEDTRON Handheld Charge Capture Solution. The combined, next-generation charge capture and clinical rounding system streamlines the physician’s billing process. With this solution, medical practices get simple data synchronization between MEDTRON’s Practice Management Solution and data captured by the physician on a PDA using Ingenious Med software. The synergy improves time of submission to same-day – with integration of patient demographic and charge data.

“Ingenious Med is pleased that our customer base now can integrate with MEDTRON, an extremely reputable billing provider, and gain even greater benefit from our software,” said Steven T. Liu, MD, founder and CEO of Ingenious Med. “With their billing solution, customers have a comprehensive, state-of-the-art product for medical practice management.”

“MEDTRON’s partnership with Ingenious Med makes the physician and practice more efficient and more profitable through easy-to-use and highly effective solutions,” said Jeff Hamel, Project and Business Development Manager at MEDTRON. “Our clients are excited about the solution’s ability to meet today’s healthcare challenges - and Ingenious Med’s IMBILLS’ mobile charge capture system is the best charge capture solution available.”

Ingenious Med’s handheld solution enables physicians and staff to improve billing accuracy, decrease administrative costs, and avoid denials while also providing time saving clinical rounding tools. In addition, Ingenious Med’s web-based enterprise charge capture and rounding system will soon integrate with MEDTRON’s Practice Management Solution.
posted by Kent 7:53 AM | |

November 24, 2004

 
PregTrak Updated

PregTrak by StacWorks has been updated, albeit in a small way. Version 4.5 adds a Calc button to calculate how far along a patient will be on a future date (for devices without a Calc silkscreen button), along with better information on logging to HanDBase.
posted by Kent 8:09 PM | |

November 23, 2004

 
Charges Synch into Practice Software

Ingenious Med Inc. will integrate its hand-held charge capture application with practice management software from MEDTRON Software Intelligence Corp. The new technology, called the MEDTRON Handheld Charge Capture Solution, is designed to enable physicians to streamline their billing process, decrease administrative costs and avoid claims denials. It does so by automatically transferring charge data into their billing application and integrating it with patient demographic information.

Ingenious Med's hand-held IMBILLS system also offers clinical rounding tools, such as prescription writing and medication lists. It is designed for PDAs running the Palm OS operating system and is available via software or the application service provider computing model.

Source: Mobile Health Data
posted by Kent 10:12 PM | |

November 22, 2004

 
New AHRQ Consumer Tool Puts Quit Plan in a Smoker's Hands

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) today released a new consumer tool for Palm OS and Windows Mobile handhelds to help smokers who want to quit. Quit Smoking: Consumer Interactive Tool is drawn from the evidence-based recommendations of the Public Health Service guideline, Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence, and helps smokers set up a program tailored to their individual needs.

"Tobacco addiction is one of the greatest threats to the health of the public and our nation, with over 46 million smokers in the U.S.," said Tommy G. Thompson, Secretary of Health and Human Services. "As part of the Department's recognition of the Great American Smokeout, this program provides a quick and easy way for tobacco users to take a more hands-on approach to quitting smoking."

Source: Medical News Today
posted by Kent 6:54 PM | |

November 16, 2004

 
PDA-Based Dictation Takes Off

Physicians at the Los Angeles-based Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinics are using hand-held dictation software from IQMAX Inc. The 18-physician practice implemented the vendor's IQSpeak software to enable its orthopaedists to use their PDAs for dictation.

The software, which can be used on PDAs running the Palm OS or Windows Mobile operating systems, integrates with several practice management systems. Physicians at Kerlan-Jobe can synch their dictation data with the clinic's practice management system via a docking station or the practice's Wi-Fi network.

During the synch, patient schedules and some demographic data from the practice management system also can be downloaded to a physician's PDA. The practice previously used telephone and dedicated recorder-based dictation methods.

