What's New

January 30, 2005

 
Riverside Mobile-izes Docs

Riverside Regional Medical Center, where I did my residency training, has been using MercuryMD's MData application for a couple of years now (of course, they implemented it right after I left, so I never got to use it.) They were recently featured in a case study published in the December, 2004 issue of Health Data Management. It's an interesting read. Click here to view the article online.
posted by Kent 11:18 AM | |

 
Has This Site Become Irrelevant?

How's that for a provocative title?

Looking back at the posts I've made over the past few months, it certainly seems that there's a lot less interesting Palm OS news to write about these days. I scour the Web nearly every day looking for cool stuff, and rarely find anything worth mentioning. The traffic on the medical discussion forums has slowed to a crawl. Even Palm OS hardware seems stagnant. When was the last time PalmOne or a licensee released a new product worth getting excited about (since the Treo, that is)? As for software, I'm getting tired of posting about the lastest upgrade to this or that. Where's all the new stuff? The stuff worth using? The stuff worth getting excited about?

So...what's up?!?

Is Pocket PC (or Windows Mobile, or whatever it's called this week) finally taking over?

Has all the good software already been written?

Have too many companies gotten out of the PDA business?

Are developers just holding their breath waiting for Palm OS 6?

Were PDAs really "just a fad?"

Or is it just me...?

Let's hear what you think! Click that comment link (below) and spill your guts.
posted by Kent 10:01 AM | |

January 27, 2005

 
Payer Finds PDAs Help Prevent Errors

A survey conducted by MedAmerica Mutual Risk Retention Group Inc. found that its physicians were able to avoid a range of medical errors by using PDAs. The California-based liability payer surveyed 224 of its insured physicians for the study, conducted throughout 2003 and 2004.

Sixty-five percent of survey respondents said they avoided dosing errors by using PDAs. Another 58% said they avoided dosing frequency errors. Further, 25% said they avoided a drug error; 24% a therapeutic error; and 18% avoided other errors.

MedAmerica Mutual conducted the survey to assess the impact of its support of PDA use in clinical care. In 2001, the payer began offering its physicians PDAs and subsidies to purchase drug reference software from ePocrates Inc.

MedAmerica Mutual's survey also found that 66% of its physicians use their PDAs to look up information and perform medical calculations on every shift. An additional 15% of respondents said they use the hand-helds during more than half their shifts.

Additionally, 93% of the physicians said they use the PDAs to access drug reference software; 56% to make medical calculations; and 38% for other medical references.

Source: Mobile Health Data
posted by Kent 6:50 PM | |

January 26, 2005

 
Medical Student Pocket Reference

USBMIS recently announced the beta test release of an exciting new title, Bookstein’s Medical Student Pocket Reference, PDA edition.

Bookstein’s Medical Student Pocket Reference is designed for all medical students, interns, and other trainees and physicians working on clinical services. It provides a streamlined, well-organized source of clinically relevant medical information for your handheld device. The content includes concise discussions of 3000 diseases within all body systems. The application is a complete quick reference covering all areas of medicine. The PDA edition features interlinked content, a comprehensive index, useful tables, classification systems, and databases.

The program features: (1) consistency in organization: each disease is presented in a logical fashion, with epidemiology, diagnostic information, radiologic and pathologic information, and approaches to treatment; (2) nonspecific clinical presentations with focus on diagnostic workup and differential diagnoses; (3) indications, classification, adverse reactions and mechanisms for approximately 700 pharmacologic agents; (4) information on cytokines, hormones, autocoids, neurotransmitters, toxicology, vitamins, and nutrition; and (5) outlines of vascular anatomy and muscular insertion points.

As an extra resource, there are tips about patient data management; presentation of patients to attendings; and medical documentation notes.

To join the free beta program for Bookstein’s Medical Student Pocket Reference, PDA Version, please visit: BooksteinBooks.com. Beta testing will continue until Febuary 15, 2005.
posted by Kent 11:30 PM | |

January 25, 2005

 
Coumadin Dose Tracker

Pharmacist and Palm OS programmer Dwight Norris e-mailed me about a new application he has developed.

