Jerry Fahrni » Mobile Computing

Evernote update for Android is awesome

Jerry Fahrni — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:01:37 +0000

I received an update for Evernote today on my Galaxy Nexus. And let me just say that it’s awesome. I use Evernote all the time. It’s one of the few services I pay for because it’s the best method I’ve found for collecting notes; all kids of notes. I use it to clip web pages on my tablets (all of them) as well as my smartphone, take hand written notes, collaborate with others via shared notebooks, take audio notes, store journal articles in PDF format, and so on. It’s easy to organize my notes because of the familiar tag system that Evernote uses. Simply put, Evernote is indispensable.

The biggest change with the Evernote update is the user interface. The home page is easy to use and intuitive. In addition it lets you swipe out a hidden menu just off the screen to the right to get to your notes. The navigation is more “swipe friendly” and I like it. It’s really quite slick.

News flash, not all docs happy with iPad in the hospital setting

Jerry Fahrni — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:09:53 +0000

Palmdoc Chronicles: “It looks as if most doctors and nurses would rather not touch the iPad at work (or deal with any other kind of tablet computing). They certainly won’t be making it their go-to device. “We had some instances where physicians wanted iPads – thought they wanted them – borrowed them, used them for a few days and returned them,” said Kirk Larson, a vice president and chief information officer at Children’s Hospital Central California, who spoke at the Healthcare Information Transformation conference in Jacksonville, Florida.” – This article caught my attention because I used to work at the facility mentioned in the article (Children’s Hospital Central California). The actual content isn’t really a big deal. Unlike hats, one size doesn’t necessarily fit all when it comes to tablets. Slate tablets really aren’t designed for data input. I ran into this problem nearly two years ago when the hospital I was working for at the time rolled out iPads to the pharmacists. Within a couple of weeks they were asking for their convertibles back (Dell XT2 tablet PCs).

Android App: Tarascon Prescriber’s Essentials

Jerry Fahrni — Tue, 01 May 2012 05:45:52 +0000

I never had much use for the Tarascon Pharmacopoeia, but I got a lot of mileage out of the Johns Hopkins ABX Guide.

From Google Play: Tarascon Prescriber’s Essentials

The Prescriber’s Essentials Android App is a combination of the award-winning Tarascon Pharmacopoeia and the Johns Hopkins POC-IT Center ABX Guide, now available for your Android device.

This must-have resource contains vital information on thousands of drugs and antimicrobials to help clinicians make better decisions at the point-of-care.

Prescriber’s Essentials Features Include:

Convenient and quick portable access on your Android device

Continuous drug updates for 12 months

A fully integrated tool for multiple drug interaction checking

47 invaluable drug reference tables and 15 dynamic calculators

Extensive pediatric drug dosing

Anti-microbial agents

Infectious diseases

Commonly-encountered pathogens

Telerounding with an iPad at Henry Ford Hospital

Jerry Fahrni — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:23:33 +0000

PRWeb:

The surgeon and his patient are actually 25 miles apart in two different hospitals, each armed with an iPad equipped with the live video chat software FaceTime.

Through face-to-face video calls on iPads and other tablets, Henry Ford is initiating the next wave of high-tech communication at hospitals called “telerounding.”

“Patients are looking for us to use current technology in a way that improves their care, and ‘telerounding’ with the iPad really fits that need in enhancing the communication and care following surgery.”

The iPad fills a critical need for Henry Ford surgeons like Dr. Rogers – who perform operations each week at both Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital – to communicate with their patients in the clinic or inpatient setting, even when they’re not in the same city.

Previously, the surgeon would call the patient on the phone if he wasn’t on site. By replacing a phone call with a video-chat on the iPad, patients are able to have a personal and confidential conversation with their surgeon.

I love this concept. I talked to a pharmacy director at the end of last year that was doing something similar with the iPad for patient medication consultation at the time of discharge. Discharge medications were filled by the pharmacy and delivered to the patient’s bedside by a pharmacy technician toting an iPad. If the patient desired consultation with a pharmacist the technician fired up FaceTime. Cool use of technology.

AJHP optimized for mobile access

Jerry Fahrni — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:46:05 +0000

Looks like the little elves over at AJHP have been busy making their journal easier to access from mobile devices. That’s pretty cool. I spent a few minutes playing around with the site on my Nexus and it worked well. I was able to pull up Implementing smart pumps for epidural infusions in an academic medical center and read through it without any major obstacles. The only recommendation I have for AJHP would be to make the process of logging in easier. The optimized site bounces you to the full blown web page for login. Overall, well done.

