Anyway, I found myself in a situation where I needed to move several large files and had no easy way to do it. Fortunately I use SuargarSync, which is capable of quickly and easily sharing files.

Sharing single files

To quickly share a single file all you have to do is create a public link which can be emailed to the intended recipient. From the SugarSync help files:

A “Public Link” is a URL, or a path, straight to the file stored in the cloud. You can send the Public Link in an email or a text message, you can post it on your blog, or you can publish it to Facebook or Twitter. The recipient or website visitor can click the link at any time to download the latest version of the file.

• The link you send is a “live” link to the most current version of the file. If you make changes to the file, your recipients can click the link to download the updated version.
• It’s easy to paste this link into your own email program and send it to your recipients. Since you are not sending the file as an attachment, you save tons of space in your mailbox.
• You can go to Other Places > Public Files in the SugarSync Website to see how many times the file has been downloaded. You can also disable the link in the Public Files dashboard when you no longer want to share the file.
• The recipient does not need to have a SugarSync account, and does not need to sign into SugarSync to access the file.

When you receive the “Public Link” simply put the URL in your browser and you’ll be taken straight to the file. Works great. And when you no longer want people accessing the file simply disable the link.

Google recently unveiled the availability of its Chromebook, a laptop “optimized for the web”. I haven’t had an opportunity to see one in person, but I have every intention to purchase one of these machines and give the concept a shot. Based on internet chatter it may be easier said than done as I believe the Chromebook will be a hot commodity when it becomes available.

With that said there are already haters popping up all over over the internet. One in particular, a editorial by Tom Simonite at technology review, caught my attention. In the article Simonite summarizes some of the reasons that “the tech press came up with that Chromebooks are a bad idea”.

• It won’t work with your iPod, points out this ZDNet blogger – I declare shenanigans! You want everyone to believe that an entire platform will fail because it won’t sync with an Apple product. I’m not buying it. Allow me to share a quick story with you. The battery on my trusty iPod finally gave out. I went to an Apple store to ask what I could do about it. The sales person told me that I’d have to make a Genius Bar appointment if I wanted more information. Really? Anyway, I “Googled” it on my Droid and found that I could buy a battery kit for about $20 and change it myself. But instead of doing that I decided that my experience at the Apple store was a sign that it was time for me to make a change. I promptly went home, signed up for a paid Amazon Cloud Drive account and began moving my music to the cloud. I couldn’t be happier with the result.
• They’re too expensive, says PCMag, at a minimum cost of $429 or $349– This is so ridiculous that I can’t even begin to argue against it. People drop more for netbooks, smartphones and less functional tablets all day long. Tech enthusiasts won’t care.
• People aren’t ready to trust the cloud, claims InformationWeek – This argument holds some validity. Many people don’t understand the idea of the cloud. The only thing I would ask someone making this argument is if they use any type of “cloud based” email like Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. Or if they’ve every used a credit card to make an online purchase, or utilized online banking, or even have an active iTunes account. If so, then they’re trusting “the cloud” with their information. Hypocrites.
• It’s a goldmine for hackers, says an expert at software security firm Kaspersky – Whatever, dude. See argument above.
• Google can’t do hardware and support, claims veteran Silicon Valley journalist Tom Foremski – We’ll have to wait and see. I think it’s a little premature to make a statement like that. But I will point out that Chromebooks are being made by Samsung and Acer. Maybe it’s just me, but I think these companies will have some sort of support infrastructure in place.
• Google gets too much control, according to SearchEngineWatch – Are you #$!&%ing kidding me? I wonder if the person saying this has ever owned an iPod, iPhone or iPad. Who do you think has complete control over the content on those devices? And we all know how big a failure those were. Why would you put something like that in print? Do people actually listen to the crap that comes out of their mouth? 

When I read articles like this it brings images of someone sitting on a MacBook Pro in front of a shrine dedicated to Steve Jobs. I remember similar articles and statements when Android hit the smartphone industry. I was an early adopter and purchased a Droid the second day it was available. Sure it had its quirks, but each upgrade brought with it new features and an improved experience. Throw in the integration with all the Google stuff I use and it’s a winner. I also owned an iPod, iPhone and an iPad for a while. I liked all of them, but decided they weren’t for me.

I think the Google Chromebook will make a lot of sense to a lot of people. Will it be for everyone? Of course not, but don’t rubber stamp it DOA because you don’t like the idea.

EHR Bloggers: “We’re excited to bring you a major new feature for your EHR account today: drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction alerts. It’s a frequently requested enhancement and also a big step towards Meaningful Use. And, like all our features, this clinical decision support system (CDSS) is entirely free.

Drug Interaction Alerts
You will now be automatically alerted when a drug you are adding, prescribing or refilling interacts with another drug or with an allergy listed in the patient’s chart. The following video shows you how to set permissions, heed alerts and override alerts. “

To gain access and begin using the Practice Fusion EHR simply sign up for a free account here. I would encourage any practitioner that needs a robust, easy to use EHR system to give Practice Fusion a look. It’s a solid application.