Coumadin Dose Tracker is intended to aid in the initial dosing of Coumadin and dose planning for patients taking Coumadin as outpatients. It permits you to follow patients by tracking daily dose and INR results by date. It will also let you track any dose of Vitamin K by date given, as well as the route of administration.

The evaluation copy will let you track 20 patients. A fully-functional registered version is only $15.00.

Regrettably, the program is only downloadable as a Windows self-extracting .exe file, making use by Mac users such as myself impossible. Hopefully, this will be corrected in the near future.
posted by Kent 2:22 PM | |

January 19, 2005

 
Mobile App Helps Manage Patient Beds

Tele-Tracking Technologies Inc. is offering a hand-held version of its clinical bed management software. The bedboardmobile system is designed to enable clinicians to manage patient beds across an enterprise using a PDA.

The application can be used on PDAs running the Palm OS or Windows Mobile operating system. It also can be implemented on a provider organization's wireless network to ensure clinicians have access to up-to-date information on bed availability, status and demand.

The system can help improve clinical staff communication about bed use, which can lead to improved bed turnover and patient flow, according to the company.

Source: Mobile Health Data
posted by Kent 6:49 PM | |

 
Reach Out and Treat Someone

PatientKeeper has enabled its clinical data software to run on a mobile phone network from Cingular Wireless. The vendor's mobile clinical software includes results, charge capture, dictation and electronic prescribing applications.

Clinicians can access the systems over the nationwide Cingular network using select smart phones. These include the Treo from palmOne - which runs the Palm OS operating system - as well as Siemens SX66 and Audiovox 4100 smart phones, which run the Windows Mobile operating system.

PatientKeeper also recently enabled its mobile platform to run over a national mobile phone network from Sprint.

Source: Mobile Health Data
posted by Kent 6:43 PM | |

January 15, 2005

 
Shots 2005 Now Available!

Shots 2005 is now available from the Group on Immunization Education of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. The program has been updated with the new 2005 medical immunization recommendations and a new risk communication tab for each vaccine.

Due to the increasing demands of private practice, I am no longer directly involved in the development of Shots. I would like to thank GIE-STFM and programmer Daniel Weaver for keeping the program alive.
posted by Kent 10:07 AM | |

January 14, 2005

 
PDA App Gets Automatic Updates

Lexi-Comp has enhanced the way its PDA-based texts can be updated. The Lexi-Connect software now enables users to click on an icon on their desktop PC that brings them to the vendor's software update Web site and searches for new data.

The new information then is automatically downloaded to the PC and to all Windows Mobile-based PDAs the PC supports. PDAs that run the Palm OS operating system must be synched to receive the data after it's downloaded to the PC.

Prior to this update enhancement, users had to manually install each of the vendor's clinical reference databases individually to ensure they had the most up-to-date information. The new update enhancement also enables users to link back to the Lexi-Comp home page to automatically renew their licenses for the vendor's reference systems.

Source: Mobile Health Data
posted by Kent 6:50 PM | |

January 13, 2005

 
PDAs Underutilized in Medicine?

This month's issue of American Medical News features an article by Tyler Chin entitled "Untapped power: A physician's handheld." Although we've come a long way in the past few years, we've only scratched the surface of what handheld computers can do.
posted by Kent 8:43 PM | |

 
Cingular Wireless and PatientKeeper Join Forces 

Cingular Wireless and PatientKeeper announced that the PatientKeeper Platform is now certified for Cingular Wireless' nationwide GSM/GPRS wireless data network. Cingular offers a broad choice of devices for healthcare professionals, including palmOne Treo, Siemens SX66 and Audiovox 4100 PocketPC mobile devices to wirelessly and securely access patient information.  
 