Physician shares thoughts on using tablet PC in the field

Jerry Fahrni — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 04:14:36 +0000

Mobile Healthc Computing.com: “Dr. R. Dale Walker, from the Cherokee Tribe of Oklahoma, is a professor of Psychiatry, Public Health and Preventive Medicine as well as the director of the Center for American Indian Education and Research at Oregon Health and Science University and director of the One Sky Center.

… “When out in the field, you want to eliminate as many things that could go wrong as possible, and the J3500 Tablet PC does just that with its battery life, ruggedness, power and performance,” said Dr. Walker. “Consumer tablets just can’t compute like the Windows®-based Motion Tablet PCs, and who wants to carry around multiple systems when you have everything you need in one device?”

According to Dr. Walker, using the J3500 Tablet PC is just like taking notes on paper, but much more efficient. An hour’s worth of notes can be converted to text and emailed out in just minutes. “The ability to capture information, report back on my findings and share knowledge in near real time is an invaluable capability,” said Dr. Walker.

The tablet serves as a desktop replacement or portable library, helping Dr. Walker look up, verify or access educational tools on the fly, which proves extremely valuable considering the often remote locations of the communities. The access to information also reduces the amount of time spent on each subject, meaning more time to cover more topics. “It’s giving them the gift of information,” said Dr. Walker.”

The article reads a bit like a propaganda piece from Motion Computing, but I agree with pretty much all the highlights. I’ve been a fan of the Motion J3500 for a while. I’ve written about it before and stand by my opion. The only negative to the device is the price tag. In this day of inexpensive consumer tablets it’s difficult to swallow the price tag, which is a staggering $2-3K. You get a lot for your money, but it’s still hard to swallow.

The insidious nature of ignorance and my curiosity

Jerry Fahrni — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 20:04:05 +0000

There’s been a Tweet flowing through my Twitter stream for a few days now and I’ve avoided clicking on the link because I knew it would be something totally ridiculous, misleading and meaningless. Unfortunately it was a quiet Sunday morning, and while I sipped my coffee and waited for the rest of my household to come to life, I succumbed to human nature and clicked the link.

Grrr! I knew it. Something totally ridiculous, misleading and meaningless. What was I thinking? Why do I torture myself this way? One can only speculate.

The link led me to the following article: Heart Attack Survivor Says An iPad Helped Save His Life

“…he remembered having his iPad in his bag. The tablet was a tool he had just gotten and was just beginning to use in his practice of medicine.

In seconds, he brought up the Mayo Clinic’s application to access patient electronic medical records so as to look at McMonigle’s EKG from his past heart scare. The doctors compared it to the new heart rhythms, which confirmed their suspicions that McMonigle was having an acute heart attack.“

I wasn’t surprised, but was certainly disappointed. Based on the stream of Tweets and title of the article I thought for sure the iPad grew legs and pulled the man from a fire. Alas, that wasn’t the case at all. Do I really need to mention that the man had the clinical acumen to diagnose his own heart attack, or that he was standing in a room full of physicians? The iPad had nearly nothing to do with saving the mans life. Why not credit the highly trained healthcare professionals for acting quickly, or the healthcare system that had the foresight to build an EHR that lends itself to mobile access, or the millions of dollars worth of advanced healthcare technology that, oh I don’t know, was used to actually save the man’s life. Sheez.

Here’s an equivalent article for you: Heart Attack Survivor Says BlueTooth Mouse Helped Save His Life

“…he remembered having his BlueTooth Mouse in his bag. The mouse was a tool he had just gotten and was just beginning to use in his practice of medicine.

In seconds, he brought up the Mayo Clinic’s application to access patient electronic medical records so as to look at McMonigle’s EKG from his past heart scare. The doctors compared it to the new heart rhythms, which confirmed their suspicions that McMonigle was having an acute heart attack.“

Sounds ridiculous, right? It’s. The. Same. Concept. This is what happens when you get a bunch of people together to write a story armed with IQ’s no bigger than the temperature on a hot summer day in the Central Valley of California. This type of hype irritates me more than you can imagine. Focusing on some small piece of consumer technology – whether Apple, Android or Windows – in a story like this goes off the must-have-been-a-slow-news-day o’meter. And people eat it up.