I was going to try the new feature for myself, but forgot my credentials; how embarrassing.

I’m a proponent of both mobile computing and the cloud, and I think the author of the article finds the right combination of words and logic to articulate why the cloud will provide the platform of the future for healthcare. This is especially true as healthcare continues to attempt to develop integrated solutions and shared databases. “Health IT evangelists often imagine a world where data standards and anonymous sharing enable a whole new level of medical analytics. With pooled health data new hypotheses might be tested that previously would have required expensive observational trials. Drugs with harmful side-effects would be more easily identified and new treatment protocols could be written. The sort of sharing necessary for these robust analytics is made much more difficult when patient data is on local machines, either on a doctor’s computer, or a hospital’s servers. The adoption of Chrome OS has the potential to catalyze the move to the cloud, and thus this holy grail of medical analytics.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Below are two videos. The first shows a short run through of the Chrome OS on the CR-48 by Medgadget. The second is an awesome video showing some inventive ways to destroy your CR-48 notebook. Of Course the entire exercise is designed to demonstrate the benefits of using cloud computing to preserve your precious data regardless of how your CR-48 meets its demise.

I’ve read several reviews of the Cr-48 and for the most part users haven’t been all that impressed. The reviews interest me because I don’t believe the people using these machines get it. First and foremost, the Cr-48 is clearly a work in progress as is Chrome OS. Second, the idea of an internet based, fully cloud enabled system is ideal for creating a hardware agnostic future. It appears to me that Google is testing the waters and collecting data for a future run at something bigger. Do you really doubt Google will continue to develop a better cloud concept for an operating system? It would be a mistake to do so.

I remember similar thoughts from the so called experts when the Android OS rolled out, and now it’s slowly becoming the most prominent operating system for mobile devices. I don’t see that changing anytime in the near future.

I’ve embraced the cloud and actively pursued it in my personal computing. It’s clearly not perfect and still feels immature as a “desktop” platform for all to use. My attempts to rid myself of traditional legacy applications have been met with failure at times. You must be connected to the internet to make use of the cloud-only space for example. And until wireless access is truly ubiquitous it will continue to be the bane of the cloud. For now the use of hybrid applications seems to be the most logical. I consider applications like Dropbox to be a model example of what more developers need to do if they want to drive the cloud forward. Dropbox is cloud based, but resides locally on the device. It’s also available for most computing platforms, i.e. iOS, Windows, Android, etc. It’s nearly perfect.

Another barrier to personal cloud computing is the lack of a hybrid office suite. The problem remains the same; you need access to the cloud to use cloud based applications. I attempted to convert exclusively to Google Docs late last year and quickly returned to using Microsoft Office on the desktop. Lack of access killed me. A solid hybrid office suite has yet to be developed. Microsoft has made valiant attempts, but hasn’t quite pulled it off yet. Office Live is conceptually perfect, but in practice falls woefully short. Office 365 may be the right answer, but I haven’t had the opportunity to play with it or see it in action up close and personal.

Consider the potential of Chrome OS in combination with the Android OS; a mobile platform and a desktop platform that share a common architecture similar to the combination of Apple OS and the iOS. Now add to that the functionality, benefits and potential of the cloud; something that Apple has failed to take advantage of. I’ve utilized Google Sync functionality several times to set up new laptops. It’s awesome. Simply install Google Chrome, type in your password and in just a few minutes you’re in business. I’ve had the same experience with Evernote and Dropbox; my web clipping and file synching applications of choice.

Taking the concept one step further, imagine doing this with an entire desktop. It would make the hardware irrelevant. Get a new machine, type in your Google credentials and watch your entire desktop get restored on the computer right in front of you. All applications, documents and files continue to be stored locally while being synced to the cloud. When the machine reaches the end of its life simply nuke it, buy a new machine, type in your Google credentials and you’re off and running. Include the same features on mobile systems and you’ve created a very flexible platform for a mobile workforce.

So don’t dismiss Chrome OS or Google’s first attempt at a notebook just yet. Google may not have invented the cloud, but they’ve certainly done more than anyone else to bring the concept of utilizing the cloud to the forefront of everyone’s mind. The Cr-48 is a rare bird indeed, and I’ll unfortunately never get my hands on one, but it’s an important development nonetheless. Consider it a concept car.

Wolters and Kluwer just bolstered their position and gained significantly more credibility with their purchase of Pharmacy OneSource. Pharmacy OneSource is the maker of several innovative pharmacy products such as Accupedia pediatric dosing software, Sentri 7 clinical surveillance software and Quantifi for pharmacist intervention documentation. Pharmacy OneSource not only provides several interesting and innovative applications, they also offer them by way of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, which is uncommon in the pharmacy world.

