Medication and Mothers' Milk



TechMD in his comment on my post about Drugs in Pregnancy mentioned Thomas Hale's "Medications and Mothers' Milk".

You might be interested to check out Medilact 2002 which is the PDA version of the book.

There is a free Demo which contains 50 drugs to sample.

Each drug can be chosen and viewed on the screen, and if you have an infrared printer, you print the monograph and give to your client, patient, or physician.
I find the last bit really useful and every drug reference should have a "beamable" or printable portion which one can transfer - especially advice for patients.

Updates

Updated the Blogroll Palmblog links on the left - Johnwin's MyPalmLife has a new home and also added Guy's World Palmblog archives. I have highlighted The Doctors' Shack which is a Palm medical discussion forum.

EMG v1.0



EMG v1.0 is a free ThinkDB2 database by Michael Poon.

Description:
ThinkDB2 database of commonly sampled muscles relating to needle localisation method, common pitfalls, activation maneuvres and innervation.

Continuous Ambulatory Monitoring with PalmOS

Well not quite PalmOS alone. Vivometrics has come out with LifeShirt Garment, a device which can "measure pulmonary function - sensors are woven into the shirt around the subject's chest and abdomen. A single-channel ECG measures cardiac function, and a dual-axis accelerometer records subject posture and physical activity. "

"The LifeShirt Garment and peripheral devices attach into the LifeShirt Recorder/Subject Diary a PDA (handheld computer) that continuously encrypts and stores the subject's physiologic data on a compact flash memory card. Subjects may also record time-stamped symptoms, moods, activities and other endpoint-specific information in the Recorder's digital subject diary. These features let researchers correlate multiple objectively measured physiologic parameters with subjective input."

What PDA does it use? Well I suspect that's a Palm in the picture, quite possibly a Handspring (must be with a CF adaptor) ....

Natural Family Planning

NFP 2.4 has been updated and is available for free download.

Description:
A freeware program for tracking fertility, known as the Sympto-thermal Method, Fertility Awareness Method, Natural Family Planning, or Ovulation Method.
NFP is a program designed for Palm OS that allows a woman or a couple to track her fertility using a set of simple daily measurements.

NFP can be used either to avoid or achieve pregnancy.

It can be an effective chemical-free method of contraception, or it can be an inexpensive method of conception.

Another baby tracker

McBaby v1.0d is available for free download.

Description:
Keep track of your babies Birth Information, Doctor Information, Doctor Visits, Sicknesses, First Words, First Actions, Insurance, BabySitters, Check List, Multiple Notepad, and all the Well-Baby Checks from birth to 13 YOA to ensure you don't miss any shots.
Set alarms to remind you. It list the shots and what months to get them as recommended by the United States 2002 Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule.

SUNY Upstate Medical University uses the latest technology

pdaMD.com features this story on PDA usage in Syracuse Medical University by R. Eugene Bailey, M.D. Yet another MD tells of how a PDA is an essential tool for point-of-care access to medical information.

All may not be lost even without broadband. Have discovered Avantblog and if this post works then I can carry on blogging offline with Avantgo!!

Batteries and bacteria...

Brighthand — Three More Hot Technologies That Could Profoundly Change Handhelds: "When your bacterially-powered handheld starts to run low on power, you won't plug it into a wall socket. Instead, you'll pour in a bit of sugar. The sugar will be converted by a strain of bacteria called Rhodoferax ferriducens into carbon dioxide and electricity.
This is the invention of Swades Chaudhuri and Derek Lovley, who have a prototype that is an amazing 83% efficient. The two say their invention is cheap to make and can be used in environments as cold as 40 degrees and as hot as 86 degrees.
These two are currently working to turn their proof of concept into a real product. They see no reason why a bacterial battery couldn't be as small as a typical household battery today. "

The big question: will such revolutionary battery technology work in a hospital environment? The friendly bugs in your PDA may be killed off by the antiseptic and antibiotics permeating the air.... LOL
I can also predict if this thing works, the little packets of sugar in Starbucks will run out very quickly ;)

Seriously, battery technology needs to improve. The Tungsten T3 is fantastically rich in features. I can put lots more medical software, I can view text and data in widescreen mode, things run super fast BUT the PDA really sucks juice. I am a really heavy user so I had to get the Power-2-Go battery sled in order to use it in my clinic otherwise it wouldn't last the day without it going uncomfortably close to the shut down zone.
Now after my half day clinic ends, I have 100% juice still on my PDA. Without the P2G, by the end of the day, my battery level will be about 45-50%........

I'll be going off on Christmas holidays next week, away from broadband, so I may not be able to blog so much the coming week. My NEC notebook's harddisk just crashed too so all I have is my T3 and an old creakingly slow Twinhead notebook. Hope my co-bloggers can take up the slack!! . Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!

ePocrates Integrates 5-Minute Clinical Consult

Palm Boulevard: News:

ePocrates plans to release a new handheld clinical reference application called ePocrates Dx, which it said will enable medical professionals to access data on over 1,200 diseases and conditions from the point-of-care.

Due next year, ePocrates Dx is distinct from both print and other handheld versions of the popluar clinical reference, as it will integrate with other ePocrates PDA products and updated and supplemented with content from other ePocrates medial information.

New diseases, or an outbreak of a disease that has re-emerged, for example, will be added to the clinical reference in real-time with users having access to up-to-date information whenever they sync their PDA.

Mark R. Dambro, M.D., the creator and editor of 5-Minute Clinical Consult, said "this partnership will result in a truly integrated handheld application that enables users to access up-to-date prescription and alternative medication drug reference information, an infectious disease database and now a comprehensive clinical reference -- wrapped in one easy-to-use source."

Drugs in pregnancy

A couple days back I wanted to recheck the usage of prednisolone in a patient with AIHA who was breastfeeding. Checking up ePocrates vs DxPreg™
According to ePocrates:
"Not safe for nursing infants; medication contraindicated or requires cessation of breast feeding"
According to DxPreg:
"The American Academy of Pediatrics considers prednisone to be compatible with breast feeding." DxPreg also gave references to studies which states that for maternals doses of 20mg once or twice daily, the nursing infant would be exposed to minimal amounts of steroid. At higher doses, they recommended waiting at least 4 hours after a dose before nursing was performed.

What contrasting advice!! I think the lesson is you've got to be careful when relying on the portable information you carry with you in your Palm. You ideally should carry more than one drug reference since there is no one best "all-rounder".

PS. The BNF has this to say about Corticosteroids in Breastfeeding:
"Systemic effects in infant unlikely with maternal dose of prednisolone up to 40 mg daily; monitor infant's adrenal function with higher doses—the amount of inhaled (sic) drugs in breast milk is probably too small to be harmful"

PDA Use Can Prevent More Than $100 Million in Medical Errors

Skyscape reports:

HUDSON, Mass. - December 15, 2003 - More than half the doctors in the United States use PDAs, and among residents and students the percentage is even greater ­therefore it is essential to understand how physicians can best use this technology to maximize their effectiveness. A new survey, released today, shows significant results about doctors’ increasing reliance on their PDAs and their impact on daily activities. More than 85 percent of the survey respondents pointed to PDAs as helping to reduce the number of medical errors, with more than 50 percent of doctors indicating PDA use reduces their medical errors by more than 4-5 percent. With the National Academy of Science – Institute of Medicine reporting that medical errors cost the healthcare system $2 billion a year, this equates to preventing more than $100 million in preventable drug errors alone. Yet less than 20 percent of medical professionals have their PDA software integrated with the larger hospital IT enterprise, signifying an area where there is still room for significant growth.