Source: Mobile Health Data
posted by Kent 7:04 PM | |

 
Handhelds in Medicine: A Practical Guide for Clinicians

Handhelds in Medicine is an essential reference for all physicians, especially those in the primary care specialties. In order to access and process clinical information in the shortest amount of time, the physician must be able to interact with a variety of electronic databases efficiently during a standard office visit. Nothing enables this as effectively as a PDA. Handheld computers allow the physician to take a history, perform a physical examination, access patient records, arrive at a diagnosis, prescribe a treatment plan, and manage billing and coding, all without leaving the patient's side. Depending on the physician's comfort level with technology, this can be an exhausting and intimidating process. This book and CD-ROM set operates as a concise guide to enable any physician or healthcare professional to implement handheld computers in their practice.
posted by Kent 5:35 PM | |

 
Free Mobile Resources from BCC Consulting

BCC Consulting is a Healthcare IT-focused strategy consulting firm. With extensive domain knowledge in areas such as Mobile Healthcare solutions, Electronic Medical Records, and e-Prescription, BCC Consulting provides strategic sales and marketing support to both healthcare vendors and provider organizations.

The BCC Mobile Resource Guide is a free, comprehensive overview of the Mobile Healthcare Industry that identifies companies providing solutions across multiple application areas in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. A section on free PDA resources for clinicians is also included. The guide has proved to be incredibly popular with more than 5000 downloads in just its first week. Click here to download the guide in Adobe PDF format.

BCC Consulting is also offering a second free report entitled Going Mobile: Choosing the Right Inpatient Mobile Solution. The Journal of Mobile Informatics has called Going Mobile "a must do first step" in any due diligence process. This ground-breaking report combines industry-insider knowledge with over 1500 hours of research to provide a complete needs-analysis framework as well as profiles of the top 20 most influential inpatient mobile vendors. Click here to download Going Mobile in Adobe PDF format.

Thanks to Patrick Campbell of BCC Consulting for the tip.
posted by Kent 8:22 AM | |

 
Beiks Updates Pocket Medical Encyclopedia

Beiks has announced a major upgrade to its MedicineNet Pocket Medical Encyclopedia for Palm OS handheld devices. The reference guide now includes more than 15,000 entries of medical terms, written and compiled entirely by U.S. board certified physicians. The Pocket Medical Encyclopedia includes not only standard medical terms but also pertinent scientific items, abbreviations, acronyms, jargon, institutions, projects, symptoms, syndromes, eponyms, and medical history.

The MedicineNet Pocket Medical Encyclopedia comes equipped with the latest version of Beiks’ award-winning BDicty Dictionary Reader, which has been upgraded with improved navigation features and advanced data compression to significantly decrease the size of the data while increasing the number of entries available in the encyclopedia. The result is a 50% increase in content with a 40% decrease in handheld memory requirements.

Click here for more information.

Source: PalmInfocenter


posted by Kent 7:55 AM | |

November 15, 2004

 
Skyscape Releases Urology Reference (Finally!)

After years of neglect, urologists and urologists-in-training finally have a specialty-specific reference designed for them. Skyscape's Clinical Manual of Urology puts leading-edge advice as close as your pocket. With up-to-date practices described by today's leading clinicians, this reference offers fundamental help with all major urologic conditions and diseases, plus time-saving recommendations on important problems you won't find covered in other clinical texts. In addition to presenting the major categories of urologic disease, the reference also covers important topics such as radiology, radiation therapy, nephrology, pediatric urology, transplantation surgery and vascular surgery.
posted by Kent 7:08 PM | |

November 13, 2004

 
Skyscape Adds Drug Info Database

Skyscape has released a PDA version of a drug information database from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. FamilyRx: American Hospital Formulary Service Patient Drug Information offers information on medication dosing, precautions, side effects and interactions for more than 800 drugs.

The information is based on MedMaster, the patient drug information database found on www.safemedication.com, ASHP's consumer Web site and is updated quarterly. Skyscape also has enabled the Family Rx application to integrate with its more than 240 other clinical reference applications.

The vendor will market the application to consumers as well as to health care professionals to give to patients.

Source: Mobile Health Data
posted by Kent 10:55 AM | |

 
A Bit Quiet 'Round These Parts...

Sorry about the lack of updates over the past couple of weeks. I've been extremely busy opening a new practice, and simply haven't had the time. As things settle down, I hope to get back to posting again soon. Thanks for your patience!
posted by Kent 10:10 AM | |

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