Best Handango Medical App

Palminfocenter reports that Handango has announced the winners of the Handango Champion Awards at the Handango Partner Summit.

The winner in the Medical Category is BluefishRx Prescription Writer by Bluefish

View the complete list of winners here.

Event Reporting

Pharmacists have been able to capture more data on drug events with the use of PDAs. Mobilehealthdata has the news.

Pharmacists at UMass Memorial Medical Center have doubled their documentation of drug interventions since the organization enabled them to do so via PDAs. Last October, the Worcester, Mass.-based, three-hospital delivery system offered 30 of its pharmacists PDAs with documentation software from HealthProLink Inc., Bellevue, Wash. The software has enabled the pharmacists to use the hand-helds to record adverse drug interactions, medication errors and potential adverse events. The pharmacists then synch their PDAs to a database hosted by the vendor. The delivery system's director of pharmacy or other authorized administrators can access the updated reporting data via the vendor's secure Web site. UMass pharmacists use Sony SJ-22 PDAs from Sony Corp. of America Inc., New York, which run the Palm OS operating system. The software also can be used on hand-helds running the Windows Mobile operating system. After six months using the PDAs and software, UMass pharmacists have doubled their intervention reporting. Prior to using the hand-held application, pharmacists were using a Web-based reporting tool. For more information, go to www.healthprolink.com.

Updates from Ectopic Brain: TB Guidelines

Ectopic Brain has news of TB guidelines from CDC available for your Palm.
You can go to the CDC website directly.

Clinical Orthopedics 2004

Pacific Primary Care has released Clinical Orthopedics 2004 v2, another title in their colleciton of iSilo/Mobipocket Reader compatible ebooks.

Application Description: The topics included: everything orthopedic you can imagine, from head to toe. It includes emergency procedures, diagnostic procedures, detailed therapeutic and rehab info as well as many illustrations. This text is very extensive, it covers a vast amount of information. Great for any primary care physician, resident or even a medical student. Every section is in the same basic format: epidemiology, pathophysiology, signs/symptoms, work-up, detailed treatments, extensive differential diagnosis, and even a few illustrations! At the end of each major section is a list of key references/resources as well. Fully edited by board certified Orthopedic Surgeons. This text contains numerous illustrations and is fully referenced.

Site update

I have added an RSS Feed of new and updated software from Palmgear on the right hand side. This is to complement the latest news from Palminfocenter and Palmloyal. More feeds to come!

Wireless drug trials

I'm still waiting for that elusive driver for my T3. Wifi is important as hotpots become ubiquitous. I have Wifi @work and @home. I find it surprising that palmOne has not updated the Tungsten C which remains the only Wifi model from their stable. I would have seriously considered the T|C had it not lacked Bluetooth which I also find very important since I value wireless connectivity with my phone (an SE t610) and GRPS access to the Internet in the instances where there are no Wifi hotspots.

Anyway MobileHealthData has the story on Drug Trials going Wireless

June 21, 2004 - Charlestown, Mass.-based PHT Corp. has worked with AT&T Wireless, Redmond, Wash., to enable drug manufacturing companies to use PHT's PDA-based clinical trial application over mobile phone networks. Drug trial participants use the software vendor's Wireless LogPad application to enter their information onto PDAs. The software is designed for PDAs running the Palm OS operating system. Participants transmit their information by synching their PDAs via a land-line, cradle or wireless connection to PHT servers, which then send the data to drug manufacturers conducting a trial. To do so wirelessly, the participants send the data over mobile phone networks from AT&T Wireless. The software is being used in national and international trials by several major U.S. drug manufacturers. About 10% of the trials are receiving participant data wirelessly. For more information, go to www.phtcorp.com.

Updates from Ectopic Brain

Ectopic Brain has some information on a new Review on Medical Use of PDAs

Screenshot: RSS feeds

The Palmdoc Chronicles RSS feeds have been included (Thanks Sammy!) in Palmaddicts - the place to go for your hourly fix of Palm news. If you have a penchant for reading Palm and/or Medically related Syndicated newsfeeds, then you could aggregate them together in a Desktop newsreader (I highly recommend SharpNewsReader if you are using Windows). But if you wish to take your RSS feeds with you in your PDA, I highly recommend using Plucker/Jpluck. Jpluck is the Desktop component which will collect the newsfeeds and indeed any website and convert them to Plucker format which you can read on your Palm. I used to try something else for RSS but Jpluck/Plucker's the best and free too.