·The survey of more than 900 doctors who use handheld computers was conducted by Skyscape®, Inc. (www.skyscape.com), a leading provider of
enterprise-wide mobile medical and nursing reference solutions. Skyscape has researched PDA effectiveness for medical professionals for almost a decade­beginning with a landmark Constellation Project involving a study of Apple’s Newton platform with Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard
Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

“The survey results reinforced what we knew of the benefits PDAs bring medical professionals, but the impact PDAs have when it comes to reducing
medical errors, and improving efficiencies, exceeded our expectations,” said RJ Mathew, vice president, marketing and business development for
Skyscape. “The survey clearly shows physicians have moved into a mainstream reliance on PDAs and medical software for PDAs. The results show that just like the stethoscope, the PDA is increasingly becoming an integral tool in doctors' daily practice and by integrating medical references we can enable doctors and their enterprises to realize even greater benefits.”

Respondents to the Skyscape survey stated that PDA use provides significant benefits by enabling them to spend more time with patients, while still treating more each day, and by improving the overall quality of patient care. Specific results include:

* More than 88 percent of doctors use their PDAs at least four times a day, with 15 percent using their PDAs more than 25 times a day.

* When asked how they use their PDAs, 72 percent of doctors reported they rely on their PDA for treatment purposes­primarily using it for
drug references, clinical references, drug interaction guides or hospital treatment guidelines.

* Almost 90 percent of the doctors concluded that PDAs help them provide better care.

* Over 85 percent of physician respondents agreed that by using a PDA they had decreased the number of potential medical errors. And more
than 50 percent communicated that by using a PDA they were able to eliminate over 4 percent of medical errors.

* When asked to quantify the specific benefits PDAs bring to their daily practice, almost 20 percent of respondents concluded that PDA use
enables them to treat at least three more patients a day, with another 20 percent of respondents concluding that they can treat 1 – 2 additional
patients per day.

* Doctors do not just rely on one reference for their PDA. More than 70 percent of doctors have at least three medical references on their PDA
and 22 percent have more than eight references.

* Medical software for PDAs is increasingly being integrated with other applications but there is still significant room for growth. In each
case less than ten percent of medical professionals reported their PDA software is integrated with prescription, billing, charge capture or patient
records systems.

Skyscape solutions are increasingly being adopted by leading medical institutions, and today more than 240,000 medical professionals rely on
Skyscape-powered references. Over the next year, medical professionals will further increase their PDA usage, with industry analyst firm Forrester
Research reporting that 90 percent of all health systems are engaged in a handheld project or are considering one.

In the top ten for the week

Blogger Forum has chosen The Palmdoc Chronicles as one of the weekly Top Ten BlogSpot Sites

Here's my badge :




:D

Handyshopper and Health databases
Handyshopper 2.8 has just been updated. What's this got to do with Health & Medicine you ask? Well, HandyShopper is a great free shopping list tool, with plenty of features. You can even use it for other kinds of lists!
Visit the Handyshopper discussion group and you can see a list of Health related databases for Handyshopper

Any of you use Handyshopper too?

Cancer Prevention Tools

CA-Tools 1.0 is a free program provided by the Physician Oncology Education Program, under the auspices of the Texas Medical Association and The American Cancer Society - Texas division.
There are Palm and Pocket PC versions available for free download.

Features:
The following applications are contained within the CA-Tools:

· Warning Signs of Childhood Cancer – Provides a list of symptoms and warning signs that may indicate the presence of cancer, especially if they persist.
· Childhood and Adolescent Cancers – Lists types of childhood and adolescent cancers, risk factors, and common signs/symptoms.
· Skin Cancer – Lists various types of common indicators of skin cancer (A, B, C, D).
· "A" for Effort: Smoke-Free Patients – Provides guidance for physicians who are willing to assist their patents in quitting smoking.
· American Cancer Society Screening Recommendations for the Early Detection of Cancer – Describes who should be screened, when, and by what method. Covers Breast, Cervix, Colon and Rectum, Endometrium and Prostate Cancers, as well as a Cancer-Related Checkup.
· Pain Medications – Lists oral and parenteral equi-analgesic doses, as compared with a standard dose of 10 mg of parenteral morphine. It also lists available dosage forms and duration of action of each main medication.
· Drug Calculations – Allows the user to compute dosage equivalents for any two drugs in the database. All calculations are in milligrams and are based on 24-hour usage of medication.
· Pain Management – Lists pain definitions, types of pain, categories of pain, scope of the problems, effects of untreated pain, assessing pain, treating pain and specific pain sites, resources, and JCAHO Standards.
· PSA Information – Provides information to assist physicians who are willing to participate in informed decision-making with patients considering having a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test to detect prostate cancer.

Opinion:
Free app. Not bad for a Primary Care Physician but somehow I found it not very "meaty" enough. Short on facts and references. The Drug calculator seems buggy and I could not say convert Morphine to Fentanyl.

Pubmed in your Palm

PubMed On Tap v1.2 has been released - completely free.


Description:
PubMed on Tap is an application for PDAs that facilitates Internet access to NLM's MEDLINE database using PubMed ultilies.
PubMed on Tap is a developing application targeted at mobile health care professionals.

The goal of our project is to discover and implement design principles that will facilitate practitioners' access to medical information at the point of service.

Currently the application supports retrieval of MEDLINE® citations from a PDA through a wireless connection to the Internet.

PubMed on Tap options include several PubMed search limits, email of citations, and clustered results.

Impressing your patients with cool gadgets

One of the things about using your Palm in place of a desktop PC or notebook in your office is that it never fails to fascinate patients (I guess they think I'm extra geeky).
I am still using my trusty PPK now with my T3 (and Power to Go for the extra juice). The wireless keyboard looks cool but I would sorely miss the top row for easy access to numbers.



Patients get really fascinated when they see IR printing from my Palm to my Canon BJ50 printer. They are amazed when I tell them my T3 + keyboard combo is still way cheaper than a notebook and much more portable too!

