Mobile Healthcare software news: April 10-28, 2006

This month: PDA reference news & mobile rollouts

April 28, 2006 -- (MobileVillage) -- Below is a roundup of recently announced mobile healthcare products, all of which are references for PDAs.

Unbound Medicine released an extensively revised Davis's Drug Guide with Auto-Updates. It features fast navigation with 5 new indexes (for a total of 9), 16 appendices with dose calculations and lab values. Unbound's platform supports access on the PDA or via the Web from a PC, Treo, BlackBerry or Smartphone. Davis's Drug Guide now features nearly 5,000 drugs, plus the most common herbal and natural products. There is extensive cross-linking between drugs, a bookmark tool to quickly return to critical information, and visual emphasis for high-alert drugs and life threatening side effects.

Current subscribers to Davis's Drug Guide will automatically receive this update, as will subscribers to Medicine Central, Nursing Central, Anesthesia Central, and Emergency Central.

To download a trial, see unboundmedicine.com.

USBMIS released its newest PDA application, Obstetrics Gynecology & Infertility, 5th Edition. The reference provides information for immediate patient care, as well as a basis of practical knowledge for a career in obstetrics and gynecology, including the subspecialties of maternal-fetal medicine, reproductive endocrinology, and gyn-oncology. The reference contains over 200 tables, flowcharts and figures, plus a index. Users can jot down notes within program content, jump straight to frequently viewed information using bookmarks, examine several operative reports for support information, and utilize a full list of common lab values. There is also a "Spanish Primer" to help resolve language barriers.

For more information about Obstetrics Gynecology & Infertility, see usbmis.com.

-----------------

University of Massachussetts (UMASS) nursing students at Boston and Lowell campuses are trading literally thousands of pages of medical reference texts for PDA based references provided by Skyscape.

UMASS Boston systems librarian Apurva Mehta and UMASS Lowell systems librarian John Callahan and assistant professor Patrick Scollin got together to see if there was a better way to utilize technology to make this information available at the point-of-care.

"Our goal," says Scollin, "is to allow students to access information inside and outside of the classroom -- as well as in a learning environment like their clinical rotations -- where they really need the information on-hand."

While researching the options, the team at UMASS applied for and received a state grant for $18,000, and so began the PDA loan program at the campus library. Once word spread students quickly began signing up to borrow and use PDAs while on clinical rotations.

Now in the second year there are 35 PDAs for loan at both UMASS Lowell and Boston campus libraries. Five PDAs are held by professors instructing nursing clinical classes and 30 are available for loan to students at each library. There are 17 Skyscape medical references that were purchased for use on the Palm PDAs, including Evidence Based Diagnosis, Griffith's 5-Minute Clinical Consult, and Nurse's Pocket Guide: Diagnosis, Intervention, and Rationales.

The benefits of using the PDAs are seen by student and registered nurses alike -- especially when the students use them while in clinical at the hospital. "We've heard of situations where students are on rounds using their PDAs and the nurses are so curious that they rush over to borrow the students' PDA to check out the applications," says Callahan.

According to Callahan, the PDAs loaded with Skyscape references satisfy a professional goal for the students, similar to a stethoscope or medical book. "And they don't want to give them up," he says, "so Skyscape instituted a discount program for students who want the references on their own PDAs."

"We couldn't be happier with the program, it has really become a resource that students expect," adds Scollin. "But most importantly, is that they are becoming confident with the tools that ultimately will enable them to become successful nurse professionals."

For quick information on Skyscape, see the company's summary page on MobileVillage.

Recent Related Stories:

Healthcare collides with the networked enterprise (Computerworld)

Mobile healthcare news: Jan. 3 - 13, 2006

Mobile Healthcare software news Nov. 28 - Dec. 20, 2005

UCLA Medical Center docs trial real-time access to patient data on mobiles

Back to MobileVillage News Page