HIV Info

December 1 is World Aids Day. I thought I'd try and locate some free HIV information for your Palm PDA.
The CDC has an AIDS Info Tools webpage with a Drug Database and a HIV/AIDS Glossary .
You can also download HIV Drug & Mutation Reference Guide 2.0 from PalmGear.
There is also a free iSilo reference General Information on HIV & AIDS from the Medical iSilo Depot.
If there are any others do let me know.

Stedman's Medical Dictionary

Skyscape has updated the HPND5™ (Stedman's Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing, 5th Ed.) and also released StedmansA™ (Stedman's Abbreviations, Acronyms & Symbols, 3rd Ed.)

The Fifth Edition of the popular Stedman's Concise medical dictionary is thoroughly updated with a new name and more than 51,000 entries, featuring more of the medical terminology used in over 30 of today's fastest growing health profession areas. You'll also find more comprehensive inclusion of entries suited for the Nursing field, with correct terminology for all Nursing students and practitioners. Features include: * More than 4,000 new terms totaling 51,000 terms * Written pronunciations for every term help you master usage quickly * More British alternative spellings * More than 40 leading consultants from the fastest growing nursing and health professions contributed to the enhancements of this latest edition

Do you use a Medical dictionary? They come in quite handy when you want to look up definitions and spelling. Stedman's ranks amongst the best IMO. What's your favorite medical dictionary?

Memoleaf

How do you organise your notes on your PDA as your "peripheral brain"? I must admit I am rather disorganised as I just chuck them into my T3's Memo. Things have been getting quite cluttered lately and I have been looking to better organise my notes.
There are many solutions out there. Jim Thompson for example uses Bonsai Outliner as his peripheral brain.
I didn't fancy recreating a new database of notes though.
I noticed then this app being updated in Palmgear - Memoleaf

Memo Leaf is a companion to work with the Palm OS built-in Memo Pad/Memos database. While keeping valuable memo information organized, it is powered with lightning fast search functions to locate information. Instead of classifying memos into limited number of categories, Memo Leaf allows memos to be better described and classified based on the memo title. Keywords can be put in the first line of the memo as the memo title. Then effective queries can be performed either by looking up those keywords appeared in the memo title or by finding text within the entire memo content.

This sounds like a great solution to those of you (like me) who have a huge collection of notes haphazardly arranged in your Palm's memopad. I think I'll give it a try. I like the feature where you can export a group of notes to Palm doc format before purging it - great way to archive them out. There is also a search history and template function so it looks like one powerful little package!

Quit smoking tools

Spotted this bizzare idea in Gizmodo - an Electronic Cigarette Counter which you can stick on your pack of carcinogens!
For PalmOS users you can use some freeware utilities like Cigarette Count
and Smoking v1.03 to keep track of how much you've poisoned your body each day.
Ectopic Brain blogged about the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) releasing a new consumer tool for Palm OS and Windows Mobile handhelds to help smokers who want to quit. Unfortunately I've been trying to get to the Quit Smoking: Consumer Interactive Tool page - but the latter link does not work.

5MCC 2005

Skyscape has released 5MCC 2005 (Griffith's 5-Minute Clinical Consult 2005)
Medical software for PDAs are really becoming huge and memory cards are a must. Still I can't help noticing that the memory requirement is 4.6MB for PalmOS compared with 10.2MB for Windows mobile (PPC)!

Screenshots : Wells criteria for PE

	Wells criteria was highlighted recently in the press - this is a screen shot from the Medwire Avantgo channel showing the article. Wells criteria has recently been tested out again in the Emergency Room setting and has been found to be useful as a screening guide for the diagnosis of Pulmonary embolism
	I thought I'd just take the opportunity to show a screenshot from the up and coming Haemoncrules v1.8 - I have added a filtering feature in the main screen so that you can view lists of "benign" and "malignant" modules.
	One of the "benign" modules is the Wells criteria for Pulmonary embolism.
	You input the clinical criteria and you can easily calculate out the score for the probability of PE> Isn't this easier than carrying around the reference in some piece of paper and using a pen and paper to try to add up the score?
	What's more, you can proceed on to test guidelines according to Wells' paper: the diagnostic algorithm guides you to PE confirmation or exclusion by various tools such as D-dimer assay, CT Angio, VQ scan and Doppler U/S according to the Wells clinical score. Neat eh?

 
Sorry for the unusually large number of pics in this blogpost but I wanted to see if hello.com could add multiple pics in one blog. I also wanted to highlight the point that Haemoncrules is not all "malignant" and there are modules which even ERDoc could use ;)
I've added another new module in version 1.8 and revised two other modules. Stay tuned for more......