So when you are you gonna get that keyboard? :)

5MCC 2004 from Skyscape
Skyscape has also updated their version of Griffith's 5 Minute Clinical Consult 2004.
Description:
The 5-Minute Clinical Consult 2004 for PDAs is a comprehensive and structured clinical resource for handheld devices, and is one of the most respected sources of information for medical disorders. It covers more than 1,000 medical/surgical conditions and is indexed with more than 7,500 terms and medications to help clinicians locate the desired information quickly.
Features include:
Fully customizable by allowing users to add notes and create new personal topics
Provides more than 85% of updated topics
New topics detail SARS and Zygomycosis
New treatments and medications to reflect newly released drugs
An ICD-9-CM code index
New insights from more than 330 experienced clinicians
Coverage of each topic includes basics, diagnosis, treatment, medications, follow-up, and miscellaneous considerations

5MCC 2004

Palm Boulevard: News: Unbound Puts Consult in Physicians' Hands:


Griffith's 5-Minute Clinical Consult (5MCC), 2004 from Unbound Medicine is a clinical resource for health professionals with Palm OS and Pocket PC handhelds.

According to the company, 5MCC ($64.95) covers more than 1,000 medical/surgical conditions and is indexed with over 7,500 terms and medications to help students and practitioners locate desired information quickly. Users can select subjects from the "Topics", "Medications" or "ICD Codes" indexes and then review the Basics, Diagnosis, Treatment, Medications, Follow-up, and other considerations.

A Doctor in your Pocket

PocketDoctor is an Avantgo Channel which you can access from your offline browser like Avantgo or Plucker. I stumbled upon it when looking for things to add to my Plucker channels. I have found Plucker Jpluck an excellent combo for taking things from the web on your Palm. The beauty is Plucker is free and there is no 2MB restriction which the free Avantgo places - you are only limited by your Ram.
Anyway POcket Doctor is a free medical reference for the layman. It has a mini-encyclopedia called "Heath-E-Ref" where you can browse for medical conditions aphabetically or by body zone. It's not comprehensive but still quite extensive.
I like the DoctorQ section - Suggests questions to ask your doctor, depending on the medical situation, ranging from what to do when prescribed medicine to what questions to ask when going into hospital for surgery
There is also a Doctor-on-call phone service available only in the UK and chargeable at £1.50 per minute.

Free ID related references




Febrile Neutropenia is a free iSilo reference by Steve Burdette.
Description:
A basic one page reference to the approach to and management of fever in the neutropenic patient.
Organized with a hyperlinked table of contents. Compact and easy to use.





Antibiotic Mechanisms is another reference by Steve Burdette

Description:
A one page reference listing the mechanisms of action of antibiotics. Hyperlinked table of contents makes it easy to find the drug you're looking for.




Overwhelming Postsplenectomy Infection

Description:
A basic one page reference to overwhelming infection in the patient with surgical or functional asplenia.





West Nile Virus 2003 is a reference by Bob Hoyt

Description:

Very nice, easy-to-use reference to West Nile Virus infection. Includes case definitions, lab diagnosis, and clinical management. Well organized with a hyperlinked table of contents and bookmarks. Get it!


Zoonotic Diseases Tutorial by Chris Olsen

Description:
Compilation from a veterinary medicine website detailing zoonotic infections (infections that are transmitted between man and animals). Includes lots of details about background information, organism life cycles and symptoms but doesn't detail treatment in humans. Overall, a nice collection of information that could make interesting reading during down times.

Another mnemonics program

Differential Diagnosis Mnemonics v1.0 has just been released by Michael Ward.
Description:
This program helps healthcare providers come up with a differential diagnosis based upon the chief complaint.
Original, useful, easy to remember and thorough mnemonics will help providers in identifying the cause of the patient''s chief complaint.

The download is from Freewarepalm.com but apparently it is a demo version and the full version has to be purchased from the author

The future is wireless

A couple of WiFi news items from Palm Boulevard.

Palm Boulevard: News: Tungsten C Finds Way into Hospitals tells of Tungsten C devices being deployed in hospitals. Medical centres cited as examples are the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Indiana-based St. Mary's Health System and Detroit Medical Center and Wayne State University.

Direct Web Access to Patient Data details how QDX Physician Portal "enables doctors, surgeons, nurses and consultants to have real-time access, via a Web browser, to a patient's electronic health records and test results, allowing them to review lab and test results as well as all of an organization's clinical, financial and demographic information in an aggregated fashion. "

Diagnosaurus - FREE Differential Diagnosis Tool!
http://books.mcgraw-hill.com/medical/diagnosaurus/index.html
Diagnosaurus is a free differential diagnosis (DDx) PDA tool from McGraw-Hill Professional. It is available in both PalmOS and PocketPC. Try it! =P

Online Medical Reference
www.emedicine.com
Some of you might have came across this, but for those who hasn't, emedicine.com is a online medical resource that provides peered-reviewed updated information in various field of medicine. It can be comparable to uptodate.com in various way, and best of all, its FREE!

Medical Mnemonics
http://www.medicalmnemonics.com
My first post! =P Well, this website is mainly for medical students like myself. It features almost all the possible medical mneumonics you can think of! From Alzheimer's Disease to Felty's Syndrome, there's bound to be something that can help you remember. There is even a palmOS version, however, the program has not been updated for quite some time. The search function within the website is very thorough and includes various filters. Final word, it's good stuff!!

New Co-Bloggers
Have roped in a bunch of medical Palm users from KVPUG. Hope to see new blog contributions int the weeks to come! I have listed the new co-bloggers at the upper left panel of this page.
Welcome guys!

HaemOncRules 1.2



HaemOncRules has been updated. There are now 18 modules comprising algorithms to aid you in the diagnosis and management of various hemato-oncology problems. The latest addition is the CML Hasford (Euro) Score for patients on Interferon. HaemOncRules is freeware and I welcome suggestions for additional modules.

NEJM on your Palm

The New England Journal of Medicine PDA services is an attempt by the venerable NEJM to support PDAs. They have gone the way of iSilo document downloads which is somewhat tedious. You can download weekly summaries or individual issues (and that too in separate files for each article). I wish NEJM had gone the way of Highwire (see previous blog) and have some sort of journal delivery (of TOCs or even full text article) via the Hotsync process. They do support article search via PQA but not many of us use PQAs when we can have full fledged net and browser access. Perhaps a PDA friendly NEJM webpage would be an alternative...

Anyway the iSilo documents are pretty bare. No formatting. No images or tables. Lots of room for imprvoement here. If you can put up with it, at least you can read the article text in your PDA rather than carry it with you.
I would suggest an alternative way: login to your NEJM account, , Download (in Adobe format) and then print the article you want using Repligo - at least you get to keep the formatting and view images and tables.

Highwire and your PDA

Upgraded to the T3 recently? Got more Ram to spare? Well I have and at last I can stuff more things into my PDA. One of my recent additions has been to add a free online subscription to Highwire's PDA channel service. Like ePocrates, Highwire's PDA viewer and data reside only in Ram and there is no VFS support. It's much like Avantgo, except these are Medical publications. I subscribed to the BMJ (mostly free fulltext) and JCO :


It's a little bare looking, not much colour and most B&W. But it's the substance we are after and not appearance isn't it? The viewer works well and there are hyperlinks to the detailed text sections. The menu is somewhat primitive but functional.


The viewer does not support the T3 in landscape mode unfortunately but I am happy to report that with Codediver, you can "force" it to appear in landscape mode. Here's a sample pic:

Wacky news item

A 'brain charger': The ultimate PDA accessory? | CNET News.com



South Korean start-up DreamFree claims Peeg, short for "personal electroencephalogram," is designed to stimulate different types of brain waves by sending positive waves to the wearer.

