New AHRQ Tool for PDAs Helps Clinicians

Newswire:

WASHINGTON, April 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today announced a second clinical decision-support tool for personal digital assistants (PDAs) that is designed to help clinicians deliver evidence-based medicine when they are with a patient. AHRQ's new Interactive Tool, the Preventive Services Selector, an application for Palm Pilots and other PDAs, is designed to help clinicians quickly and easily search for which preventive services to provide-or not provide-to patients based on their age and gender. The tool is available for download from the AHRQ Web site at http://pda.ahrq.gov/. "This new tool puts the latest information about prevention into the hands of doctors, who can put it to use immediately by recommending the appropriate preventive services for each individual patient," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. "It's one of the many ways that we're working to tap the power of modern technology to improve the quality of care for all Americans." The interactive preventive services tool is based on the latest recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The tool will be automatically updated with new Task Force recommendations each time the PDA is synchronized. The Task Force, sponsored by AHRQ, is the leading independent panel of experts in prevention and primary care. The Task Force conducts rigorous, impartial assessments of all of the scientific evidence for a broad range of preventive services, and its recommendations are considered the gold standard for clinical prevention. AHRQ PDA applications are available for download at http://pda.ahrq.gov/. The AHRQ Preventive Services Selector is available in Palm OS, Pocket PC and HTML formats. Additional AHRQ PDA applications are under development. "The Preventive Services Selector, along with AHRQ's recently announced Pneumonia Severity Index Calculator tool, is a good example of how technology can support and improve the delivery of evidence-based health care services," said AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D. "AHRQ is continuing to find ways to combine state- of-the-science research with technology to create tools that clinicians can use every day." For more information, see the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, Third Edition, online at http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/gcpspu.htm. For more information on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, visit the AHRQ Web site at: http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstfix.htm.

Saving Lives with a Simple PDA

David Kirpatrick has an interesting story in Fortune

Many IT-related projects in Africa are failing. That's because, Peters says, too many ignore the basic criteria for success: "Small, cheap, local, and relevant are the key things for IT here, with a suite of applications around the device." Often, for instance, what's appropriate is not a PC but a handheld, or even just a cellphone. (One of the main reasons for that? PCs are often stolen.) Assessments are not what's needed, she says. Action is. "Our calculation is that 84 different countries worldwide have had their IT assessed more than 10 times." Peters says the most effective use of technology she's ever seen was in a pilot project that gave doctors and medical students in Kenya Palm handhelds that contained a regularly updated set of medical reference materials. Drugs change frequently, as do treatment regimens. But, she explains, "Doctors are out all day seeing patients two to a bed and on the floor—so many it's unbelievable. They make notes on each patient but without a handheld they have to wait until the end of the day to check reference books for drug interactions and other information." The program resulted in clear improvements in patient care.

Amen to that. Small, cheap local and above all relevant to the needs of the country in question.

Peters is excited about a program Bridges has underway in its home city of Cape Town, which has one of the world's highest rates of tuberculosis infection. One doctor at a TB clinic was frustrated that even among patients who had come up with the money to join a treatment program, success rates were only about 60% because skipping the drugs for even one day meant someone had to start all over again. But he noticed that most of the patients had cellphones. ("In Africa people who don't even have addresses have cellphones," says Peters.) So he designed a program that automatically sends out daily SMS text messages to those phones in local languages. It says, according to Peters, "essentially that if you don't take your medicine you will die." Treatment success rates shot up. Now the City of Cape Town is considering rolling out the program in all 27 TB clinics across the city, and testing it in AIDS clinics.

Now this is interesting. Sending SMSes (or Texting) is an extremely popular form of communication in Asia. Its cheap and I was interested to read of this novel method on increasing medication compliance rates. Perhaps it could be adopted elsewhere.
How do you send SMSes? I prefer to do so from my PDA rather than the mobile phone - it's much easier to "text" via Graffiti and transmit it via Bluetooth to my SonyEricsson t610.