This screenshot shows Plucker displaying an RSS feed from Medscape. The feed was obtained using Jpluck and transferred to my Palm during Hotsync. Got any good medical newsfeeds to share?  

New releases from Skyscape

SurgOnco™ (The M.D. Anderson Surgical Oncology Handbook, 3rd Ed.) has been released by Skyscape.

The Third Edition of The M.D. Anderson Surgical Oncology Handbook is now available in PDA format for instant access at the point of care. Prepared by current and former surgical oncology fellows of the world-renowned M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, this handheld reference is a practical guide to established surgical oncology principles for each organ system. Easy-to-navigate entries with algorithms and line drawings outline the essentials of diagnosis, staging, and clinical management of solid tumors treated in surgical practice. The authors emphasize multidisciplinary treatment planning, including therapy sequencing and biologic therapies. With Skyscape's patented smARTlink™ technology, SurgOnco™ 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!

NDisCheck™ (Nurse's Quick Check: Diseases) is another title just released by Skyscape.

Designed for quick reference at the nurses' station, this reference presents succinct, bulleted information on 450 diseases. It provides a rapid refresher on the key facts a nurse needs to understand the clinical course of a disease and hone in on required care. Diseases are alphabetically organized and each disease is presented on an easy-to-scan format. Each disease entry includes pathophysiology, causes, complications, assessment, treatment, nursing interventions, outcomes, and patient education. Key information is flagged by logos such as Life-Threatening Disorder; and Age Issue, citing age-related concerns. With Skyscape's patented smARTlink™ technology, NDisCheck™ can easily cross-index with other titles from Skyscape to provide a powerful and integrated source of clinical information that you can carry with you anytime and anywhere!.

Imagiprobes

Stumbled across these "educational sensors" from Imagiworks in this article ImagiProbe SD Sensor Support for palmOne and Dana Handhelds in Palmloyal.

While the company focuses on sensors in the teaching of science to students, you may be interested to know that they also produce sensors which may have some potential for medical application:

One is an Exercise Heart Monitor:

The Exercise Heart Rate Monitor is ideal for determining the heart rate of actively moving individuals. With this sensor, a person's heart rate can be monitored during, as well as after exercise. The Exercise Heart Rate Monitor consists of a wireless transmitter belt and a receiver module that plugs into the sensor interface.

Another is an EKG Sensor:

The EKG Sensor measures electrical signals produced by the heart. It uses three disposable electrodes. An EKG graph is displayed, demonstrating to students the contraction and repolarization of the heart's chambers. A package of 100 disposable electrodes is included with the sensor. A package of 100 additional electrodes is available.

I wonder if their sensors can interface with Blood pressure gauges, Glucometers and other equipment? It would be great if the PDA could be used as a tool to collect and analayze data from these instruments.

Skyscape Offers Chronic Disease App

Mobilehealthdata has the news:

June 18, 2004 - Hudson, Mass.-based Skyscape Inc. has released a hand-held version of a chronic disease journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The "Preventing Chronic Diseases" application will be available as a reference title within the hand-held clinical software vendor's smARTlink integrated mobile platform. "Preventing Chronic Diseases" is a peer-reviewed journal offered through the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, a center within the CDC. It features information on how to best prevent chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and stroke. The journal aims to offer a dialogue between researchers and practitioners by offering information on both applied prevention research and practical experience for the prevention of chronic diseases. Skyscape's ARTbeat channels within its smARTlink platform offer free and paid clinical references, including one dedicated to information from the CDC. All Skyscape applications are available on PDAs running the Palm OS or Windows Mobile operating systems. For more information about the "Preventing Chronic Diseases" application or the ARTbeat channels, go to www.skyscape.com.

Ultimate Organ Systems Flash Cards (Bryan Edwards) 1.0

Now for $99.99 you can have a product that examines the structures and functions of the entire human body with 244 high resolution images.