The Peeg consists of a software application for Microsoft Pocket PC, headphones and a set of silver eyeglasses that look like the sort of thing triathletes wear. The lenses are made of opaque plastic.

When the PDA application is set on "concentration," rhythmic pinging sounds are heard in the earphones while lights flash off and on inside the glasses. Users close their eyes, so they only faintly perceive the light pulses. The frequency of the pings and the lights are meant to be synchronized so that they induce brain waves of the same frequency. By altering brain wave frequencies, Peeg can "alter moods".

Does it work as claimed? It runs on PocketPeeSee, 'nuff said.

Appraising and Applying Evidence


FreewarePalm: Appraising and Applying Evidence v1.0 may be worth checking out if you are one of those who throughly read journals and recheck the stats. Unlike an Abstract, first and last paragraph reader like myself ;)

Features:

Has equations for diagnosis and includes Fagan nomogram.
Has equations for NNT including deriving the NNT from odds ratios and adjusting the NNT for transportation across prevalences.
Can perform Bayesian analyses of statistical significance.
Creates evidence tables from multiple studies and exports the tables to memopad.
Has epidemiology glossary with examples from classic studies.

Pulmonary Embolism Predictor

Michael Ward, class of 2006, Emory school of medicine somehow found time to write this little gem.
It's billed as such:
"This FREE program outlines the risk factors, signs & symptoms and criteria for low/intermediate/high clinical suspicion for Pulmonary Embolism. Finally, it provides algorithms for how to arrive at your final diagnosis based upon D-dimer assays, V/Q Scans and Pulmonary Angiography. The information contained in this program is based upon the article by Fedullo, PF et al. in the New England Journal of Medicine, 'The Evaluation of Suspected Pulmonary Embolism' 9/25/03."

You can download Pulomary Embolism Predictor from Memoware.com

SIF daily fitness v1.0





FreewarePalm: SIF daily fitness v1.0 has been translated into English.
It is billed as "a complete and powerful guide to begin or improve the care for your physical form".
Worth a spin. It seems to be a Demo - could not alter the username. But appears to be free and no mention of an expiry date.

225,000 Skyscape users

New Benchmark in Healthcare: More Than 225,000 Mobile Medical Professionals Rely on Skyscape for Critical Information On-the-Go.
"Skyscape, Inc., a leading provider of interactive, intelligent mobile solutions for the healthcare enterprise, today announced that more than 225,000 medical professionals at over 300 institutions--including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, physician assistants, residents and medical students, have registered to use Skyscape-powered software. This is a 100 percent growth in registered users in less than a year and as a result, Skyscape has the largest installed base of subscribers in the mobile healthcare information industry. "

Have you Skyscaped today?

A trio of updated free Palm medical programs

First up is Journal Club by Timothy Allen is an excellent program which "calculates common statistics and defines common statistical terms''. Now updated to support OS5.

Tim also has updated My OB Wheel and ObSuite to support OS5. My OB Wheel allows the user to calculate EDC, gestational age, and to ask the question "When will the patient be x weeks?" . OB Suite includes a standard OB wheel, also calculates dates from US data. It allows the practitioner to calculate when a patient will reach a certain geatational age, tracks OB patients, tracks inpatients, tracks procedures, and calculates Bishop score.



Andrew Yee has also updated his Eponyms :
Update Description:
v1.70 (11/10/03):
- Added over 60 eponyms since 1.69
- Includes remember last category feature
- Support for Tungsten T3 screen

All excellent and highly recommended.

Contraction Timer

FreewarePalm: Contraction Timer v2.12 sounds like a good idea. I like the idea of a "finger input" as I can't imagine a woman having a strong contraction holding a stylus and tapping away!

Description:
Are you expecting a baby? Every pregnant woman and labor coach needs a copy of Contraction Timer! It takes the math away from labor.
Use the big buttons to keep a log of contractions, while Contraction Timer automatically calculates the most important information for your midwife or doctor: the frequency of the contractions and their duration. No stylus required! It's better than a stopwatch.
You can keep notes about the labor, too. When you're done you can save the log to the MemoPad for later editing and printing.
It also has an elapsed time counter for labor coaches! It even beeps and flashes when contractions come closer than 3 minutes apart.
After the birth, the note-taking feature lets you use Contraction Timer to keep track of breastfeeding times or diaper changes!

Congratulations to the author, Jude anthony, for a novel program.

PDAs help to Establish New Door-to-Dilation Record

"Paramedic’s EKG Transmits to Cardiologist’s Handheld Computer; Heart Attack Patient Goes from Scene Straight to Cath Lab"

"Since June, area paramedics have carried special electrocardiogram (EKG) units capable of transferring digital information direct to a cardiologist’s handheld computer. While paramedics have used EKGs for years, transmissions were sent directly to the hospital emergency department (ED), where emergency physicians evaluated the EKG. If a heart attack was detected, aggressive treatment began upon patient arrival, generally before a cardiologist arrived. Now if the EKG shows a heart attack, paramedics transmit to the ED where personnel forward it directly to a staff cardiologist. The cardiologist receives a 12 lead EKG transmission, enabling the doctor to view all 12 leads of the EKG simultaneously or enlarge a specific lead for analysis."

Read this amazing news item at PDACortex

Alright. It's a PocketPC. I am so jealous.

Palm Boulevard: News: Skayscape Brings Elsevier Medical Titles to PDAs

Skyscape and Elsevier, a medical publisher, recently announced plans brings electronic "powered by Skyscape" versions of Elsevier's most popular medical and nursing references to Palm OS and Pocket PC devices.
The partnership with Skyscape expands access to Elsevier's portfolio of reference titles to hundreds of thousands of health professionals who use handheld. Mary Ging, an executive vice president at Elsevier, said "we are very pleased to offer our premium titles on the Skyscape platform as it provides an exciting new way for our customers to access our best medical reference titles."

Skyscape said it will introduce some of the most popular Elsevier references such as The Harriet Lane Handbook, The Osler Medical Handbook, Pocket Essentials of Clinical Medicine, Pain Management Secrets, Ferri's Clinical Advisor, and Mosby's Medical Drug Reference. Additional Elsevier references will regularly be made available over the next few years.

What me worry?

The legs of the stork are long, the legs of the duck are short; you cannot make the legs of the stork short, neither can you make the legs of the duck long. Why worry? - Chwang Tsze

Why Worry is a free e-book by George Lincoln MD which you can download for free from Memoware.com. Its an old publication but glancing thru it, it makes a decent read. Available in Doc and TomeRaider format.

Free programs to track Menstrual Cycles

Spotted a new one from PalmOpenSource:


Unicycle is a free, open source PalmOS app for recording a woman's BBT (basal body temperature) and certain other data that can be used for the "Fertility Awareness Method" (FAM). The current version is alpha: functional, but not perfect. Caveats: Unicycle intentionally does not make predictions from your data (that is up to you to do).

