5MCC 2003
5 Minute Clinical Consult 2003 is now also available from Unbound Medicine. Version 1.0 is OS5 compatible.
Application Description:
Griffith's: 5-Minute Clinical Consult, 2003 is a comprehensive and highly respected clinical resource uniquely suited for handheld devices. 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.
Utilizing Unbound Medicine's award-winning CogniQ™ platform, you can access the information needed in a matter of seconds. You can select topics from a variety of indexes and then use many built in navigation features to quickly review the desired information or link to related topics.

It is priced about the same as Skyscape's version so I guess the difference will be the interface - this as always will be a personal choice.

MiniCog
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute is apparently develping a PalmOS application which can test one's cognitive function and hence "help users quickly and easily evaluate if they are operating at their mental best"
MiniCog contains nine cognitive tasks that evaluate attention, working memory, problem-solving ability, motor control and ability to switch thinking among cognitive sets.
Great if you are an astronaut it's "Hey, I'll do that space walk thing tomorrow instead". Well I guess if you are a student it's "Sh*t, I'm going to flunk the paper"

Read more in:

Wired News
SpaceRef.com

Drip calculators
Spotted one in Palmgear and wondered if you really need one nowadays with the proliferation of volumetric and syringe pumps. I guess if you need to work out the drip rate and forgotten the simple formulae such as 15 drops = 1ml then you really need a calculator!!
IvDripCalc for Palm 1.0 is available from Palmgear. No demo download though so again I can't test it out unless there is a demo elsewhere.
Application Description:
Now you can Calculate IV drips, AND check an ongoing drip to see if the patien is getting the right dose!!Made by Nurses for Nurses.Calculate drips for: mcg/kg/min, mcg/min, mg/min, mg/hr, units/hr, per kg, and drip rate (incase your pump fails!!).Check an ongoing drip for mcg/kg/min, mcg/min, mg/min, mg/hr, units/hr.

I thought there were other drip calculators out there. I am surprised there are no free versions :( Anyway it looks like a simple job for NSBasic so maybe I could give this a shot - when I can find the time!!!

Agendus for Doctors?
Do you use Agendus? I do and this is my most frequently used Palm program everyday. I don't bother with any "patient tracker" type programs as I find Agendus being very contact-centric suits my needs in patient-encounters in the clinic and in the ward.
Agendus for Doctors edition? Why not? Actually if the Agendus interface could be tweaked to support what doctors do everyday it would be fabulous and even better than the current Agendus. For starters I would like to see more medical icons. I would also like to see a day view page which has buttons which leads one to displays ToDos pending for the Contact (patient/doctor) rather than the whole History. The categories too could be predefined to suit doctors better.
Ah well. Hope Iambic is listening....

Eponyms 1.69
Andrew Yee's great program Eponyms has just been updated
Update Description
1.61-1.69 (5/19/03)
Added over 200 more eponyms since ver 1.5, corrected some spelling errors; over 1400 eponyms total.
Minor improvement with navigation in ver 1.68 for Palm OS 5.0 (mainly scrolling up and down after look up).
New icons thanks to Dr. Karam with 1.65.

Download Eponyms 1.69

ClinRx Updated
ClinRx is now v.4.1c. I think this a definite must-have for a clinical pharmacist. I am indeed impressed what NSBasic can do. This is a great piece of work like Ectopic's MedRules and Shots.

Application Description:
ClinRx is an easy to use creatinine clearance and kinetics calculator for vancomycin and aminoglycocide dosing. It includes "eDrugsRenal", with renal dosing information for over 500 drugs, a phenytoin levels calculator and a carboplatin/AUC dosing calculator.

Registered users can download the latest version to upgrade (if you have < v.1.06, contact the developer for upgrade)

The creatinine clearance is calculated in up to four different methods: Cockcroft-Gault, Cockcroft-Gault using adjusted weight, Levey Equation, and the Jelliffe method. Initial dosing tools for vancomycin or aminoglycide based on the information entered for creatinine clearance are presented on the subsequent screens. The elimination rate constant, half-life and volume of distribution is calculated. A target peak or trough can be entered and a resulting dose and interval is calculated. With actual lab peak and trough's, actual Ke, VD, and T-1/2 are calculated. The peak and trough values are adjusted for the time delays from the lab draws and actual Pk/Tr's are calculated. Again, target Pk/Tr's can be entered to calculate the necessary dose. This is a trial version that works for a male patient and on the CrCl and Vanco screens only. A must-have tool for all hospital pharmacists and physicians in assisting with renal dosing and kinetics.