Description: This amazing anatomy flash cards product Ultimate Organ Systems uses the time tested content from BryanEdwards.com, and displays specialized images to demonstrate all the systems of the human body. The PDA version contains 244 high resolution images which takes the user through an in depth examination of the following systems: 1. Cardiovascular 2. Digestive 3. Endocrine 4. Integument (Skin) 5. Lymphatic 6. Nervous 7. Reproductive 8. Respiratory 9. Special Senses 10. Urinary Substantial text content detailing each image and a quiz (?) section has been added to aid as a learning tool. Whether an attending physician using this product to demonstrate anatomical terms to a patient, a medical, dental or nursing student, or undergraduate anatomy student; this product will exceed your expectations and needs.

Updates from Ectopic Brain

Here are some updates posted by Ectopic Brain. Thought I'd just link them rather than repeat some of the same stuff again:

BluefishRx updated
Symbol Buys Mobile Security Vendor
More Clinical Data for Smart Phones
New Skyscape Titles (RadProc™ (Handbook of Interventional Radiologic Procedures, Third Edition, NursDiag™ (Handbook of Nursing Diagnosis, Tenth Edition, AnesRev™ Review of Clinical Anesthesia, Third Edition)

Dorlands2™ 6.0.5

Looking for a Medical Dictionary? Dorlands2™ 6.0.5 has been released by Skyscape.

Description: A great medical dictionary! Based on the "gold standard" of the medical community, Dorland's Pocket Medical Dictionary covers the must-know vocabulary, including 2800 new terms. All anatomy terms reflect the new Terminologia Anatomica, and 500 new drug terms reflect the 2000 editions of the USP and PDR. It also provides full-color illustrations and helpful charts and tables so all terminology is easy to understand!

PalmEKG

PalmEKG has recently been updated to version 1.1

Description: PalmEKG is an ECG/EKG field guide for the Palm computer. It features 25 arrhythmias with explanations of P, PRI, QRS, Rate, Rhythm, etc. Allows zooming, etc. From the company that makes eMedic.

Completely free, occupies only 20Kb Ram. Download from freewarepalm.com

Screenshot

Are you an ePocrates user? You need to regularly sync your ePocrates for updates and I really find the DocAlerts useful. Lately ePocrates has been sending out these little Quizes which I find fun as well. 

After you sync again, you get the reply by email from ePocrates like this:

Dear ePocrates subscriber, Thank you for taking part in our Test Your Medical Knowledge quiz. Here is the information you requested: Signs and symptoms observed with lobar (bacterial) pneumonia include all of the following except: * chest pain (pleuritic) * cough and fever * egophony * hyperresonance * tachypnea A=hyperresonance

(I'm sure you knew the answer to that one :) )

PubMed On Tap

PubMed On Tap has been updated to version 1.4.

PubMed on Tap is an application for PDAs that retrieves MEDLINE® citations directly from the PDA through a wireless connection to the Internet. PubMed on Tap features include: - Several PubMed search limits - A history of previous queries - The ability to email citations or save them to the Memo Pad - A clustered results option - And link-out to full-text Web sites.

There are both PalmOS and PPC versions available.

The Medical Database

Rodrigo Marban is only 17 years old but is already programming terrific applications like The Medical Database which is freeware and useful for patients who want to keep track of their medical data. It has now been updated to version 2.

With this program, you are going to be able to keep an extensive medical database that will suit your needs: Your doctors' names and specialities. # Your doctors' emergency phones. # All the clinics and data about them. # Your doctor appointments, with alarm to remember you. # Your medicines, what dose and an alarm to remember you. # Your surgeries. # Your allergies. Updated Description: # Added two new sections: Surgeries and Allergies. # Added more fields in some of the existing sections, so you can enter more detailed information if necessary. # Improved UI considerably by adding colorful buttons and nicer field arrangement. # Now the alarms for appointments and for medicines are linked to the built-in DateBook (Calendar), making it easier to set repetitions, etc.

The Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics

The Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics, 31st Edition has been released by Skyscape.