Food Factor

Fear not weight watchers, Palm programmers are out there to help you!
I spotted Calorie Factor which is described as "a dietary calculator used to calculate a score of points". Freeware.
Reminds me of another free tool which was discontinued due to pressure from a certain organization. I looked around and WWCalc is still alive and thriving in Cyberspace! The latter is somewhat more sophisticated than Calorie Factor and can work with Food Lists.
Now for Asian Food lovers, some good news. My friend peterscm has converted the Asian Food Database which previously works with PalmOS databases lkike HanDbase, to a standalone program.


It's still a work in progress though and not yet released. I thought I'd put a screenshot here as a sneak preview.

Avantgo 5.7 beta

At long last Avantgo 5.7 (beta) is out and supports Hires+ (320x480) screens in both Portrait and Landscape modes.
This is simply fantastic and something I've been waiting for a long time.



You can download it here
At the moment there unfortunately isn't a whole lot of terrific medical content on Avantgo channels. I do hope more Journals and Medical publications would consider publishing TOCs, Abstracts and News for doctors on Avantgo channels or mobile friendly web pages.

Patient Follower

Yet another patient tracker program, Patient Follower has been released.

Description:

Patient Follower - A PalmPilot Patient Tracking Tool. Designed for attendings, residents, students. Featuring: - Follow Patient Info and Location - Automatically Follow Hospital Days - AutoCalc Medication/Treatment Days - Summarize Patient Totals by Ward - Summarize Patients by Intern or Team - Archive Patients and Bounce-Back - Tap on Headings for quick entry - Customizable for your own Hospital

Palm EMR

Noah of KVPUG continues fine development on his Palm EMR project. This runs on PHP and MySQL. It basically allows you to access patient medical records from a PDA and is an interesting solution if you have WLAN at work.
View the ongoing discussion in KVPUG's Doctors Shack. To see an online demo, take this link http://emr.asiabox.biz/palmemr/index.php - you can login with your PC or PDA. The screen is formatted for PDAs. Use Admin as the login and 1234 as the password. PalmEMR is Opensource and if you want to take a look at the source files, download here

New Skyscape releases

The following are new Skyscape releases which you might want to check out:
FerriGuide6™ (Practical Guide to the Care of the Medical Patient, 6th Ed.)
MedAbbrev™ (Dictionary of Medical Acronyms & Abbreviations, 5th Ed.)

I would certainly like to check out the latter. I am interested if it is a comprehensive source for clinical trial acronyms. There certainly isn't any comprehensive website with clinical trial acronyms (I found this one)- I wish there were as there are so many and it's getting very confusing.

Pedi-Table

Pedi-Table 0.9b has been released on Palmgear

A quick and easy way to look up dosaging information for pediatric medications. Yes, there are other pediatric dosing 'calculators' out there, but who has the time to enter all the weight and concentration info in the middle of a busy practice. All I wanted was a QUICK and simple reference table to dosaging info, and that is what Pedi-Table does. Simply scroll up and down until you find the med you want, and then tap on it. Tap again to return to the main screen. Shareware.

T5 and Skyscape Update

If you are a T5 user or planning to "upgrade" to a T5, you might be interested to know that for Skyscape applications, you need to install an updated SSCAdmin file otherwise you might face problems installing Skyscape applications.

http://www.skyscape.com/support/installing_faq.asp#t5q1

Please update the SSCAdmin file on your Windows desktop pc 1. Download new SSCAdmin from: http://216.21.136.233/patches/Palm/t5/SSCAdmin.exe 2. Save SSCAdmin to this directory C:\Program Files\Common Files\Skyscape 3. Say yes to overwrite existing SSCAdmin 4. Go to Start | Programs | Skyscape | Product | Install to device 5. Press Hotsync button 6. Install screen will appear on desktop PC 7. Choose INTERNAL (this is the flash memory/USB drive on the device). Internal Memory is the device memory (handheld memory). CARD is the expansion memory - SD card

Where are the postcards?

Sadly after over 2000 downloads in Palmgear for HaemOncRules, the postcard count is only 1 :(
Now if you are a HaemOncRules user, this is what you have to put in your To Do list in your Palm now:

Send Palmdoc a postcard

Anyway thank you Robert. Your card is much appreciated. And see how quickly one's suggestion gets incorporated into the program ;)

Pharmacokinetic software for the Palm

I tried installing JavaPK but unfortunately I got an application error message saying that the "application required to view this data cannot be found".
I had earlier written to the author wondering if the software was compatible with IBM Java since the installation instructions in the homepage for JavaPK says to install midp.prc from Sun first. Anyway,I have informed the author of this incompatibility.
You might be interested to know that there are a few other pharmacokinetic software solutions for Palm OS: KineticsPro 1.2, Antibiotic Kinetics & Pharmacokinetics suite.

emPeds

Skyscape has released emPeds™ (eMedicine Pediatrics & Pediatric Specialties) on Palmgear

This is a completely current reference volume consisting of 874 comprehensive, but concise, disease-specific review articles. Each article undergoes 4 levels of physician peer-review and follows a consistent format. Twenty-two pediatric specialty areas are covered.