Download a trial version!

Spelling
Alright, I'll admit it - spelling is not exactly my forte. Medical terms can sometimes be tongue-twisters and when you try spelling them... Hmmm mebbe that's why doctors' writings are notoriously bad :lol:
Spotted this in Handango: PDA Spellit
Description:
Turn your Palm into a medical spelling reference! This application has almost 70,000 medical and related terms that you can access. Great for any "Palm equiped" allied health care worker. Not sure how to spell jateorrhiza? Easy....simply tap on the "J" from the index screen and a list box will appear. Scroll until you see the entry you are looking for. An excellent alternative to the other costly choices out there. Note: This software is not a dictionary or encyclopedia. It is a database of words/terms and their correct spelling.

Now what on earth is "jateorrhiza"? Couldn't find it in Stedman's concise medical dictionary!

Clinical Practice Guidelines on your Palm
In my surfing for more freebies, I came across this website by the National Guideline Clearinghouse with links to full-text guidelines and/or companion documents available in downloadable versions for the handheld computer
The range is somewhat limited - a lot of cardiology stuff though (I wonder why?). Some of the documents may be useful for your reference and they are free so why not check them out.....

McBaby 1.0b
Spotted in Palmgear. McBaby 1.0b updated
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. Please check with your doctor to confirm he/she agrees with this schedule.
Update Description
V1.0b (11/May/03) Added a sort button at the top of pages Babysitter, Birth Info, Doctors, Dr. Visits, Insurance, and sickness pages. If your databases get out of chronological order tap the (S) on the top bar and the database will be resorted. I also added the Palm Apps to the top menu bar. Activate the top menu bar then youcan select to go to the built in Palm programs;address book, calculator, datebook, memo pad, and ToDo's. After exiting the programs you will return to McBaby.V1.0a (6-9-02) Added a "Well-Baby Mis" tab. If your Doctor recomendeds a Well-Baby Checkup that is not on the recomended list , then use this user defianable Checkup tab to schedule/record your baby'sappointment.

Sounds like a great idea for the Palm. You only got to remember to check your Palm in-between diaper changes!!

Drug References on your Palm
You'll be suprised what the options are. I am listing them here for you to check them out in case you are not aware of some of the alternatives. The only freebie is ePocrates IIANM, and Tarascon (for now).

Skyscape A2ZDrugs
http://www.skyscape.com/EStore/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=218
A2zDrugs™ is the handheld version of A To Z Drug Facts, the easy-to-use drug guide with the latest FDA approvals, indications, dosages, side effects, and patient care considerations. A2zDrugs™ allows the practitioner to refer to accurate information about pharmacological issues at point of care and contains information on over 700 generic and 2,800 trade name drugs. Skyscape indexes the information so that the practitioner can access information about indications, action, contradiction, adverse reactions, dosage, and pregnancy warnings in an efficient and professional manner. Be confident with the drugs you prescribe when using A2zDrugs™!
US$49.95

Skyscape PDR
http://www.skyscape.com/EStore/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=405
PDRDrugs™ is the handheld drug reference based on the Physicians' Desk Reference®, the physician's most trusted source of drug information for over five decades. The concise drug entries are based on the same FDA-approved prescribing information in the PDR. A team of experienced clinicians has carefully extracted brief summaries of the information you need most at the point-of-prescribing: indications, contraindications, warnings and precautions, adult and pediatric dosing, adverse reactions, drug-drug interactions, when present, therapeutic class, Black Box warnings, when present, how supplied, DEA class, pregnancy and nursing information, and manufacturer's name.
US$49.95


ePocrates
https://www.epocrates.com
Peer-reviewed drug information including off-label indications and formularies in an easy to use format.
PDA software available for Palm OS handheld devices only.
**Free** but no VFS support. Requires 2.5 MB free Ram

ePocrates Rx Pro
https://www.epocrates.com/catalog.do?catalogmethod=showProduct&product=3&node=Epocrates
Peer-reviewed information on over 2800 drugs including off-label indications and formularies in an easy to use format plus . . .
Alternative medicine monographs and interactions with prescription drugs
ePocrates IDTM infectious disease guide
Clinical tables and guidelines
MedMath clinical calculator
US$49.99