NFP for Palm OS is a free software program designed for Palm OS that allows a woman to track her fertility throughout a menstrual cycle using a set of simple daily measurements. NFP can be used either to avoid or achieve pregnancy. It can be an effective chemical-free method of contraception, or it can be an inexpensive method of conception.

ICUMath

ICUmath by Terry Fagan has been updated. Freeware.

Description:
52 adult ICU applications using 82 medical equations, pulmonary, cardiology, BNP nomogram, pharmacokinetic dosing, renal, electrolyte, chemistry, nutrition, TPN, perioperative risk, biostatistics, acls, apache II, unit conversions, rules of thumb.

Palm Boulevard: News: Skyscape Brings Red Book to PDAs:


Mobile software provider Skyscape on Thursday announced that it will offer a PDA version of the Red Book, a leading pediatric reference guide.

Skyscape said it will work with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to translate the 26th Edition of the Red Book, including 100 images, to a handheld format.

The Red Book will be available on multiple platforms, including Palm OS, Windows CE and Pocket PC, for $99.95. Information on the Red Book for PDA will be available during the AAP National Conference and Exhibition, November 1-5, 2003, at the AAP Resource Center. Visitors to the AAP Resource Center will receive a flyer good for 15 percent off their Red Book purchase at www.skyscape.com.

Peds Calc v1.0



FreewarePalm: Peds Calc v1.0 is yet another medical freebie you can try.

Description:
Peds Calc simplifies the calculation of pediatric medication doses, providing volumes of up to three solutions for each medication.

BabyCheck

For first time parents especially, FreewarePalm: BabyCheck v2.0 has just been updated. This might be just the software for you to keep track of your baby's progress. Freeware.

Update Description:
v2.0:
Added: Possibility to export in a CSV form the data (measurements, first words and first actions) from BabyCheck to the Memo. The character ';' is used ad delimiter because '.' and ',' can be used as decimal separator. After Hotsync you are then able to import the data in any spreadsheet or database on your desktop
Added: If the firstname is too long to fit the main screen list size it will be shorten for the display and '...' will be added at the end
Added: More place to enter the firstname in the Birth Information screen
Added: When creating a new Baby record, the default text 'New' is selected allowing you to overwrite it directly
Added: Help text in the symbolic screen

SIF always in shape v1

FreewarePalm: SIF sempre in forma v1.0 è disponibile per il trasferimento dal sistema centrale verso i satelliti da FreewarePalm

Description:
Una guida completa per iniziare o continuare a curare la propria forma fisica.
Grazie alla collaborazione di professionisti quali Stefano Rizzi, CN III Dan e la Palestra Gymnasium Club di Castel San Giovanni (PC), sono stati creati e inseriti dei contenuti semplici e pratici basati, (in questa prima versione) sulla "corsa" e sullo "stretching".

(Se avete bisogno dell'aiuto con la traduzione, usi i pesci di Altavista Babele)

Skyscape releases Artbeat - free dynamic content for your Palm

Artbeat has been released by Skyscape.

"ARTbeat Brings Dynamic Content to PDAs

ARTbeat supports this critical need for information by enabling the practitioner to dynamically access the latest medical news such as drug and disease alerts, as well as frequently updated information such as drug weeklies and journal subscriptions via the handheld. ARTbeat supports multiple channels of information with each source of content existing in its own channel. All channels are organized hierarchically in ARTbeat allowing for easy selection, navigation and review of current information. Channels can contain many types of content including content from publishers, custom content, Web, journals, peer-reviewed content and newsletters. "

"To begin realizing the benefits of ARTbeat, medical professionals can go to www.skyscape.com to download ARTbeat for Free and to subscribe to other high value ARTbeat information channels. Information from ARTbeat is dynamically integrated via smARTlinkTM with other Skyscape-powered information and is updated whenever users synchronize their PDAs, providing medical professionals with the most current information in context at the point-of-care. For example, if there is a news flash on a specific cancer treatment, a user doesn’t have to review all alerts to find it – a link to it will automatically appear when the user is reviewing cancer information and then smARTlinks. By using smARTlink in conjunction with ARTbeat, the user immediately gets right to the information needed which is a tremendous time saving advantage. "

The initial ARTbeat channels are:

· MedWatch—Free—The Food & Drug Administration's Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program provides important and timely clinical information about safety issues involving medical products including prescription & over-the-counter drugs, biologics, medical & radiation-emitting devices and special nutritional products & dietary supplements.

· Drug News Weekly—A weekly that features brief articles on the latest in critical drug information and news including new drug approvals, indications and dose forms, Rx to OTC switches, newly reported interactions and adverse reactions, plus news scans from national media reports.

· DrugLink®—A monthly newsletter that provides abstracts of drug-related articles from various journals. DrugLink® allows health care professionals to stay up-to-date on hot topics without having to subscribe to multiple publications.

· CDC Spotlights –Free– A weekly update from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Website to provide medical professionals with the latest information on SARS, Monkeypox and other potentially rapidly-spreading diseases, including bio-terrorism agents.

· Connections –Free— A Skyscape channel that provides customers with Tips & Tricks, Store Specials, New Releases, Your Voice, Top Solutions and In The News sections.

Read the full Press Release

Coma Predictor

New at FreewarePalm: Coma Predictor v1.0 - by Michael Ward.

Description:
This is a program to help (mainly Neurologists) with Prognosis for outcome from Hypoxic Ischemic coma.
This is based upon the Levy paper from JAMA in 1985.

Medcalc 4.4 update

MedCalc v4.4 has been updated. It now supports dynamic input area and landscape support on compatible devices - i.e. T|T3!! Hurray!!!!

Human Nutrient Requirement Calculator

FreewarePalm: Human Nutrient Requirement Calculator v1.0:

Description:
Utility to assist in the process calculating the nutrient requirements of your body based upon age and sex.
A very useful tool for teaching nutritional concepts and for those interested in their diets impact on their body.

Diabetes in Primary Care

Diabetes in Primary Care 2003 v 2.0 by Steven Lawenda MD is now available for download from Memoware.

The blurb:
"Diabetes in Primary Care 2003 is a practical, logically organized reference that puts the latest in diabetes recommendations and therapy right in the palm of your hand. Diabetes in Primary Care 2003 is an essential tool for primary care providers. It provides quick and easy access to the latest diabetes recommendations (2003) in a most logical format, integrated with the latest in therapy. Topics include: prevention, screening, diagnosis, therapy including the latest in oral agents and insulin, complications of diabetes, inpatient management, preconception care, gestational diabetes, and resources for providers and patients. The content is extensive, relevant, and up-to-date. Best of all, this program was designed to be easy to navigate and use, with minimal scrolling or searching required to find what you're looking for. All sections are extensively cross-linked and bookmarked, providing an unsurpassed logical 'web' of essential information. The latest version (2.0) added the new sections on inpatient management and gestational diabetes. The new version has also been re-organized to be even more logical and intuitive to use. Compatible with Palm OS, Windows CE and Pocket PC. Requires iSilo version 3.0 or greater. "

Another example of Palms in Medicine

Wireless reality is another example of technology put to good use at the Baptist St. Anthony's Hospital.