JavaPK

Have you installed Java on your PDA? I have (IBM Java from palmOne) and there aren't many medical apps for it at the moment. In fact from what I can see there are mostly games for the Java environment which folks like to play on their mobile phones. Creating a Java medical app would mean it is truly multi-platform and it's amazing how JavaPK a clinical pharmacokinetic program can run on a PalmOS-based PDA as well as a Java-supported cellular phone. The program contains individualized pharmacokinetic parameters estimation for digoxin, aminoglysocides (gentamicin & amikacin), vancomycin, phenytoin and cyclosporin-A.
You can download it from the software's homepage or from Palmgear. 30-day trial.

Guidelines for your PDA

I am sure many of you are aware of the National Guideline Clearinghouse, a repository of freely available guidelines. I was pleasantly suprised to find that the kind folk at the NGC have made their guidelines available as Palm Downloads. This is great news and I'm at the moment downloading some for my reference :)

ClinUrology

I have a urologist colleague who loves gadgets. Well, not as bad as Technobill ;) I've always believed having the latest and the greatest is not the point - the point is whether you are using what you have and maximizing the potential of what you have.
Anyway Peter, I don't know if you read this blog, but Skyscape has just the app for you:

Skyscape has released ClinUrology™ (Clinical Manual of Urology)

The perfect guide to practice, Clinical Manual of Urology puts leading-edge advice as close as your pocket. With up-to-date practices described by today's leading clinicians, this reference offers fundamental help with all major urologic conditions and diseases, plus time-saving recommendations on important problems you won't find covered in other clinical texts. In addition to presenting the major categories of urologic disease, the reference also covers important topics such as radiology, radiation therapy, nephrology, pediatric urology, transplantation surgery and vascular surgery.

Haemoncrules 1.7

I have updated Haemoncrules to version 1.7 and released the update on Palmgear
Visit the Haemoncrules Homepage which has undergone some changes - the complete list of modules is listed as is the version history.
The two new modulesare Acute GVHD grading and Myeloma SWOG staging.

Screenshot: Haemoncrules 1.7

It has been a quiet week for me. There are fewer patients because of the Ramadan holidays over here. Took the opportunity to update Haemoncrules.
This is a sneek preview of Haemoncrules version 1.7. Two new modules will be added, one of which is a handy reference for Acute GVHD Grading.  
Was wondering why Ectopic Brain has been quiet too - and here's the reason. Let's hope his new practice settles down quickly and let's see him back to his usual posting self :)

Haemoncrules Homepage

After more than 2000 downloads from Palmgear, I thought I'd give the Haemoncrules project a homepage of it's own.
So what are you waiting for?
Click on


I'm no great web designer myself, unlike experts like Mike Rohde - world famous designer. I had to rely on free templates from the web and other free web-tools. Tell me if you like it or hate it ;)

ePocrates Essentials for PPC

MobileHealthData reports that ePocrates Essentials, the suite of integrated applications by ePocrates comprising Epocrates Rx Pro drug reference guide, Epocrates Dx medical diagnostic and therapeutic reference guide, and Epocrates Lab is now available on the Windows Mobile platform apart from PalmOS.

Screenshot: C-Tools v2beta

Screen shot of the up and coming C-Tools version 2. The new version of the nifty PDA utility from the American Cancer Society. Currently in beta testing (it's stable on my T3) and due for release in January 2005. 

Heparin 1.1.1

Heparin 1.1.1 might be useful for those of you who are still using unfractionated heparin.

Application Description Small program to calculate weight based heparin. It can differentiate between high dose and low dose regimens. Displays the rate in units/hr, ml/hr, and the weight the doses are based on.

Clinical Infectious Diseases 2005

Clinical Infectious Diseases 2005 has been released by Pacific Primary Care in Palmgear.

Application Description Topics include: Travel/ Tropical medicine (evaluation, prevention and treatments), HIV/ AIDS, Parasites (worms, insects, food poisoning...), TB, Leprosy, Lymphadenopathy, Biological/ Chemical Weapons/ Terrorism agents, meningitis/ encephalitis, osteomyelitis, skin infections, fevers, sepsis, antibiotic use, common skin infections, tick bites, animal bites, wounds......... Features: Edited by a highly regarded Infectious Disease specialist.