Smart Phones to Run Clinical App

Own a spanking new Treo600? Well, MobileHealthData has this bit of news which may interest you:

Sprint and MercuryMD have formed an agreement that would enable caregivers to access clinical data on smart phones. As a result, Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based MercuryMD will offer its MData mobile software via smart phones from Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint. The MData system is designed to enable access to various clinical systems within a health care organization on mobile hardware over a wireless network. The extension of the system to smart phones is one of the first applications to come out of an agreement between Sprint and Milpitas, Calif.-based palmOne Inc. that was announced in February. Caregivers will be able to access the MData system on the Treo smart phone from palmOne over a wireless high-speed data network from Sprint. The vendors integrated the technologies to appease caregivers who often want access to clinical systems outside their organizations, MercuryMD executives say. The combined technologies will be sold by Trio Teknologies Inc., a Carrolton, Texas-based distributor of wireless voice and data services. For more information, go to www.sprint.com or www.mercurcymd.com.

New Palms from palmOne

Ok not really medical but I guess you heard the news. The Zire31 and Zire 72 have landed!
The Zire72 looks impressive. Check out the reviews in BrightHand and PalmAddicts.

As for me I am sticking with my T3. For medical use, yuo really need the Ram. So many nice apps and some of them (yeah, ePocrates, when are you going to introduce SD/MS card support!!) really eat Ram.

I am still waiting for the SD Wifi drivers - that would make my setup complete:

T3
Power2Go
Palm Portable Keyboard
SE t610 Bluetooth mobile phone
Canon BJC-50 portable printer.
SD Wifi card

Now I can ditch that notebook ;)

Medsync freebies

A couple of FREE apps from Medsync have been updated:

Pneumonia Severity Index 1.1 is listed as $5.99 at their website but the company is now giving it away - grab it while it's free!

Description: This is a simple predictive program that can be used to detect those patients that are very critical that need to be in the ICU. This program can also help determine which patients can be safely treated as an outpatient if the computed risk of complication is low enough. This program is based on 2 studies from which a prognostic model was developed to accurately identify critical patients with Community Acquired Pneumonia.

The other freebie (also listed at $5.99 in their website) is Lung Injury Score 2.0

This is a simple calculator to determine the extent of lung damage present in your patients that have ARDS and that are on the ventilator. It is quite simple to use and the extent of damage to their lungs is easily stratified into a None, Mild, Moderate, or Severe probability of lung injury. Simply select from the drop-down menus and hit Lung Injury Score to calculate the extent of injury. Those who chose to register will obtain FREE lifetime updates and bug fixes.

Midnight Medicine

Medical Wizards have released a new PDA application:

Midnight Medicine: a quick-reference to assist Emergency, Primary Care Physicians, Mid Level Providers and House Staff in managing common medical emergencine The third edition of Midnight Medicine has been completely revised and updated with new entries for atrial fibrillation, unstable angina, headache, toxicology, and endotracheal intubation. All information has been optimized for display in the PDA format, and a comprehensive index facilitates rapid navigation. A powerful bonus is the addition of integrated calculators by Medical Wizards for many drug doses and for the numerous clinical scales and scoring systems. This quick-reference will assist Emergency, Primary Care Physicians, Mid Level Providers and House Staff in managing patients during the initial hours of common medical emergencies.

Looks good. And attractively priced @ under US$30.

The Medical Letter - PalmOS Edition

The Medical Letter is now available in Palm PDA format. They have also released Treatment Guidelines in Palm PDA format. The Press Release:

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y., April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, only about half of patients receive standard of care treatment. To provide health care professionals with up-to-date standard of care treatment information, The Medical Letter today released the PDA version of Treatment Guidelines from The Medical Letter, a publication that provides authoritative drug prescribing recommendations. Treatment Guidelines, also available in print and online, provides physicians and other healthcare professionals with unbiased drug treatment recommendations for common diseases. "The unique editorial process used to produce Treatment Guidelines results in prescribing recommendations that are free of pharmaceutical influence," said deputy editor Gianna Zuccotti, M.D., M.P.H. "Now these trusted recommendations can be easily accessed by physicians through their PDA." Each month, Treatment Guidelines from The Medical Letter provides prescribing and formulary recommendations for diseases such as diabetes,asthma, osteoporosis, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, heart failure, cancer, high cholesterol levels, epilepsy, pain, depression, as well as treatment of bacterial, fungal and viral infections. The print, online and PDA versions (Palm OS only) also contain invaluable retail price comparison and dosage charts. The Medical Letter, Inc., a nonprofit organization founded in 1958, offers health care professionals objective, independent analysis of both prescription and over-the-counter drugs. In addition to its newsletters, The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics and Treatment Guidelines from The Medical Letter, also publishes handbooks and software on topics such as adverse drug interactions and antimicrobial therapy. The Medical Letter, Inc., is supported entirely by subscriber fees and is based in New Rochelle, NY. For more information about The Medical Letter visit their Web site at http://www.medicalletter.org.

The Medical Letter HandHeld Edition has these features:

Drug recommendations and analysis you can trust, available at the point-of-care.
Search drugs by name, class, indication or by publication date.
Pharmacology, clinical studies, adverse effects and cost information is presented for each drug.
Invaluable drug/cost tables from the print edition.
References for each article.
Frequency: updated biweekly.

Minimum Requirements:
Handheld Operating System: Palm OS 3.1 or higher
Handheld Memory minimum: 1.2MB



Treatment Guidelines Handheld Edition has these features:

AutoUpdate feature automatically downloads the latest articles when you HotSync (Windows only).
Clinical studies, adverse effects and cost comparison for each drug.
Invaluable dosage/cost tables from the print edition.
References for each article.
Delete articles feature allows you to maximize your PDAs memory.
Convenient! Now access on your PDA all the information from the print version.


Minimum Requirements:
Handheld Operating System: Palm OS 3.3 or higher
Handheld Memory minimum: 4MB Built-in, 700KB free
AutoUpdate requires Windows 98 or later





Now the sad news. Both these versions cost extra $$$ (US$40-49 for current subscribers with a discount for students and interns) on top of what current subscribers are paying. I think the publishers should reconsider this pricing strategy. Surely they could encourage more subscriber loyalty by providing subscribers FREE access to the PDA version. The NEJM provides free PDA format of its articles. Another thing is the PalmOS format has the advantage on huge savings in printing costs. They should have a subscription option whereby the subscriber opts only for the PDA format - then they could have a special PDA format only subscription rate which could be lower than the print edition.

AMA Code of Ethics on your PDA

For over 155 years, the AMA Code of Medical Ethics has been considered the most comprehensive ethics guide for physicians, covering a wide range of issues related to the patient-physician relationship, such as confidentiality and end-of-life care. It also addresses social policy issues that affect medical practice matters such as medical records, fees and charges, and professional rights

Well, you can now carry the AMA Code of Medical Ethics on your PDA. Just surf over to the AMA and follow the instructions to synch the Code onto your PDA. The site uses Avantgo to transfer the pages over to your PDA.

ePocrates - no Mac freebie?

Earlier this week I gave a talk to colleagues in the hospital where I work on the use of a PDA to access drug formularies. The talk was well attended and there were plenty of questions. I naturally had talked about ePocrates since this is probably the most widely used formulary. Someone asked me if it was available for Mac users and I answered that I wan't sure. Well I just visited the ePocrates site and it looks like Mac is supported only for the Pro version and not the free ePocratesRx version - gee I wonder why? This sort of discriminates against Mac users :(

By the way, if you are giving a talk, one great way to give a live demo of Palm PDA usage is to use POSE, the Palm Emulator. This projects very well and generally people are more impressed with this than static Powerpoint pages. It's certainly a cheaper alternative to getting a Margi Presenter-to-go SD module!



The emulator is free and you can get it from Palmsource

MedCalc

Mathias Tschopp has updated his great freebie, MedCalc to version 5.0
If you haven;t installed it yet, you must! MedCalc is the most full-featured medical calculator for Palm OS, ever!



