What's New

February 28, 2005

 
"The Drugs I Need!"

This has nothing to do with PDAs, but if you need a good laugh, run (do not walk) to this Web site and watch this cartoon: "The Drugs I Need!"
posted by Kent 6:00 PM | |

February 27, 2005

 
PenAgain

I first saw these pens at the AAFP Scientific Assembly last Fall, being given away as a promotional item at a medical journal booth. Despite their unconventional appearance, they really do offer a much more comfortable grip than regular pens. They're refillable, and there's a PDA stylus insert available as well. If pharmaceutical companies started giving these away, we'd never put them down! Until then, you can order them here.


posted by Kent 10:59 PM | |

February 26, 2005

 
PEPID Lab Manual

Following in the footsteps of ePocrates Lab and others, PEPID has added a Laboratory Manual to their suite of medical references.

The new Laboratory Manual includes detailed information on 300 common lab tests, including:

• Critical values - listed first with links to interpretation, symptoms and treatments
• Description - common use of tests, crucial ordering points
• Method Differences - sensitivity/specificity, screening/confirmation use
• Normal Reference Ranges - presented in standard and SI units with gender and age differentials
• Interpretation - includes general comments, medical causes, factitious/spurious causes and drug causes with links to symptoms and treatment
• Related Tests - lists commonly related tests, testing strategies, and other considerations
• Equations - links to related PEPID equations/calculators
• Physiology - underlying processes of substance/metabolite being measured, including origin, function, detrimental effects and excretion
• Tech Info - collection methodology and guidelines

For a limited time, a 30-day trial of PEPID's new Lab Manual will be included in every download, online subscription or free trial of a PEPID professional suite.
posted by Kent 9:00 AM | |

 
Online PDA Course

Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli has created an online course entitled "Handheld Computers for Doctors" (just like his book.) It is accredited by the Royal College of Anaesthetists and provides 1.5 Continuing Professional Development points. So, if you're an anaesthetist in the U.K., check it out!
posted by Kent 8:53 AM | |

 
Animated Handheld Tutorials

If you're not an anesthetist in the U.K., you can still check out Chris Paton's animated tutorials for doctors who are interested in using a handheld (no CME credit is available, sorry.) They're fairly basic, but go through a couple of examples of how the Date Book and Address Book could be used in a hospital setting.

To see the tutorials, click on the links under PDA tutorials along the left-hand side of the screen. You’ll need speakers or headphones to hear the narration.
posted by Kent 8:42 AM | |

February 25, 2005

 
The Return of ePocrates Rx Pro

Well, I gave the Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopoeia a good try, but I just couldn't find information as fast as I could with ePocrates Rx Pro. And apparently somebody over at ePocrates reads this blog, because a couple of days after I posted about my experiences trying to bring Rx Pro out of its coma, I received an unsolicited e-mail message from somebody in their tech support department informing me that the AutoUpdate speed (or lack thereof) issue on the Mac had been addressed in a newer version of the program. And sure enough, it has. I downloaded and installed the latest version of ePocrates Rx Pro this evening, and it now AutoUpdates in a couple of minutes rather than an hour. Good job, ePocrates!
posted by Kent 6:15 PM | |

February 22, 2005

 
Infinity Softworks' Calculation Software Launched For Healthcare Professionals


powerOne Medical provides key medical calculations for doctors, nurses, clinical pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals.

Infinity Softworks has announced healthcare support for its popular powerOne line of calculation software. powerOne Medical is the latest in on-demand, cross-platform calculation software from the company. This software is available as a stand-alone calculator or as an add-on pack for powerOne Finance, powerOne Graph and powerOne Personal+.

The new software includes templates designed by William Buss, Pharm.D, a clinical pharmacist at Clarian Health Partners. He had searched for a medical calculator that would free his time for patient care rather than spending time programming it. After trying powerOne software and writing his own templates, he found that the powerOne engine allowed him do that very easily. William told us, “The equations I use every day are now just one or two screen taps away. The time it takes me to work up pharmacokinetics and drip rate calculations is cut in half."

"The healthcare industry has been on the leading edge of handheld usage," said Elia Freedman, CEO of Infinity Softworks. “We are providing a calculator that changes the way medical professionals think of a calculation tool. Now the adjectives they use are ubiquitous, flexible, powerful and easy-to-use.”

Also included are general mathematics, business and calendar calculations. It is also possible to customize the software. With powerOne Finance or powerOne Graph, users can write their own calculations, as well as choose from over 100 additional calculation templates that can be seamlessly added.


posted by Kent 7:29 PM | |

February 21, 2005

 
Grrr...

My copy of ePocrates Rx Pro died today. It was a sudden, unexpected death. I HotSynced last night, like always, and (like always) ePocrates took forever to Sync. So I wasn't surprised when it timed out. Oh, well. No biggie. Or, so I thought. (Cue ominous-sounding music.)

