In my opinion, there are three classes of Palm computing programs for medical students.
- Organizer programs, for keeping track of appointments, to-do items, contact information, etc. These programs are used by most palm computing users, medical or not, thus there is a huge market, and subsequently a huge array of programmers and commercial programs available.
- Medical Reference programs, for keeping drug information, differential diagnosis references, even study notes. These are usually based on existing more traditional references such as Lexidrugs Handbook, 5 Minute Clinical Consult, PDR, Harriet Lane (coming soon), etc. or on Compilations of Personal Notes such as Physik's Lists, Maxwell's Guide (coming soon), Karam's Review (more on this in a future article), etc. In either case, the material is already compiled merely requiring conversion to a Palm compatible format.
- Patient Tracking programs, for keeping track of Inpatients, Outpatients, H&P's, Daily notes, Meds, Labs, etc. Everything that a medical student needs to keep track of for their assigned patients. This data is dynamic, changing on a daily if not hourly basis. Thus programs to track this data must be dynamic as well, allowing constant data modification. The interface must also be specific to medicine due to the specific categories of data required for medical records. For all of these reasons, this third class of programs has been the slowest to evolve. Despite these obstacles, there are several programs available for both commercially and otherwise for just such a purpose. This article will introduce several of these programs, listing their features, advantages, disadvantages, and planned upgrades (when known).
Palm Medical Charting $2,250 by Digital Assist
WOW! Based on the price that is what I expected to be "WOW'd", but it just didn't happen. I believe this program is aimed at the ER staff physician with focused H&P based on presenting complaint, comparison of Coding Level desired vs. justified thus far (you tell it what level you want to bill, it tells you what H&P elements you need to get there), and desktop companion for downloading & printing collected data. If you can afford this program, then you aren't getting the full medical school experience (we're supposed to be poor).
Hospital Rounds Database $24.99 by SolerSys
This is a collection of interlinked databases running on the HanDBase framework. Let me start by saying this program probably has features I never even discovered. Which is part of the problem. Every time I would think of a new piece of information I wanted to record, there was a place for me to put it. It just took me forever to figure out where that place was. The links from one program feature to another were difficult for me to follow. Also, there was no easy way to view all of the information on a particular patient all at one time.
Raphael 2.0 (99?) $149 by PDA Medical
Kind of pricey, but still within reason. The website looks great, with screen shots of cool input and summary pages, desktop companion software, multi-user interfaces, etc. So I downloaded the demo. I had trouble installing the software. No sweat, I'll just try downloading again (from a different site). Same problem. OK, Try technical support. Nothing. Even tried a friend at PDAMD.com, "Never have been able to get hold of anyone over there" was the reply. Which pretty much sums up my experience; no working demo after 2 months of trying, and no response from technical support after 2 weeks. I give up. IS ANYONE HOME at PDA Medical?
Editor's Note: Raphael has been removed from the PDAMD.com catalog for this reason.
Strong Contenders:PocketMD v0.5 $5.00 by PocketMD
The price is right. The information is laid out in a logical manner, but as of yet there isn't much in the way of automation to help with getting the information down (none or incomplete pulldown lists). I look forward to Version 1.0.
Rounder 3.3 $25.00 by Synapse Software
Very concise. Input minimal identification information. Each day record the following for each patient: seen, note written, quick systems based note (Neu, CV, Res, GI, ID, Labs, and Med all based on prior day's note), and any ToDo items for that patient. Update everyone's list with beaming support. Tackle the ToDo list with all patients ToDo items listed together and divided by category (Floor, XR, Lab). Mark ToDo items as they are completed. A great working / rounding tool.
Ward Watch 1.2.5 $29.95 by Torlesse Systems
The chronological approach. Information is recorded as discrete events. Each event may be a Problems, Meds, Labs, Consults, etc. The type of event and its' status is represented via some cool icons on a summary page for each patient. All events can be viewed, or only those of a selected type (i.e. Meds). Information can be shared via beaming.
My Choice:PatientKeeper 2.3 $35 by Maulin Shah (recently purchased by Virtmed)
The information is laid out in a logical manner. Most data entry is automated to a large extent (including daily SOAP notes based on prior day). There is a summary page(s) which contains all information on a patient. Navigating between patients is easy. There is beaming support for x-cover and printing. It's not perfect. There is no desktop companion, there is no way to synchronize information gathered on patients by multiple team members, the Meds database could be better, etc. All of there things can be fixed (and per Maulin are planned to be fixed in future releases). The most exciting and the most worrying thing about PatientKeeper is Virtmed. Exciting because a Great Program now has a Great Deal of $$$ behind it (at least that is the general idea behind the buyout). Worrying because since the buyout, response to customer issues had been haphazard. Thus far the missteps have all been corrected with plausible explanations of how and why the problems arose. In the end only time will tell if this was a good or a bad move for PatientKeeper.
Next Month: Details and usage tips on PatientKeeper, along with the latest on VirtMed.