Established for over 40 years as the Bible of the medical ward, The Washington Manual" of Medical Therapeutics is now in its Thirty-First Edition and builds upon that proud tradition with even more of the current information you need, with a focus on inpatient care, delivered in a timesaving, quick-reference style. This edition includes the latest facts on nosocomial infections, West Nile virus, and agents of bioterrorism; the latest management of AIDS/HIV; and current JNC VII guidelines for management of hypertension. Drug appendices have a new quick-scanning format for rapid information retrieval.

Haven't we come along way. It was not so long ago that medical students, house officers and residents would be lugging along these "pocket" references. Now you can literally put multiple references in your PDA - you are only limited by the size of your storage card. Searching topics is so easy and quick too. What's in store in the future?

Clinical Neurology

Dr Weber has released an update to Clinical Neurology 2004 v2. This is one of many in his series of great text references in iSilo format. The references are hyperlinked which make searching very easy.

Application Description: Topics include: evaluation of weakness, neuropathy, myasthenia gravis, demyelinating disease including MS and Guillain-Barre, carpal tunnel, cerebellar disorders, movement disorders (tics, Tourette, dystonia..), tremors, Parkinsons, cerebral palsy, ALS, seizures, strokes, headaches, coma, cervical spine problems, low back pain, radiculopathy, sciatica, myofacial pain, sacroiliac dysfunction, ankylosing spondylitis and pseudo-neurological syndromes. To help you manage and treat anything that walks through the door. It is constantly updated, adding the latest and greatest medical management, drugs, dosages, and evidence based medical pearls.

Tungsten Es put to Good use

MobileHeathData reports:

Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Good Samaritan Society has purchased 500 PDAs from Milpitas, Calif.-based palmOne Inc. The long-term care organization plans to use the hand-helds to help streamline patient information management, enhance care quality and improve communication among its staff members. Caregivers at the not-for-profit organization's 250 locations will use the Tungsten E hand-helds to more accurately track and review resident activities, schedules and other data at the point of care. At the end of their shift, caregivers will download such data into Good Samaritan's proprietary resident tracking application via a hot synch to the organization's network servers. The long-term care organization plans to offer more PDAs to nearly 1,500 of its nurses this fall. The nurses will use the hand-helds to review resident care plans and document clinical information, such as blood pressure, pulse, weight and dietary intake at the point of care.

Skyscape Press Release

Skyscape(R), Inc. (www.skyscape.com), a leading provider of enterprise-wide mobile medical and nursing reference solutions, today announced that over 300,000 medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, physician assistants, residents and medical students, are registered users of Skyscape-powered software. This is an increase of 300 percent in less than two years, making Skyscape software the fastest growing among the top medical reference providers. Additionally, Skyscape now offers more than 200 titles for the PDA for both Palm and Pocket PC devices. These include clinical references, drug guides, dictionaries, drug interaction guides and calculators across 35 medical specialties, such as oncology, cardiology, internal medicine, pediatrics, EMT/paramedic, psychiatry and nursing. No other company offers this breadth and depth of references to meet medical professionals' information needs. Unlike other PDA offerings which simply provide static content on the handheld, all Skyscape-powered references dynamically smARTlink(TM) (link together in context to provide fast, easy cross referencing between titles) with each other, as well as the content from ARTbeat(TM), Skyscape's intelligent mobile platform. This patented technology provides medical professionals with immediate access to accurate information in context, at the point-of-care. "The growth of Skyscape's customer base shows that medical professionals, including physicians, nurses and first responders, clearly want trusted, integrated references, and Skyscape is the only provider who can meet those needs," said Sandeep Shah, CEO of Skyscape. "With the addition of a significant number of new titles over the past few months, as well as the Constellation suites--all-in-one solutions for specialists, customers of all kinds have a large selection of products from which to choose. Add in the ARTbeat channels, and clinicians have easy access to the best, most accurate information from numerous sources at the point-of-care." Moving Forward: A New Pulse on Chronic Disease Prevention In addition to its historic milestones, Skyscape today introduced a new, free ARTbeat up-to-the-minute handheld reference channel. Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) is a peer-reviewed electronic journal established to provide a forum for public health researchers and practitioners to share study results and practical experience. It is published by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, one of eight centers within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). PCD addresses the interface between applied prevention research and public health practice in chronic disease prevention. It focuses on providing information on how to best prevent diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and stroke, which are among the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. PCD aims to promote dialogue between researchers and practitioners on research findings and practical experience, and explores new theories and concepts in the field of chronic disease. This valuable information can now be quickly disseminated to the handhelds of the medical community via ARTbeat. ARTbeat is Skyscape's free intelligent mobile platform that provides medical practitioners with dynamic and continuously updated content that integrates with gold-standard medical references to enable practitioners to operate at the highest levels of expertise. In addition to the new, free PCD channel, Skyscape offers a selection of free and paid channels, including CDC Spotlights, MedWatch and Connections. All ARTbeat channels integrate with Skyscape-powered references via Skyscape's patented smARTlink capability. "Skyscape products, especially ARTbeat, are very useful in my clinical practice. I don't know how I managed without them," states Dr. Leah Cleveland, diabetes specialist and certified diabetic educator, Azusa Pacific University.