When I get to work today, I go to fire up Rx Pro for the first of about 30 times, and...whoa! Error message! "Sync incomplete! HotSync again!" Or something like that. So, I think...*&#$! I've got patients waiting. Back to the iBook in my office. Hook up the HotSync cable. HotSync. ePocrates is taking forever, as usual. I go see a patient. Fortunately, I don't have to look up any drugs. Back to my office to check on the HotSync. Still waiting for ePocrates. *&#$! Go see another patient. This time, I need to look something up. Leave the room, try to find the PDR. Where is that thing when I need it? Look up the drug. Back to the patient with the script. Back to the office to check on the HotSync process. ePocrates still hasn't even started to AutoUpdate. Screw it. Cancel the HotSync. Disconnect the Palm from the HotSync cable. Check the status of the program. Same error message (What was I thinking...of course it's the same error message!) *&#$! So I'm looking drugs up on paper for the rest of the day. Where's that paper copy of the Tarascon Pocket Phamacopoeia again? I must've thrown it out, since it was outdated. *&#$! (You know you're dying to know what *&#$! really means, aren't you? Sorry, this is a PG-rated blog.)

I repeat the above process several more times during the day, once giving the program over an hour (during lunch) to try to AutoUpdate. No dice. At the end of the day, I deleted ePocrates Rx Pro (which also takes forever, since you have to manually remove all its little individual files and subprograms) and installed the latest version of the Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopoeia. Sigh. I have a drug reference on my PDA again. Sure, I'll miss the formularies in ePocrates...a little. Maybe someday I'll reinstall it and see if I can get it working again. But right now, I just don't have the time. And you know what? My m515 HotSyncs faster than ever now.
posted by Kent 6:34 PM | |

February 18, 2005

 
Sanford Guide to HIV/AIDS Therapy PDA Edition

The Sanford Guide, known everywhere for its outstanding reference on antimicrobial therapy, and USBMIS, well-known developer of PDA software applications, announce the release of an exciting new title, Sanford Guide to HIV/AIDS Therapy 2004, PDA edition, for Palm and Pocket PC devices.

Sanford Guide to HIV/AIDS Therapy 2004, PDA edition, is designed for infectious disease specialists, general internists, emergency room physicians, nurse practitioners, and others who come in contact with patients who may have HIV/AIDS or those with known HIV disorders complicating other medical problems. The application is a complete reference for HIV and AIDS diagnosis and therapeutic management.

The Sanford Guide to HIV/AIDS Therapy 2004, PDA edition features:

• Full content of the print edition
• Completely searchable index
• Easy accessibility via hierarchical organization
• Rapid reference layout through unfolding table of contents
• Hyperlinks within content

Among the other features of Sanford Guide to HIV/AIDS Therapy 2004, PDA edition are:

• Full coverage of all current antiretroviral drugs
• Focus on all drugs available in less developed countries
• Hard-to-find information on treating other disorders seen in HIV patients
• Pediatric guidelines
• HIV classifications

The Sanford Guide to HIV/AIDS Therapy 2004, PDA edition, can be downloaded to your PC or Macintosh computer for use on your Palm or Pocket PC device. Visit: www.sanfordguide.com for downloads and information. The cost for this application is $27.50.
posted by Kent 6:55 PM | |

February 16, 2005

 
MerckMedicus Goes Wireless

Merck recently announced a new wireless browsing format for MerckMedicus.com, an award-winning online medical resource for physicians and other healthcare professionals. This new access avenue allows physicians to use a wireless personal digital assistant (PDA), BlackBerry or smartphone to remotely access in real-time some of the most widely used and trusted health information resources from MerckMedicus.com.

Registered users of MerckMedicus.com can use their wireless handheld device to connect to www.merckmedicus.com in their browser, and then sign in to access resources such as The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, 17th Edition; Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests; MEDLINE journal abstracts; and Reuters Medical News. The unique Personal Search Assistant feature also allows physicians to search through the current issues of more than 200 journals in addition to the selected wireless offerings available. The MEDLINE journals and Reuters Medical News can be uniquely tailored to physician-preferred choices, specialty or therapeutic area of interest. Merck is planning to add more unique features optimized for wireless in the near future.

The wireless option is compatible with all cellular phones with web-browsing capabilities, smartphones and other handheld devices that use Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC, Blackberry or Palm OS operating systems.

Source: Medical Pocket PC
posted by Kent 10:31 PM | |

February 15, 2005

 
Medication Decision Support via PDA

bioMerieux Inc. has released a Web-based system that integrates and analyzes patient microbiology information to offer physicians decision support. The STELLARA clinical intervention and patient monitoring software integrates with the vendor's antibiotic resistance results application as well as a hospital's lab and pharmacy systems. It also offers therapeutic recommendations for such results suggested by various medical best practices.