News worthy would have been if the guy pulled an augmented reality device from his bag, injected a few nanobots into the guy and cleared the blockage and repaired the vessel on the spot. That’s technology worth writing about.

That’s it, no more early Sunday morning reading for me. I’m sleeping in.

ASHP announces eBooks and official iPad app

Jerry Fahrni — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:44:41 +0000

This is pretty cool. I’m a bit disappointed that ASHP didn’t have the foresight to build an Android version at the same time, but at least it’s something.

Android app updates for Medscape Mobile

Jerry Fahrni — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:19:29 +0000

Taken from an email I received informing me of the changes. Overall it looks like a pretty solid update.

Clinical Reference Updates – January 2012 Summary for Medscape App for Android™

487 diseases & conditions updated

114 drug monographs updated

4 new drug monographs added

Featured Content of the Month – Heart Failure

This month we bring you an expanded collection of over 30 Heart Failure topics that have been updated with the most recent developments from medical literature and guideline recommendations from the American Heart Association, the New York Heart Association, and the European Society of Cardiology.

Comprehensive coverage on Heart Failure, including:

Heart Failure – includes the latest guidelines from the ACCF/AHA, NYHA, and ESC, as well as a greatly expanded multimedia library of clinical images and videos

Echocardiography – discusses the technical aspects of 2-D and Doppler echocardiography and provides an overview of equipment and patient preparation

Transvenous Cardiac Pacing - provides details on obtaining venous access, a technique for placement of the pacing lead, and complications that may occur

Permanent Pacemaker Insertion – offers information on devices and equipment, details on the implantation technique, and a discussion of technical considerations

New Drug Monographs

azilsartan/chlorthalidone (Edarbyclor)
New drug combination of an angiotensin II receptor blocker and thiazide-like diuretic indicated for treatment of hypertension.

glucarpidase (Voraxaze)
New carboxypeptidase enzyme indicated for toxic plasma methotrexate concentrations in patients with delayed methotrexate clearance due to impaired renal function.

Drug Monograph Updates

brentuximab (Adcetris)
A new black box warning was added that describes cases of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, a rare but serious brain infection that can result in death.

C1 inhibitor human (Berinert)
Expanded indication includes treatment of acute attacks for laryngeal hereditary angioedema.

pneumococcal vaccine 13-valent (Prevnar 13)
New indication for prevention of pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in adults aged 50 years or older.

raltegravir (Isentress)
New pediatric indication for HIV-1 infection in children aged 2 years or older.

Fentanyl transmucosal (Subsys)
New sublingual spray indicated for breakthrough cancer pain.

Practice Changing Updates

Our app is continually being updated with new FDA drug approvals, the latest clinical updates from medical literature and current guidelines to help you stay informed and make the best decisions in the treatment of your patients. Here are this month’s featured updates:

Bacterial Pneumonia – Prevnar 13, a pneumococcal 13-valent conjugate vaccine, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for people aged 50 years and older to prevent pneumonia and invasive disease caused by the bacterium, Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Human Papillomavirus – The CDC now recommends the quadrivalent HPV vaccine (Gardasil) for routine use in boys aged 11 or 12 years. Current recommendations advise vaccination for males aged 13-21 years who have not been vaccinated previously or who have not completed the 3-dose series.

Look at the Transformer Prime with keyboard dock

Jerry Fahrni — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:00:33 +0000

Nice little review of the Transformer Prime (TFP) hardware at GigaOM. Make sure to check the game play at around 7:55 in the video. The reviewer plugs an Xbox 360 controller into the USB slot on the keyboard dock and uses it to play Shadow Run. How cool is that.

I really think the hybrid design of the TFP is ideal for many situations, especially for those people that truly want to carry a single device. As much as I like tablets I find that I still need a keyboard for any significant data entry chores, whether it be with a spreadsheet, word processor, etc.

I would really like to see tablet PC manufacturers like Lenovo and Samsung do something similar, i.e. a keyboard dock that increases battery life and folds into a laptop style portfolio with the tablet docked. My dream machine would be a Samsung Series 7 Slate with a laptop dock similar to the TFP. It doesn’t appear that Samsung is interested in such a docking solution, but I’m hopeful that a third party will take the hint and do it anyway.