C-Tools

MedPDA.net reports on C-Tools 2.0 which is described as

The C-Tools 2.0 is a free software program for handheld personal digital assistants (PDA) to aid physicians and/or their staff in the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cancers. This innovative software was developed to run cross-platform on both Microsoft's Pocket PC platform and on PalmOne's line of Palm Pilots. Using the C-Tools, you will be able to instantly access important cancer-related health information including, but not limited to, such applications as * Detecting cancer in Children * Smoking Cessation materials * Pain Medications Dictionary * Drug Calculations * Prostate Specific Antigen information * Cancer Screening Guidelines

The software is apprently still in beta and I could not locate a download link. However it sounded familiar and checking thru the Palmdoc Chronicles archives, I did mention CA-Tools 1.0 back in December 2003. Version 1.0 is a free download from the Physician Oncology Education Programme of the Texas Medical Association. C-Tools 2.0 I suspect is based on the CA-Tools 1.0 as it has the same list of applications. I found v 1.0 a little buggy - "The Drug calculator seems buggy and I could not say convert Morphine to Fentanyl" - so I hope v 2.0 is an improvement but according to the ACS website we'll have to wait till January 2005 for the release.

Palmsource Expert Guide for Medical Students

Matt "Doc Panama" Delaney has written an excellent piece for Palmsource which serves as an Expert Guide for Students of Medicine and the Health Sciences.
There are tons of links, including quite a few that I was not aware of, so if you are a medical student, head over there now and take a look!

Thanks to Ectopic Brain for the heads-up on this link. Kent "Ectopic Brain" Willyard himself has written an Expert Guide for Doctors in Palmsource.

I think these Expert Guides are great. Things do change and there will be new software as well so I wonder if the Expert Guides will be updated from time to time? I certainly hope so!

HealthRamp and palmOne to Host Electronic Prescribing Solutions Webinar

What is a webinar?

"Webinars are web-based seminars. By using a telephone and the internet, a broad audience of attendees can participate in a seminar without having to leave their desks.
Webinars are as effective as on-site presentations without the travel expense."

From Palmloyal

HealthRamp and palmOne to Host Electronic Prescribing Solutions Webinar on June 9, 2004. The webinar probes how physicians and pharmacies save money and time, along with other benefits that ePrescribing offers. Learn about HealthRamp CarePoint's approach to addressing safety and cost issues in a medical practice. Find out what clinical tools HealthRamp CarePoint equips the medical professional with to increase practice efficiency and elevate the level of patient safety at the point of care. Webinar to Address Latest Advances in Point-of-Care Technology WHAT: palmOne and HealthRamp to present a webinar focused on emerging technologies for point-of-care automation. WHO: Marty Provo, Sales Manager for Healthcare for palmOne, and Louis Hyman, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, Operations for HealthRamp, Inc., will provide a demonstration of the CarePoint electronic prescribing solution on palmOne devices and offer insights into key implementation considerations WHEN: June 9, 2004, 2:00 PM EDT * HealthRamp will also summarize results from its recent survey of the electronic prescribing market. * Please use the following URL to attend: http://registration.intercall.com/go/palmone * For audio, dial 800-811-2508 (domestic) or 706-634-6084 (international) For more information on the palmOne and HealthRamp webinar and healthcare solutions from palmOne, please visit http://www.kohati.com/palmone/eprescribing.