Tarascon
http://www.tarasconpublishing.com/store/palm.asp
This second generation Pocket Pharmacopoeia includes all the features of our now-discontinued ePharmacopoeia product, with the following new enhancements:
• 47 invaluable reference tables from the print edition
• 9 dynamic medical formula calculators
• Instant drug look-up by name, class, or indication on a single home screen
• “Adverse effects” and “mechanism of action” information for each drug
• A new “Herbal and Alternative Therapies” section
• A fully integrated tool for multiple drug interaction checking, with interactions data from the experts at The Medical Letter®
• A full-featured version for Pocket PC® platforms
• Software that can be loaded into most extended memory cards
• Software written by USBMIS, Inc, creators of the highly acclaimed PDA versions of The Sanford Guide®
• Includes Canadian trade names
"We are committed to keeping this product free until fully-featured, and will charge a $25 yearly subscription thereafter"

Lexidrugs
http://www.lexi.com/web/handheld.jsp
Lexi-DrugsTM Platinum which is the official drug reference of the American Pharmacists Association, the National Professional Society of Pharmacists.
US$75

MIMS on PDA (Australia/NZ)
http://www.mims.com.au/products.htm
The MIMS on PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) is for any health professional on the go. It's a great new way to access MIMS Bi-Monthly on your Palm™ Pilot or other selected PDAs. MIMS Interact on PDA is also included in the price of your subscription. This invaluable facility allows you to check interactions between drugs before prescribing.
AUD$165.00

Which do you use?

Canceredge bids farewell
Sadly I had to delete the Canceredge channel from Avantgo.

The crew of CancerEDGE have decided to say goodbye.
Thanks to everyone for their support.
We wish all the best to our friends who face cancer, or who care for someone who does.

Zoonotic diseases - free iSilo file
Description: ZOONOTIC DISEASES are diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between (or are shared by) animals and humans.This tutorial has been developed as an educational resource on zoonotic diseases for veterinary, medical and nursing students and practitioners, and anyone interested in these infectious diseases.The most current version of this information can always be found at:http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/pbs/zoonoses/
This document does not contain images in the tutorial. To download the version with images included, go to:http://www.anmldr.com/freebies/Zoonotic
iSilo version created by: ANMLDR, LLCwww.anmldr.com

Download the iSilo document here

I was interested to see if the Nipah virus was mentioned - sure enough it is listed

Free Medical Physiology Textbook
Impoverished medical students - listen up. You can grab this Textbook in Medical Physiology and Pathophysiology - Essentials and Clinical Problems for free. It's in iSilo format.
Description:
Author: Poul-Erik Paulev, M.D., D.Sci
Textbook in Medical Physiology and Pathophysiology - Essentials and Clinical Problems. Source: [www.mfi.ku.dk/ppaulev]. Non-commercial storage/retrieval permitted. Sections: Cellular physiology, Nervous system, Circulatory system, Respiratory system, Metabolism/Gastrointestinal function, Kidneys and body fluids, Endocrine glands. This is a large, exhaustive, organized text that received high ratings at FreeBooks4Doctors.com. Thanks to Dr. Paulev for sharing his work online.

Another Rx reminder
I had previously blogged about OnTimeRx, which is a Palm program designed as a medication reminder.

Now there's Medtime 1.5 by Sands USA.
Description:
MedTime is a utility that you can use to help remind you when you need to take medications. And not just you, but your kids, your pets, or whoever else you need to administer medicine to. MedTime is intended for those medicines you get prescribed, but only need to take for a week or two. The kind you tend to forget - especially during work hours or in the heat of daily activities.
With MedTime, you can list the medicines you or your kids need, and schedule up to six times that you need to take them (Registered Users Only! One alarm for evaluation.) Then your Palm OS device will set alarms as needed to remind you take these medicines - without cluttering your Palm Calendar

Do you really think the Palm would be a useful tool to help remind you to take the medication? I remember testing out OnTimeRx. The alarm went off and sometimes, I just forgot about it anyway! OneTimeRx at least has a log whereby you can keep track of skipped doses - something you can discuss with your physician. I think MedTime looks a little more simplistic but at least it's only $10. Hey even the Powerpuff girls seem to be using it ;)

Pump up with your Palm II
Edward Ross of Acrocat.com wrote to tell me that they _do_ offer a fully functional 21 day trial of PDAbs available here:

http://www.acrocat.com/pdabs/demo.asp

Apparently the demo was pulled from Palmgear......