Update Description:
v5.0 (04/22/04):

- Adds 3 formulas (target height, pressure gradient, two-way table)
- Adds new onscreen numeric keypad on most formulas to ease data input
- Detailed information can be viewed in place of the virtual graffiti area
- Adds Sony support for collapsible input area
- The usual bug fixes

More on mobile dictation

Mobilehealthdata has this piece of news:

April 21, 2004 - Auckland, New Zealand-based WinScribe Inc. has released dictation software for use on PDAs and smart phones. The software, dubbed WinScribe Pocket Author for PDAs and Smart Phones, integrates with the vendor's PC-based suite of digital dictation applications, which are compatible with legacy dictation software from a variety of vendors. The WinScribe Pocket Author hand-held software was developed using Microsoft .Net technology. It can be integrated with various health care information systems, including scheduling and demographic applications. The new software is designed to record dictation on PDAs or smart phones for later transcription or send voice files over a wireless network to a remote system for immediate transcription. WinScribe distributes its products in the United States, New Zealand and Europe. For more information, go to www.winscribe.com.

What about PalmOS? I talked about The case for PDA dictation back in February 2004. Probably the best solution is Audacity as it gives one the option of recording in high enough quality for transcribing voice to text.

Babycheck

Babycheck has been recently updated again.
This free app allows you to track your baby's progress.

Update Description v2.3:

* Added: Possibility to select another baby to be displayed at the same time on the graphs (green curve)
* Bug correction: the automatic BMI calculation is now ok in the measurement detail screen

ACP brings PIER to the Palm

Press release:

Mobile Medical Reference Leader Top Choice For Associations Delivering Trusted Content to Members’ PDAs HUDSON, Mass.­April 19, 2004­Skyscape®, Inc. (www.skyscape.com), the leading provider of enterprise-wide mobile medical and nursing solutions, today announced that the American College of Physicians (ACP) has selected Skyscape to provide the first fully-integrated version of its Physicians’ Information and Education Resource (PIER) for handheld computers. The product will be demonstrated and available for purchase at the Skyscape Booth (#1354) at ACP’s Annual Session in New Orleans, April 22-24, 2004. The American College of Physicians is the nation’s largest medical specialty organization and second-largest physician rroup. Its membership comprises more than 115,000 internal medicine physicians, related subspecialists and medical students. “More of our members are using PDAs as part of their daily practice, and this product will provide them with a reference that will cross-index seamlessly with their other Skyscape PDA references to fully realize the usefulness of PIER’s evidence-based approach,” said ACP Executive Vice President and CEO John Tooker, MD, MBA, FACP. “Skyscape brought the technology, expertise and proven track record needed to meet our needs and the needs of our physician members. By providing immediate, cross-indexing capability with more than 180 other medical references, Skyscape has helped us bring even more functionality to PIER.” Developed and continually updated by the ACP, PIER is a decision-support tool designed for rapid point-of-care delivery of evidence-based guidance for clinicians. PIER’s disease-based modules present a series of guidance statements and practice recommendations, supported by more detailed levels of rationale and evidence.

View more info on Skyscape's ACP PIER

Hot for Mobility

Mobileheathdata has this:

Just a few days after Mother Frances Hospital implemented a mobile patient data system, more than 100 of its physicians were using their PDAs to access it. The Tyler, Texas-based hospital is part of the Trinity Mother Frances Health System. The doctors use the MData Enterprise system from Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based MercuryMD. The software enables PDA access to various patient data, including census lists, demographics, lab results, diagnostic reports, medication lists and transcribed reports from the hospital's information systems. Physicians synch their PDAs at docking stations across the hospital to download the information. The delivery system plans to offer the software to medical staff at all of its affiliated clinics within the next few months. It also has purchased the vendor's SmartCare and MData Desktop software. The SmartCare software is designed to help clinicians identify and manage high-risk patients. MData Desktop is a Web-based version of the MData software that's accessible via Tablet PCs.