AnesRev

Skyscape has released AnesRev (Review of Clinical Anesthesia, Third Edition)

The popular, widely used Review of Clinical Anesthesia, Third Edition is now available in PDA format for quick, easy access anytime and anywhere. This is the first comprehensive anesthesia review for PDAs and is the perfect study aid for written and oral board exams. Derived from Barash, Cullen and Stoelting's Clinical Anesthesia, Fourth Edition, this PDA review contains board-format questions with detailed answers. The software presents the questions and answers in a flash-card format that is ideal for exam preparation.

Screenshot


I still use the Memopad alot for quick notes and as an aide memoire. The Palm is very handy as a revision tool if you are learning a language - something all medical practitioners have to face up with if you want to comunicate with patients effectively. Make good use of categories and you can't go wrong. Here's a screenshot of a T3 displaying Chinese characters as it is running CJKOS, a popular add-on for displaying Chinese font. A good Chinese dictionary would be Yinghan which comes with speech output.  

Cardiomath

Cardiomath v1.01 has been released - freeware and chock-a-block with useful formulae for the practicing cardiologist.

Description: CardioMath is a PalmOS calculator with over 50 commonly used formulas in cardiovascular medicine. It covers the following areas including echocardiography, EKG, epidemiology, exercise stress testing, hemodynamics, and unit conversion (between SI & US). Each formula is accompanied by references and normal values.

Screenshot




Another screenshot from my Palm. Do you like to use Agendus icons? I think they are a terrific boon when you want to glance at the entire month and see what's up. Pretty colorful isn't it? I haven't seen any good iconset which is geared for medical professional use. At least now Agendus supports different icon sets so you can pick and choose or even design your own.  

Another tool for nurses

Not forgetting Nurses Toolbox which looks like an excellent set of utilities for the busy nurse.

Nurses ToolBox is a combination of 12 sections (modules) from the Award Winning products ER&ICU ToolBox and PediSuite. It enables the user to perform instant weight-based calculations for drug dosages, critical care drips, emergency drugs, fluids, and more for both Pediatric and Adult patients. Additionally, this program adds relevant information such as mixing, infusing and compatibility guides. There have been substantial updates and upgrades throughout all modules in version 5.0, but most significantly, the product now has a full A-Z index, allowing users to access content quickly by using the easy search tool.

Patientkeeper keeps rolling along...

Mobilehealthdata reports:

June 1, 2004 - Boston-based PatientKeeper Inc. signed several new contracts for its mobile software during the first five months of 2004. Provider organizations that have recently signed with the vendor include: Adventist Health System, Berkshire Health System, Halifax Fish Community Health Systems, Sinai Medical Group Chicago and the University of Kansas Hospital, Kansas City. PatientKeeper offers clinical mobile applications, including charge capture and dictation. Its mobile software platform is designed to integrate a health care organization's existing clinical applications and enable access via PDAs over a wireless local area network. The software can be used on PDAs running the Palm OS or Windows Mobile operating system. For more information, go to www.patientkeeper.com.

Nurses helper

There are plenty of patient trackers out there for doctors but not many for other health care professionals. So it's a breath of fresh air to see Nurses helper released. I personally think something which integrates with the HIS would be better than a standalone application but still, I am sure there are some Palm toting nurses who might find this one useful.

Application Description: Nurses Helper© is a Palm OS" application designed to be used by Nurses to record day to day information about their patients or clients, thus decreasing those trips to the Nursing station and paper hunting expeditions. Nurses Helper© can reduce the frustration experienced when the Doctors steal client notes and dont return them! Nurses Helper programmed by a Registered Nurse. We have tried to incorporate those day to day tasks that most Nurses would reasonably expect to do in a shift. Nurses Helper can save you time and energy by organising your patient information. Suits most Palm OS PDA's.