Medical dictation on your Tungsten T
Finally got round to doing this. I thought I'd try the TT's built-in voice recorder but it's pretty primitive. One cannot resume recording on the same wav file and there is no "rewind" facility.
Then comes along Audacity DVR for the TT. This is a a brilliant piece of software which takes voice recording on the TT to newer heights. The premium edition allows you to set the recording sampling rate to 16kHz - something which speech->text software require. Wav files are stored on SD so you need a way to transport them onto your PC. Use either an SD card reader (these are available quite cheapyly nowadays) or else a utility like Card Export. As the files are in Wav you'll need a fair bit of space and a card which can perform reasonably well too. I just got a Lexar 256 MB SD and the additional space and speed is more than sufficient. I have about 100 MB free at the moment which is good for more than 50 minutes Wav files, uncompressed at 16kHz sampling.
I think the best speech recognition program at the moment is Dragon NS which also comes in a Medical flavor. Testing this out gives pretty good results and accuracy with the Wav files produced with the TT.
You can dump that Olympus DS-150 now guys ;)

More on EBM2Go
I'm having problems with this software. Suddenly all the info within the program seems to have disappeared. Tried reinstalling it but no go. There is also no unistall option and the conduit can't be deactivated :(
In the end I had to use McFile and just delete the programs directly from my Palm.

The Evidence is Out There

Tried the new Ebm2go as pointed out by Ectopic Brain (thanks Ectopic!) - love these medical freebies & I think ebm2go is a fabulous idea. As my TT is already down to about 2MB Ram left, I was a little apprehensive about the memory requirements but was pleased to find out that it takes under 300kb. There are 4 sections : Meds/Guides/Evidence/Tools. I like the Evidence section where some of the important trial acronyms are listed (eg MIRACL, MRFIT etc) and also the Guides section. The Meds section is not comprehensive but understandably so for a 300 Kb app. The categories have not been done properly and most of them are either wrong or Unfiled - work needs to be done here. It's updateable via Hotsync though so I don't think that's a problem. I worry once more data comes in and the application will eat Ram. Hopefully the authors will support VFS. All in all not bad for a freebie.

The other EBM app I've come across is Sykscape's offering Evidence Based Diagnosis.
Description
EBD is Skyscape's handheld version of Evidence-Based Diagnosis, a medical reference that covers a full range of topics from cardiovascular and pulmonary disease to ophthalmology, hematology and pediatrics. It is the only single volume quick reference designed for use in daily practice and it contains over one hundred and fifty clinical prediction rules. Designed as an aid in diagnosis and treatment, clinical prediction rules will allow you to make more accurate diagnosis and treatment decisions while eliminating superfluous testing at point of care.
Like other Skyscape apps, this one will set you back US$64.95

New Skyscape Release - AJCC
Very handy if you are in the oncology field - the AJCC Staging Handbook is now available in Palm or PPC format.

Description

From the AJCC Cancer Staging Handbook, Sixth Edition, prepared by the American Joint Committee on Cancer, AJCC TNM contains the complete text of the Handbook inside your PDA.

Used by physicians and health care professionals worldwide to facilitate the uniform description of neoplastic diseases, the fully revised and updated Sixth Edition of the AJCC Cancer Staging Handbook brings together all currently available information on staging of cancer at various anatomic sites and incorporates newly acquired knowledge on the etiology and pathology of cancer. The Sixth Edition includes major revisions to the chapters on breast and melanoma as well as important changes in sites such as thyroid, liver, colon, kidney and more.

Now, the full TNM classification is at your fingertips—along with a unique Staging Calculator which allows you to enter T,N,M variables and determine the stage instantly. An index of the latest ICD codes facilitates quick searching and a comprehensive index of the Survival Curves featured in the Sixth Edition will give you instant access to the latest data. As proper classification and staging allow the physician to determine treatment more appropriately, evaluate results of management more reliably, and compare worldwide statistics reported from various institutions on a local, regional, and national basis more confidently, cancer physicians can't afford to be without the full AJCC Cancer Staging Handbook inside their PDAs. (Note: all of the TNM staging information included in the Sixth Edition is uniform between the AJCC and the UICC - International Union Against Cancer).

The Sixth Edition of the AJCC Cancer Staging Handbook remains the essential reference for oncologists, pathologists, surgeons, cancer registrars, and medical professionals worldwide to assure that all those taking care of cancer patients will be trained in the language of cancer staging.

With Skyscape's patented smARTlink technology, AJCC can easily cross-index with other clinical and drug prescription products from Skyscape to provide a powerful and integrated source of clinical information that you can carry with you wherever you go!

Very cool. But as with Skyscape products, it comes with a hefty orice tag - US$69.95. This works out to be almost RM265 .
Gosh, now I really need that Lexar 256 MB SD card ;)