Is Palm losing out to PPC and Tablet PCs in the Hospital Enterprise arena? I don't know the statistics but it would be a sad day if BillG & Co monopolise everything. I sure hope Palm can maintain its presence in Enterprise PDA computing but its going to be one tough battle. What do you think?

Hospital Finishes Hand-held Pilot

When I saw that title, I first thought that the hospital got rid of their old Palm Pilots or something ;)
Anyway its about Dell Axims!

Source: Mobilehealthdata

April 16, 2004 - Washington-based George Washington University Hospital recently completed a nine-month pilot study using PDA-based clinical applications to document patient encounters. The hospital used hand-held software from Arlington, Va.-based MobiHealth Inc. for the study, which began last June. The hospital used the vendor's charge capture, documentation and patient census applications in its intensive care department. Physicians in the department accessed the applications via Axim PDAs from Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Inc. over the hospitals Wi-Fi network. MobiHealth also used HL7 interface technology to integrate the hand-held applications with the hospital's health care information system from Siemens Medical Solutions, Malvern, Pa. The hospital found that the use of the hand-held technology reduced the amount of paperwork and time required to document the treatment of its patients. It also helped reduce the time it spent on billing, hospital executives say. The hospital used mostly paper processes in its intensive care department prior to the study. The hospital plans to continue using the mobile software and PDAs. For more information, go to www.mhealthapps.com.

Haemoncrules 1.3


I have updated Haemoncrules. Version 1.3 now contains 21 modules.

Three new modules are:

- Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis
- AML WHO Classification
- MDS WHO Classification

From version 1.3 onwards, Haemoncrules is no longer freeware but postcardware! If you find it truly useful (perhaps 20 or so people in the world haha), please do send me a postcard (address enclosed in the zip). I am really curious to know who is using this little app round the world.

Ventilator weaning

The makers of ABGPro have come up with a freebie, Ventilator setup and weaning protocols v2.0

The description:
Discontinuation of mechanical ventilation is important to patients (e.g. safety, comfort) institutional costs and resource utilization.
It is estimated that nearly half the time that patients spend on a mechanical ventilator occurs during the weaning process.
All patients requiring mechanical ventilation should receive regular assessment of discontinuation potential.
This assessment should include evidence that there has been some reversal of the underlying cause of respiratory failure, the adequacy of patient's ventilatory drive, gas exchange and hemodynamic stability.
Even patients who do not meet all conventional criteria for weaning potential may be candidates for spontaneous breathing trials.
This palm application was developed for the Queen Elizabeth Health Sciences Centre in Halifax , NS, Canada in accordance with the new Respiratory Therapy weaning protocol.
We thought we'd share it with other medical personnel to help proliferate this important procedure and protocol.
Please enjoy this complimentary application. Send us an email and tell us what you think and we will send you a registered version.

Send the registered version of ..... ABGPro? Sounds like a good deal :)

Bluegrass Family Health

Bluegrass Family Health and ePocrates, Inc. announced today that physicians and other health care professionals throughout the Bluegrass provider network -- which spans Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee and West Virginia -- will now be able to access ePocrates' comprehensive drug and clinical reference information along with the most up-to-date Bluegrass formulary (list of covered drugs) right on their handheld computer or personal digital assistant (PDA). Accessing both clinical and health plan information via one fully integrated source not only increases the physicians' workflow efficiency by reducing the pharmacy callbacks, but also saves the patients' time by not having to re-prescribe prescriptions and also money by prescribing medication with the lowest co-pay. Prescribing physicians can also look up clinical information such as dosing and drug interactions, at the point-of-care before a prescription is written, directly enhancing patient safety and ultimately satisfaction. Bluegrass is focused on deploying technology that not only increases efficiency and lowers costs, but also directly benefits the patient. The ePocrates software will allow physicians to spend more time with their patients and less time searching for formulary guidelines. The physician's questions can be answered with a touch of a button, said Dr. Jaudon Behrman, Chief Medical Officer for Bluegrass. In addition to the formulary listing, ePocrates technology allows the physician to view generic drug information, drug interactions, contraindications and adverse reactions. This software will help prevent medication errors and allow physicians to spend more quality time with their patients. Source