'Dr. William Biggs, an endocrinologist, said that when he arrives at the hospital, he synchronizes his PDA through an infrared port. It takes from three to five minutes, depending on the number of patients.

"The lab reports are in there, the X-ray reports are in there, and then if my staff needs to get some of the demographic data for our files, then they can just look in my Palm when I get back in my office," he said.

His Handspring Trio is an integrated phone and Palm-compatible device on which he also keeps the Physicians Desk Reference. He can consult the latest information on dosages, side effects and drug interactions. If another specialist prescribed a drug he doesn't know well, information is right there, he said.

"It's faster than opening the PDR book," he said.'

Muxles

The folk at Xenware may not know how to spell very well but they can sure program and have come up with Muxles.

The blurb:
"Muxles is an interactive muscle map and reference that will help you learn all the major muscles in the body, as well as their functions. Muxles is meant to help you become an expert in which muscle does what, what types of exercises can work it, and other tips, such as typical required recovery periods, and more. On color-capable Palm-Powered™ devices, Muxles runs in dazzling color."

Preventing Migraine Headaches

Free guidebook by Dr John Allocca titled Preventing Migraine Headaches, Depression, Insomnia, and Bipolar Syndrome 2003


Download from Freewarepalm.com

Skyscape references for EMS/PAramedics

Skyscape has expanded their references for emergency medical personnel.
Top references include:
- Communicable Diseases and Infection Control for EMS
- Pocket Reference for EMTs and Paramedics
- Pocket Reference for the EMT-B and First Responder
- Terrorism Response: Field Guide for Fire & EMS Organizations
- Special Operations Forces Medical Handbook

Visit Skyscape for more....

Congenital Heart Defects

Another freebie for medical students and any student of cardiology. Congenital Heart Defects is a free iSilo document by Michael Chesney available for download from Memoware.
It is a collection of 15 common congenital heart defects from Aortic Stenosis to VSDs. This is a fully illustrated document and the layout is very neat and explanation clear .The file is large though, I guess because of all the pictures, and hence would be better off residing in your expansion memory card.

Lippincottt's Nursing Drug Guide

Unbound Medicine has just released 2004 Lippincott's Nursing Drug Guide.

The blurb:
2004 Lippincott's Nursing Drug Guide powered by Unbound Medicine includes more than 900 monographs covering 3,800 generic and trade name medications. It provides nurses and students instant access to all the drug information needed in day-to-day nursing practice.
Entries cover generic and trade names; pronunciations; pregnancy risk category; controlled substance schedule (where applicable); drug class; therapeutic actions; indications, including off-label indications; contraindications and cautions; available forms; adult, pediatric, and geriatric dosages; pharmacokinetics; IV facts (where applicable); adverse effects; interactions; assessment; interventions; and teaching points. Also included are monographs covering drug classes and information on combination products, commonly used biologicals, and less commonly used drugs.

Unbound Medicine Releases Comprehensive Suite of Pediatric References for PDAs

Unbound Medicine today announced that it has introduced six new PDA references on its mobile knowledge management platform, CogniQ™. The CogniQ Pediatrics Series includes leading pediatrics publications from PocketMedicine combined with Unbound Medicine's unique literature management service, Unbound MEDLINE.

STAT A-Fib Stroke Risk

Satcoder does it again with this freebie STAT A-Fib Stroke Risk v0.02 which you can download from Freewarepalm.

Description:Announcing beta testing of a new freeware Palm OS application, STAT A-Fib Stroke Risk implementing a risk score for predicting stroke or death in individuals with new-onset atrial fibrillation in the community.
This is based on an article in the August JAMA published by The Framingham Heart Study.

From the JAMA editorial on this article: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common clinical problem affecting an estimated 2.3 million adults in the US.

Nearly 4% of persons aged 60 or older have AF. Prevention of ischemic stroke presents a major challenge as determining which patients with AF should receive oral anticoagulation is always a critical question.

Often, patients with clear indications for anticoagulation do not receive it.

Considering that accurate risk stratification is essential to identify patients who have the best chance of benefit from oral anticoagulant therapy, clinicians should find the Framingham risk scoring system a useful aid for clinical decisionmaking.

It's even better in Landscape mode

One of the strong points of the Tungsten T3 is the ability to view pages in Landscape mode. This is very useful for spreadsheets and documents. In Are you Up-To-Date with Repligo?, I enthused about how useful Repligo was in taking with you your Acrobat documents, web pages etc. While the documents were very well reproduced in a tiny footprint, it was a bit of a pain having to "side-scroll" alot while reading the documents. It's much easier now in landscape mode:



The default installation of Repligo does not support landscape mode in the T|T3. However Cerience has provided some nifty utilities which allow you to view Repligo in landscape mode. It seems to work for iSilo too.

My New Tungsten T3

Have been busy reinstalling my apps into my new TT3. Really appreciate the oodles of Ram. Really necessary since some of the medical applications like ePocrates can't run off the SD card.
My initial impressions

Mood Stats

Need to keep track of your mood? Would you believe it someone has come up with a utility to do so. Spotted in FreewarePalm: Mood Stats v1.0

Description:
Use this program to keep track of your daily mood.
View your mood data on both daily and monthly charts.
This program is a useful tool for people suffering from depression and other mood disorders.
Supports both monochrome and color devices.

Computers ease home-health care workload

PDAs are getting more and more indispensable. If you haven't got one yet, when are you getting it?

"In medicine, if it isn't written down, it doesn't exist. Now technology, not as gee-whiz as the multimillion dollar X-ray machines, is changing patient charting.

For Julie Gwyn, a veteran home health-care nurse, a hand-held computer is as much a part of her supplies as a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff.

The little computer's memory stores her appointments and - most important - vital information about each patient: medical history, drugs, doctors' orders, allergies and specific protocols, or rules, for each patient's diagnosis and treatment. The data are no further away than the end of her stylus"

Read more...

Spotted in FreewarePalm: Medical Abbreviations Dictionary v1.27

Description:
This FREE DICTIONARY for BDicty reader program contains:
- A Medical Abbreviations lexicon contains ­ 440 entries in 7 KB.
- A FREE Public version of BDicty (reader program for the dictionary) ­ 38 KB.

PDAs Are Good Medicine

Doctor Recommended: PDAs Are Good Medicine is an interesting news item which tells of a recent AvantGo® survey which "uncovers why medical professionals are among the fastest adopters of mobile technology".
"Results of the 2003 AvantGo Healthcare Professional Survey show that medical professionals are using PDAs most often to access clinical information (70%), get medical news (58%) and leverage medical calculators (57%). And they are doing so regularly - nearly half of respondents indicated that they access AvantGo health-related channels once a week or more. In addition, specialty news, medical abstracts and practice management tips topped the mobile content wish list."