"Cingular Wireless delivers a broad range of secure and reliable wireless solutions to the healthcare industry and its practitioners, who by their very nature are mobile," said Laura Johnson, director, industry solutions, Cingular Wireless. "The combination of the PatientKeeper Platform technology and the Cingular Wireless GSM/GPRS network provides our healthcare professional customers with a suite of powerful solutions that are available today to help them save time and provide an even higher level of care to their patients, even when they are away from the hospital or office."
 
Medical practitioners now have the full range of PatientKeeper integrated applications available on the Cingular Wireless GSM/GPRS network in more than 8,500 cities and towns, and along 30,000 miles of interstate highways in the United States. Featuring an open architecture, the PatientKeeper Platform supports a broad and growing portfolio of applications, including PatientKeeper Clinical Results, PatientKeeper Charge Capture, PatientKeeper Mobile Dictatio), PatientKeeper ePrescription (Powered by DrFirst), PatientKeeper Reference Library, and more.
 
"An increasing number of healthcare organizations are implementing mobile solutions to address their providers' demand for immediate access to essential patient data," said Stephen S. Hau, vice president of marketing and business development, PatientKeeper, Inc. "Cingular Wireless and PatientKeeper are extending access to existing IT resources beyond the four walls of the hospital and office."

The industry-leading PatientKeeper Platform allows rapid deployment of advanced mobile solutions to doctors and hospitals. PatientKeeper easily integrates to existing information systems within a single hospital or across an entire healthcare network. PatientKeeper's open architecture includes software development kits (SDKs) that support development of robust, independently authored applications and allow clients to establish an effective long-term strategy without fear of obsolescence.
 
Cingular Wireless and PatientKeeper will join palmOne for a one-hour webinar, "The Next Generation of Mobile Healthcare Solutions," on January 27 at 1 PM EST. Healthcare providers and executives may register for this educational session at http://www.palmone.com/healthcarewebinar.
posted by Kent 2:55 PM | |

 
MedCalc Updated

Version 5.2 of MedCalc is available.

The new version adds 3 formulas:

• cardiac output (echo)
• opiate equivalence
• O2 tank remaining time

posted by Kent 2:52 PM | |

January 10, 2005

 
Cancer Trials in Hand

Southwest Oncology Group, one of the largest of the National Cancer Institute's cooperative groups of physician conducting adult cancer clinical trials, has recently created a PDA version of its studies list. The list of all open studies by disease is at http://swog.org/pda/. Because the list is updated twice a month and many PDAs do not have continuous internet access, it is also available to SWOG's 3800 physician investigators throughout the US via the AvantGo mobile internet service. Physicians who are not members of the Group can find patient referral information and SWOG membership information on the Group's website, http://swog.org.
posted by Kent 11:00 PM | |

 
Webinar Features PDA Clinical Apps

The American Medical Informatics Association is hosting a Webinar to discuss the pros and cons of developing mobile health care applications. The 90-minute program, "Contrasting Mobile Platforms: PDAs in Health Care," will be held at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Feb. 8.

The organization's Knowledge in Motion Working Group put together the Webinar to assist health care organizations in developing and using mobile clinical applications to help improve patient care. Featured presenters include representatives from several information technology and mobile health care application vendors.

The cost of the Webinar is $25 for AMIA members and $100 for nonmembers. To register, click here.

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

January 5, 2005

 
ePocrates Essentials for Macintosh

ePocrates just released the ePocrates Essentials reference suite for the Macintosh. ePocrates Essentials includes ePocrates Rx Pro, ePocrates Dx (Griffith's 5MCC), and ePocrates Lab. ePocrates Dx and Lab are not available separately for the Mac; you can only get them by buying Essentials.
posted by Kent 10:00 PM | |

 
PDA Drug Database Programs Reviewed

Pharmacy Practice News has a review of four popular drug database applications in its December 2004 issue. The programs reviewed are: AHFS 2004, ePocrates Rx Pro, Lexi-Drugs, and Mobile Micromedex. A comparison table is provided. You'll have to register on the PPN web site (it's free) to read the article.
posted by Kent 9:29 PM | |

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