Kudos to Bluegrass and ePocrates. Recently I spoke on PDAs in Medicine (Mobile Healthcare Solutions) @ eHealth Asia 2004 and there was a lively Q&A session after my talk. Feed back from Singapore and HongKong: their early experiments with PDAs in hospital use were failures. The doctors found them "too cumbersome". The Singaporean admitted it was because they used "1kg WinCE machines". The HK doctors found their PDAs with 6 hr battery lives too complicated for them. I guess they should have used PalmOS machines, duh...... ;)

MICROMEDEX offer

Thomson MICROMEDEX to Offer APhA Members Comprehensive Mobile Suite:

MICROMEDEX, announced today a special offer for members of the nation's largest pharmacy association, American Pharmacists Association (APhA).

APhA professional and student members now have complimentary access to mobileMICROMEDEX. This tool allows clinicians to download to their Palm OS or Pocket PC PDA, concise medical information on drugs, alternative medicine, acute care, and toxicology, which is derived from the comprehensive MICROMEDEX® Healthcare Series databases that 88% of top hospitals* use every day. Also included is a drug interaction tool to help pharmacists identify potential adverse drug events. Pharmacists play a key role in working with other health professionals to keep patients safe. One way is through the prevention of drug interactions.

Skyscape Launches Constellation

Skyscape(R), Inc, the leading provider of enterprise-wide mobile medical and nursing solutions, today announced its new line of Constellation(TM) suites--the first and only fully integrated, all-in-one handheld solution customized for individual medical specialties and practitioners. Unlike other handheld references, Skyscape Constellation suites are comprised of top references and clinical decision making tools--all integrated utilizing Skyscape's patented smARTlink(TM) functionality, which allows practitioners to cross-link between any of the over 180 references powered by Skyscape. No other product comes close to the level of integration, breadth and depth of Skyscape's Constellation suites.

The first five Constellation suites are for Anesthesiology, Cardiology, Emergency Medicine, Nursing and Pediatrics. Skyscape will introduce Constellation suites for additional specialties later this year.

"While other companies may talk about providing full integration, Skyscape delivers it with all of our titles," said Sandeep Shah, President and CEO, for Skyscape. "Constellation is another important milestone in how Skyscape is extending its domination of the PDA medical reference market, by leveraging the power of our patented smARTlink technology. Our goal is to provide a complete, integrated solution that contains the most popular, proven references and decision-making tools for individual specialties."

Constellation's Power In Action--Seamless Integration and Comprehensive Information

Constellation's decision-making and reference tools include clinical references, drug guides, drug interaction analyzers, medical calculators, ICD-9 coding tools and much more. For the first time, trusted medical references from a variety of leading publishers are available as a single, integrated suite. Each Constellation suite includes a unified interface which enables a medical professional to seamlessly access and navigate the suite of products with one touch of a stylus on their handheld device, and without having to learn multiple products.

"I have tried several companies' software, but none have the breadth, depth and efficiency of Skyscape's Constellation suite. I was looking for an all-in-one solution, and with Constellation, I found it. Now I can do quick literature searches, develop differentials, cost-effectively run tests, and check drug interactions," said Dr. Ira Halperin, Internist for OSF, Clinical Assistant Professor for University of Illinois at Chicago.

All of Skyscape's Constellation suites come with the most popular references and decision-making tools for each specialty or practitioner and can be further customized by the user. In addition to the core content for a particular specialty, each Constellation suite has a collection of add-on references that are available at a discount when purchased with the Constellation suite.

"Integrated medical references and decision-making tools are key," said Dr. Steven Blumberg, Board Certified ObGyn, Cape Cod Hospital. "During a recent flight when a passenger suddenly became ill, I was able to confirm that his symptoms were secondary to an overdose of his cardiac medications through the information supplied in Drug Guide for Physicians and then I was able to review and confirm the proper care through the information found in the 5-Minute Emergency Medicine Consult."