Do you AvantGo? I do. But looking at my channels lately, none seem to be medical. I get my dose of medical news from RSS nowadays (see a couple of blog posts back on RSS) :)

SpeakEasy EMS Translator

"Imagine responding to a 9-1-1 call and you are met by a group of people speaking in a foreign language. You can't even figure out who is hurt, or where they are. You may not even know if you are at the right location. Imagine finding a victim who is speaking to you, but you can't understand what they are trying to tell you. You can't ask the basic questions like "Does this hurt?" or "Are you taking any medications?". You don't even know what type of translator to request on the radio."

If you live in a multi-lingual multi-cultural society as I do, coping with multiple languages and dialects can be a nightmare. Oh, don't I wish for a Universal Translator device ala StarTrek. Unfortunately such a device does not yet exist. However,
SpeakEasy EMS Translator by Pocket Mobility, Inc aims at least to help EMS personnel cope with vital phrases in various languages.

Lets see them come up with Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, Tamil, Gujerati, Thai, Korean and Japanese. Then I'd be interested. ;)
I think if someone could come up with a product which has text->speech utilising themultimedia capabilities of the newer PDAs, that would be also very interesting.

Palm OS RSS News Reader

Finally. I have been going about in a convoluted fashion trying to get RSS feeds into my Palm using Amphetadesk and iSilo. The efforts were chronicled here.


Palminfocenter has a story about StandAlone releasing the first Palm OS RSS Newsreader. You can get your favorite (medical or non-medical) RSS feed now directly into your Palm via Hotsync or from the Internet directly if your Palm has direct Internet access.


The blurb from StandAlone:
Hand/RSS for Palm OS includes a variety of news feeds including:
BBC News
Boing Boing
CNet News
Fark.com
MSNBC
Salon.com
SlashDot
The Register
Wired
and many more!
Additionally, you can add any new feeds quickly and easily! For a searchable list of RSS feeds to add, visit Syndic8.

PDAs mandatory for med students

UB Reporter: PDAs mandated for med students reports how the University at Buffalo, USA has made PDAs mandatory for medical students.

"Move over, Stedman's. Make way, Netter's. At the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, all medical students have added something new—and high-tech—to their list of must-have school supplies: a personal digital assistant, more commonly known as a PDA.

The school last year began requiring all first-year students to report for class with one of the palm-sized, computer-compatible organizers. This fall, students in all four classes are expected to own one."

"Rapid access to information at the bedside makes a big difference in the quality of patient care. Clearly, PDAs offer significant advantages in medicine, and we wanted our students to be at the forefront of this technology."

If you are a staff member of a medical school reading this, listen up: "Do you want your students to be at the forefront of technology"??
PDAs have come a long way, baby.

Vanderbilt and Skyscape

Palm Boulevard: News: Vanderbilt Nursing School Leverages PDAs: "Vanderbilt University School of Nursing has selected Skyscrape'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.” "

Babycheck 1.4
FreewarePalm: BabyCheck v1.4 has been updated.
Features:
- Weight and Height follow up during the 3 first years
- Visual check with the average values
- List of the first words
- Birth information: Weight, Height, Date and Time
- Zodiacal sign
- Firstname symbolic (lucky number, lucky period)

Diagnosaurus

McGraw Hill and Unbound Medicine have come up with a free download called Diagnosaurus which is billed as a differential diagnosis tool.
Diagnosaurus includes diagnoses adapted from CURRENT Medical Diagnosis and Treatment, providing 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.

News source: Palm Bouelvard

Westmead MO's handbook 2003

The Westmead Hospital Medical Officers' Handbook 2003 edition is now available in iSilo format as a download from Memoware.

The Westmead Hospital is a busy hospital serving the western part of Sydney, Australia. It's great that they have come up with a handy booklet which I think will be very useful for their residents. Some of the info there is specific to the hospital but the other bits of info are generic. Worth checking out.

ICUMath

Spotted in FreewarePalm: ICUmath.

Description:

51 adult ICU applications using 80 medical equations, pulmonary, cardiology, BNP nomogram, pharmacokinetic dosing, renal, electrolyte, chemistry, nutrition, TPN, perioperative risk, biostatistics, acls, apache II, unit conversions, rules of thumb.

The floppy is dead. Long live flash memory!

One thing about me sticking with PalmOne pdas rather than migrating to the Sony camp has been the SD memory card format. If you have a digital camera (I use a Kyocera Finecam S3) or other gadgets which use SD/MMC memory cards, then it's great being able to interchange the cards. Lately I have been using these cards to transport files to and fro. Have been using USB card readers but carrying around cables isn't cool. Just got an Imation FlashGo PCA 4in1 card reader which reads SD/MMC/SmartMedia/Memory Stick cards in a compact PCMCIA plug-n-play format is really cool.

Top 10 Medical Software at Palmgear by Downloads

I thought I'd list them as reported by Palmgear sort by category listing. Isn't it amazing 2 out of top 3 are software for women?

Top 10 downloaded Medical Software from Palmgear:

1 Woman Calendar 5.1 115,096 25-Oct-02
Woman is a personal ovulation calendar and family planning tool for women.Its major goal is to help storing, organizing and using the information encoded in past menstrual cycles

2 MedCalc 4.3 105,917 29-Apr-03
Med Calc is the most full-featured medical calculator for Palm OS (76 formulas and scores, localized for french and english). Main features: free easy to use comprehensive (76 formulas)

3 MS Woman 6.0 95,318 11-Aug-03
MSWoman is a monthly cycle tracking software for Palm, which rightly meets the needs of today's busy women. Extremely practical and user-friendly.

4 MedRules 3.3 63,088 05-Jun-03
MedRules is an award-winning application featuring useful clinical prediction rules taken from the medical literature.

5 MedMath 1.21 57,963 07-Jul-02
MedMath is a medical calculator for the Palm, written by a physician for rapid calculation of common formulas in adult internal medicine. Features more than 30 formulas sorted by category

6 ePocrates Rx 6.0 55,185 30-Oct-02
Used by over 650,000 healthcare professionals, ePocrates Rx is the most easy to use, comprehensive and widely adopted drug reference for Palm OS handheld devices.

7 Eponyms 1.69 34,108 19-May-03
Rovsing's sign? Virchow's node? Here is a database of over 1400 common and obscure medical eponyms.

8 Medical Dictionary Bundle /Beiks/ 2.6 32,739 11-Jul-03
Everyone should have a Medical Dictionary, but it is particularly important for medical students and allied health professionals.

9 Common Medical Lab Values w/ Diffs 1.1a 29,393 15-Jul-01
This is a program that contains common medical lab values with differentials. What are symptoms of hyponatremia or causes or increased BUN! Now you can have the information at the tip of your tongue.

10 ABG Pro 2.2 26,928 22-Oct-00
An amazing program that will completely analyze arterial blood gases for you! No longer will you be confused by ABG's.