The system, which can be used on PDAs running the Palm OS operating system, is available in four levels. The first level offers real-time connectivity to back-end data systems. The second level can feed the aggregated data to pharmacists and clinicians. The third and fourth levels offer alerting capabilities.

The system, which will be live in 12 hospitals by June, can increase patient safety by giving clinicians access to the most up-to-date information at the point of care, vendor executives say.

Source: Mobile Health Data
posted by Kent 11:00 PM | |

February 14, 2005

 
C-Tools Released

The American Cancer Society has released C-Tools 2.0, a timesaving PDA tool that provides instant access to cancer information to anyone in the healthcare field.

"C-Tools 2.0 plays an important role in helping busy physicians access and utilize important cancer information literally at our fingertips; information that helps with immediate diagnosis, treatment, and counseling for our patients,” says Key Stage, M.D., Chairman of the American Cancer Society Prostate Cancer Committee.

C-Tools 2.0, an innovative Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) software package, was developed to help doctors and their staff prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, and is available free of charge.


posted by Kent 6:22 AM | |

February 7, 2005

 
MedCalc Updated

MedCalc has been updated to ver. 5.2, which adds 3 formulas (cardiac output [echo], opiate equivalence, O2 tank remaining time) along with the usual bug fixes. Still freeware!
posted by Kent 6:45 PM | |

 
BluefishRx Update

Bluefish recently announced the release of their new version 6.00 update. This is a major new release with many new features and enhancements. Included in this release is the updated drug list from ePocrates.

Some of the New Features and Bug Fixes for this Release Include:

• Added functionality to allow a nurse or administrator to write Rx's and refills under a doctors name and DEA#.
• Extended the patient database to allow the import of up to 25,000 patients
• Added the Insurer Group# and patient Group Acc # to the patient details window. The patient import utility has been updated to allow the import of these fields.
• Fixed some issues with the sorting and display of the drug database. Re-architected the drug database for the new T5 and Treo 650 memory architecture drastically reducing memory usage on these devices. A large number of commonly prescribed non-drug items have also been added to the drug database.
• Added search functionality when selecting from large pharmacy lists.
• A default pharmacy can now be selected in the patient details. This pharmacy will be highlighted in the pharmacy list when you send an Rx for the patient.
• Added messaging capabilities (requires palmOne's Addit application to be installed) allowing Bluefish to send messages directly to BluefishRx
• Added auto updating functionality via the desktop HotSync or wirelessly. With a wireless device you can now initiate a wireless update.
• When printing or sending an Rx you can now have the patient's active drug list transmitted wirelessly to a designated printer automatically. Write an Rx while at the football game sending it to the Pharmacy while printing the patient's new active drug list to your office printer!

This new update makes the Treo 650 a viable handheld to use with BluefishRx.
posted by Kent 8:04 AM | |

February 3, 2005

 
Skyscape Desktop Solutions

Accessing clinical references just got easier and faster! Skyscape's trusted medical resources are now available for your PC Desktop. Now you can select the references you want, and Skyscape's smARTlink technology will seamlessly integrate them for you - allowing you to get the information you need on your desktop computer. Click here for more info.

That's the good news. Now for the bad news. If you already have a Skyscape reference for your PDA (e.g., Griffith's 5MCC) and you want to use it on your desktop computer, you have to buy it again. IMHO, that stinks. PDA references already cost more than paper ones, and now we're supposed to pay double to use them in more than one place? This pricing strategy seems to defeat the entire purpose of mobile references. Share your opinion by clicking the Comment link (below).
posted by Kent 7:07 PM | |

 
Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary

Unbound Medicine, a leader in knowledge management solutions for healthcare, and F.A. Davis Company, a major publisher of texts and references in nursing and other healthcare professions, announced today their expanded partnership with the launch of Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, 20th edition, for PDA, Web, and wireless devices.

The 20th edition of Taber’s is a significant revision with 8,400 new and revised terms (56,000 terms in all), 700 images, expanded disease entries, information on complementary and alternative medicine, and handy tables and appendices for quick look-up.

Via Unbound’s award-winning platform, clinicians and students can now access Taber’s rich content anywhere—on PDA, Web, or wireless devices—with a single product purchase. Whether on the ward, in the classroom, at the library, or at home, users will now have Taber’s truly at their fingertips.

“Unbound’s team has created a powerful version of Taber’s,” said Judy Ilov Neely, Senior Vice President of F.A. Davis Company. “This versatile and innovative resource gives mobile 21st century students and clinicians the flexibility they need —PDA, Web, and wireless access rolled into one product.”

“We are excited to expand our relationship with F.A. Davis in this fashion,” said William Detmer, MD, president and CEO of Unbound Medicine. “Every clinician needs ready access to medical terminology and the new 20th edition of Taber’s provides the highest quality content for digital delivery.”
posted by Kent 7:03 PM | |

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