The initial Constellation suites are:

-- Anesthesiology Constellation Suite-- An integrated suite of the top references and decision-making tools for anesthesiologists.

-- Cardiology Constellation Suite-- Cardiologists and other cardiology specialists in need of gold-standard references and decision-making tools at the point-of-care can select this suite of titles.

-- Emergency Medicine Constellation Suite--Emergency medical practitioners and other personnel who deal with emergency situations can obtain the integrated suite of the best-selling references and decision-making tools for their field.

-- Nursing Constellation Suite--This is a comprehensive collection of the top titles and decision-making tools for registered nurses and nurse practitioners.

-- Pediatric Constellation Suite--Pediatricians and other pediatric specialists who select this suite will receive the most popular pediatric references and decision-making tools.

Stop Smoking



Stop Smoking - Break the Chains is a free ebook by Mark Jordan.
Mark describes himself and his book thus:

Mark Jordan, an addiction specialist of 16 years, invites you to stop smoking and to break the chains forever.
"This amazing totally free tutorial gives you easy to follow guidelines and a set of tasks that ensures you will break free from your nicotine addiction."

The text was uploaded to Memoware.com supposedly in Palm and PPC format but I could not download it so I guess the file was corrupt. I did manage to download the text from Mark Jordan's website in Word format. For your convenience, I have converted it and you can download the same in Palm Doc format. It's a small file and something you could easily beam to your patient's Palm :)

Lecture notes

Medical students find PDAs useful for looking up references. How many use their PDAs to take lecture notes?
I always thought a PDA with a portable keyboard would make an excellent lecture note-taking tool. Far better than a notebook since with the latter you don't have the battery power to last the whole day unless you are fortunate enough to find a power plug. Moreover the Palm + PPK combo is extremely portable.



Now LectureMate 1.0 has been recently released by Cyberling Technologies Inc. With this, you can "Jot down class / lecture notes, assignments, sketches, and reference details with LectureMate. Use built-in themes to create cool, clean note reports in HTML from raw PDA notes". I think the conduit to the Windows desktop program to create professional themed documents from your PDA notes is brilliant.

The features:

-Generate themed documents from raw handheld note data
-Create and share your own note themes
-Mark assignments completed as you do them
-Create Notes, Assignments, References and Sketches
-Quick view window means you don't have to open notes to quickly find what you're looking for



The benefits:
-Organize your notes as time stamped reports by course and class
-Simple, intuitive, high quality recording/reporting tool
-Included Desktop software let's you create professional notes in seconds
-Record assignment dates and integrate them with your built-in ToDo database
-Always have your class notes with you for quick reference
-Share notes with other students via automatically generated report e-mails

Well, if you are a Med student and still hesitating to get a PDA - what are you waiting for?

Ramp it up

Mobile Health Data reports:

Country Estates of Agawam, Mass., will use mobile health software from New York-based HealthRamp. The long-term care facility, an affiliate of Commonwealth Communities of Stoughton, Massachusetts, will implement the software, dubbed CareGiver, for a three-month trial.
The technology is designed to enable physicians to place orders for medications, treatments, results and supplies from a smart phone or PDA running the Palm OS or Windows Mobile operating system. Commonwealth plans to implement CareGiver in 11 of its other long-term care facilities if it's satisfied with the results of the three-month trial. The organization has worked with the vendor to develop specifications and other product extensions for the software.

Java medical apps?

Now that palmOne has released a new version of its ARM-processor-optimized Java runtime, it might be time to explore what medical apps are available for this platform.
It's not a big download but one needs 3MB Ram free - thank goodness for the 64MB in my T3.
Midlet.org has a few medical applications. Not much there but at least it is a beginning. The ability to download and run apps on one's Palm sounds like a great idea.



Some like this MIDP Dicom Viewer look intruiging. I haven't explored the world of Dicom medical imaging though so I can't say much.

The description for this applet says:
MIDP Dicom viewer is a tool for medical professionals for viewing and editing of DICOM medical images. A great tool for the doctor on the move.