Medical info at your fingertips

Mobile Content Goes to the Doctor is another recent article on this issue. Nothing much new covered here but it brings up another age-old issue: Palm vs Pocket PC:

To quote the article:

To date, the Palm remains the device of choice, but Dr. John Halamka, who is CIO at both Harvard Medical School and CareGroup Healthcare says that while Palm is the clear favorite, devices running Windows CE are making inroads, and people in his facilities are using a variety of devices. "What's interesting, although it's true we're seeing a tipping point of doctors going more to Windows CE devices, the Palm OS still has mindshare." Halamka attributes this to a couple of factors. First of all, he points out that the Palm form factor is small and fits neatly into the doctor's white-jacket pocket. He says, "The Compaq iPaq is a little big, so it doesn't quite fit." Further, he says that many folks in his organization don't have offices and therefore don't have access to a charging cradle, so they need a device with a long battery life.

IDC's Slawsby says, "I think the battery life of [Palms] tends to be significantly longer than that of Pocket PCs, which enables a doctor to have that device with them and use it for a couple of days at a time without having to find a [charging] cradle. Traditionally with Pocket PCs, you've had to recharge them at least once a day and that makes it very difficult if a doctor needs the device and has to put it in a cradle because it doesn't operate." Slawsby also points out that Palms cost less. He says, "Palms also tend to be cheaper and doctors can find the requisite amount of functionality at a lower price from a Palm than they can with a Pocket PC."

So who will win the battle for the doctors' pockets: Palm or PPC?

Mobile Lipid Clinic


Mobile Lipid Clinic is offering 2 free CHD Risk Assessment Calculators and
the free Mobile Lipid Clinic™ Patient Management Program.

The CHD Risk Calculators provide basic assessments based on the Framingham Heart Study and the ATP III Treatment Guidelines.

The programs run on a PalmTM PDA or Windows® based computers. Interested practitioners may download these programs for free.

I think such programs are useful educational tools for front-line practitioners. There are other benefits of using electronic data capture (EDC) and SST is one such company which works with pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies in this area.

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Washington University, and Skyscape, Inc.

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Washington University, and Skyscape, Inc. Give Medical Students, Residents, and Fellows Instant Electronic Access to Vital Clinical Information :

"Leading medical publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) and Washington University, today announced they will expand their existing partnership. In addition to The Washington Manual(TM) of Medical Therapeutics, Thirtieth Edition there will be two new PDA series. Skyscape, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise-wide mobile medical and nursing reference solutions will partner with LWW and Washington University to release handheld versions of The Washington Manual(TM) Survival Guide Series and The Washington Manual(TM) Subspecialty Consult Series. The already successful guidebook series will now be available in PDA format, giving medical students, residents, and fellows quick and reliable access to point-of-care information they need to face the challenges of residency and clerkship. "

Wow.Aren't we spoilt for choice...

More wireless docs

Another article on Wifi and doctors here: WIRELESS:Just What the Doctor Ordered.

Makes me wonder when the WiFI SD cards are gonna be released. Seems like they are taking forever. I would love to be able to access hospital/lab data via WiFi from my PDA.
But I think this is going to the extreme:
"Bruce Brown, a physician at St Vincent's, says he believes using mobile technology to access and update medical records will help him spend more time with patients.
Before Brown began using a wireless wearable computer from Xybernaut, complete with an LCD screen mounted on his glasses, he commuted between his patients and hills of paper. " That's too geeky, even for me LOL.

Diabetes-Software für das deutschsprechende

Wenn Sie Deutsches und haben Diabetes mellitus sprechen, dann kann diese Palme Software Sie interessieren.
Das blurb:
Diabetes Patienten über einen langen Zeitraum beobachten zu können.
Mit dem Werkzeug ist der Patient in der Lage, mit seinem Diabetes Berater die Behandlung zu besprechen und seinen Anforderungen entsprechend anzugleichen.
Eine Beobachtung des Blutzuckerspiegels in Papierform soll damit überflüssig werden.

More use for the T|T's Bluetooth?

I use Bluetooth everyday. My SE t610 phone connects via Bluetooth to my SE HBH-30 headset for wireless handsfree. Great when driving and when the hospital calls you. I also use Bluetooth to connect my T|T to my SE t610 phone to dial (my Palm has 3500 contacts, try keeping that number on your mobile!) , send SMS (short message service) messages (yes, sometimes to patients too!)and sometimes to connect via GPRS to the 'net for email and other stuff. Now that the FDA Approves First Medical System Using Bluetooth Wireless Technology we might be seeing more Bluetooth enabled medical devices and perhaps more use of this technology with our handhelds in the future.

OnTimeRx and Healthcare providers

When I first checked out OnTimeRx, it was a rather simple medication reminder. In it's latest version, there are more features:
- Reminders for all medication doses - Routine or PRN
- Reminders for remaining Days Supply
- Reminders for To Do events
- All Reminders have auto-snooze alarms
- Activity response log for Drugs and To Do events
- Personal medical history and 911 data
- List manager for healthcare supplies

Currently, OnTimeRx has a Healthcare Provider Program. This is a "business model to provide special benefits and incentives for pharmacists, nurses, and doctors who utilize On-Time-Rx® in practice or recommend its use for their patients". If you think promoting a tool which will help your patients become more compliant with the medications is a good thing, then I think it might be worth checking out this program.Some other benefits include "a custom banner for the On-Time-Rx® main screen that displays your facility's name and phone number" . If I read the registration form right, you get a free reg code by signing up with them too!

DSM-IV-TR

Skyscape has recently released DSM-IV-TR, the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, in the familiar Skyscape e-book reference system. I remember during my medical student days, lugging around DMS-III during my Psychiatry rotation. Now you can carry the latest edition right in your Palm!
The blurb:
"Since the DSM-IV™ was published in 1994, there have been many advances in our knowledge of psychiatric illness. This Text Revision incorporates information culled from a comprehensive literature review of research about mental disorders published since DSM-IV™ was completed in 1994. Updated information is included about the associated features, culture, age, and gender features, prevalence, course, and familial pattern of mental disorders. "

Doc Panama eBooks

Doc Panama is Physician assistant whose website has a number of nice free iSilo medical ebooks.
The screenshots on his page were taken from a lores Palm and I wondered what some of the ebooks would look like in hires Palms such as the Tungsten T.


The Chest XRay guide is an adaptation of Dr Barbara Ritter's book in iSilo format.
This is a handy reference manual covering basic chest radiology and recognition of pathological conditions. I think the content is great and would be an invaluable addition to the medical or nursing students ebook library. I'm keeping a copy on my SD for now too as I think it would be a nice revision for me as well!
The images show up quite nicely in hires but the font was initially too small (well, for my eyes anyway) but looked better when the font size was adjusted to large

Interpreting the 12 Lead ECG (that's EKG for you Yankees - when will you guys learn to spell ;) ) is another iSilo adaptation from Doc Panama where the images also appear quite nicely on a hires Palm. The book deals with the basics of 12-lead monitoring to recognition of AMI and other pathologies by their waveforms. There is no coverage on arrhythmias I am afraid, so you will have to look elsewhere (take a look at this US$10 Pocket Brain's 12 lead ECG book). However this freebie too would make a nice addition to library of the medical student coming to grips with ECGs for the first time.

BNF in your Palm (II)
-- Details removed at the request of the BNF --