Voice recognition

I have always been looking for the best portable medical dictation solution. I have an Olympus voice recorder bundled with a speech recognition program. It was only about 80% accurate and meant carrying an extra device with me all the time. I then tried out my Tungsten T with Audacity DVR and voice transcription with Dragon Naturally Speaking. The has been updated to version 8 and now Scansoft claims 99% accuracy. Well the last time (version 5 I think) I had a chance to check it out, it was like 80-90% accuracy at best so if it is 99% I might give it a shot again! Too bad PDA's don't have the processing power to perform the actual transcription but that may change in 10 years time....
Another interesting development is the Treo Launcher. For the first time on PalmOS we have a speech recognition application which allows you to dial contacts and launch applications just by speaking into your Treo 600. Now that is cool. I wish the author would extend it for use on the Tungsten T3.
Now don't you wish palmOne had included a Voice Recorder in the T5?

Haemoncrules 1.6

Haemoncrules 1.6.
I have added two more modules:
1) Prognosis of cancer patients admitted to ICU and
2) Myeloma ISS.
The screenshot above shows the latter. These two new modules were added at the request of Haemoncrules users. There are now a total of 27 modules. Keep the suggestions coming! 

NIOSH Pocket Guide 2004

Back in July 2003, I mentioned the NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards. This Guide has now been updated for 2004 and you can obtain free iSilo and Plucker versions. This is a great chemical hazard reference and has been converted from the NIOSH/CDC site

Current Consult Medicine 2.2

Unbound Medicine has released Current Consult Medicine 2.2

Summary: Integrated medical reference suite covering 850+ disorders linked with 550 differential diagnoses. From the authors of the best-selling text, CURRENT Medical Diagnosis & Treatment

emPMR and emRadio

More "em" titles from Skyscape:
emRadio™ (eMedicine Radiology) 7.0.1
and
emPMR™ (eMedicine Physical Medicine 7.0.1

SMS saves lives

I use SMS (Short Message Services) alot to communicate with colleagues and patients. SMS is a service provided by GSM cellphone carriers. It is cheap and unobtrusive - like a personal mini-fax service. Traditionally one uses T9 or similar input on your cellphone. I simply detest this and prefer to use my Tungsten T3 and send & receive SMSs to and fro from my SE t610 phone using Bluetooth technology. My two favorites are palmOne's built-in SMS program and funSMS. palmOne's SMS program is easy to use and very quick. It interfaces nicely with the builtin Contact database. One major annoying feature is that the SMS program does not display the name of the contact but only the cellphone number. After all this time, can't palmOne fix this?? AgendusMail has an SMS feature and it does display the name rather than the phone number but I have tried it out briefly and it crashed my Palm quite often - please correct me if the latest version is better now. funSMS on the other hand is an excellent stable product. My only gripe is that it takes some time loading the contact database at the beginning - this is quite a while if you have say something like 5000 contacts on your Palm. Otherwise it performs brilliantly and you can organise your SMS messages like email with an Inbox and Outbox, templates etc.
So what's this about SMS saving lives? I came across this Wired article on how this could be so. Interesting read.

emPedSurg

Skyscape has released emPedSurg™ (eMedicine Pediatric Sur 7.0.1) on Palmgear.

This is a completely current reference volume consisting of 92 comprehensive, but concise, disease-specific review articles across 6 pediatric surgical areas (cardiothoracic, general, otolaryngology, transplant, urology and vascular surgery). Each article undergoes 4 levels of physician peer-review and follows a consistent format.

Diabetes for Palm PDA users

Gosh I didn't know there were at least 16 PDA software companies producing products for diabetes mellitus. Anyway it is National Diabetes Month and PDA24/7 has the news

Asian Food Calorie Database

I have updated the Asian Food Calorie Database to include a Pilot-DB conversion.

Want to know how many calories that plate of Char Koay Teow contains? Want to total the Cholesterol or Sodium content? Now you can carry that information in your Palm! There are now three versions: HanDbase MobileDB PilotDB

Pilot-DB is a free opensource database application for PalmOS. Thanks to SC Chia for conversion.

Ahloon's blazing T5

Ahloon is an anesthetist and a proud owner of a spanking new T5 (and soon to be proud father of twin boys ;) ) He reports in his blog that the T5's internal storage Ram produces very fast VFS marks.
This is good news for us impatient docs where even waiting a few seconds feels like eternity ;)