I’ve blogged about Pharmacy OneSource several times as I’m not only a fan of their products, but their distribution model and use of cloud computing as well. It’s no secret that I believe in cloud computing as the future for many applicaitons in pharmacy and feel that Pharmacy OneSource has created a solid foundation on which the rest of the industry can build. My only hope for the Wolters Klumer acquisition of Pharmacy OneSource is that their innovative products and strategy won’t change. Often times the first thing to go when a smaller company is purchased by a larger company is innovation. Here’s hoping that won’t happen.

Outpatient anticoagulation therapy, i.e. warfarin management, became a big deal when JCAHO made it one of their national patient safety goals a few years back. I’m specifically referring to National Patient Safety Goal 3E: Reducing Harm from Anticoagulation Therapy. If you feel like giving yourself a headache you can read through the entire Abulatory Health Care National Patient Safety Goals (PDF). I wouldn’t recommend it.

Being that it’s web-based software I wonder if it runs on any mobile devices. I couldn’t find any information one way or the other on MedKeeper’s website. Sure would be nice though.

DoseResponse® is a sophisticated yet intuitive, web-based application designed to help you deliver superior care for patients on anticoagulation therapy by reducing the potential for human error. DoseResponse® software is proprietary (patent-pending), and is designed to ease your burden of documentation, management and reporting.

DoseResponse® is a flexible, secure, and user-friendly software solution for outpatient anticoagulation clinics:

• Automates the capture of patient management information, reducing time in manual tracking and creating reports
• Efficiently documents patient encounters to support reimbursement, and verifyadherence to accepted standards of care
• Incorporates national guidelines for dosing and monitoring to provide a standardized, consistent approach to therapy
• Improves patient communication and compliance by printing easy-to-read, graphical dosage instructions for patients
• Provides ongoing quality assurance (including TTR) and reports to facilitate efforts to document, track and improve patient care

DoseResponse® allows you to support a single clinic/office setting in one location; or support multiple patient care sites with clinician management from a centralized, remote site. The centralized function allows you to:

• Manage medical personnel at multiple clinic or office locations from one or more remote locations
• Provide a highly efficient, cost-effective anticoagulation service while minimizing the professional time of the clinicians
• Easily expand services to outlying locations to improve patient access
• Ensure a consistent approach to warfarin management across multiple sites and clinicians

Anyway, it’s always a headache setting up a new laptop as most people like me have to transfer gigabytes worth of data from the old machine to the new one. Not this time.

As one who preaches the benefits of cloud computing I’ve been trying to live in “the cloud” as much as possible. So when I received the new e6510 there really wasn’t any data migration to speak of. I use Google Chrome as my browser of choice, Microsoft Office synced with Live Sync, SkyDrive and Office Live for much of my personal document creation, Dropbox and SugarSync as my primary data storage and back-up solutions, and Evernote as my solution for just about everything else. I suppose I could have gotten along without Microsoft Office, but I wouldn’t want to try. All my documents at work are created in Office and just about everything I receive from colleagues is in Microsoft Office format, so it’s just easier to use it. I really like the Microsoft Office suite, and in addition the newer versions of Office offer a significantly improved experience on the tablet PC when compared to other office suites.

I installed Google Chrome, logged into my account and synced my bookmarks; absolutely seamless. Then I installed Dropbox and SugarSync, logged into my accounts and synced my documents; simple. Finally I opened IE, logged into my Windows Live account, downloaded a couple of small apps and within a few minutes was off and running; awesome. Nothing could have been simpler. The entire process took less than an hour and that was while working on other things in between. It took longer for all my documents to sync over the internet, but that didn’t cause any problems.

Overall the process was simple, smooth and painless. The experience has further cemented by impression of “the cloud” as the only way to go. It has also given me a deeper appreciation for products like Dropbox, Evernote and SugarSync. These applications were already at the top of my must-have list, but they have clearly separated themselves from the rest of the pack. While Windows Live offers great potential for Microsoft Office users, it has a long way to go before it can be thrown in with the likes of the applications previously mentioned. Microsoft should just acquire Dropbox and get it over with already. I’m just sayin’.

I’ve experimented with a few different ways of taking notes on a tablet PC. The first thing I tried was Windows Journal, which I think everyone tries first because it comes standard with the Windows OS for tablets. Journal was a fair solutions and handled the basic, but didn’t have the functionality that I needed to replace pen and paper; it was no better than the yellow legal pad. This was especially true for conference note taking where you have different types of media to work with, i.e. presentation slides, PDF handouts, blank paper, etc.

During the unSUMMIT earlier this year I decided to experiment with downloaded PDF copies of presentation handouts. I purchased PDF Annotator and gave it a whirl. The software is very nice and I like it a lot. It offers several cool features such as the ability to take notes directly on the PDF, highlight with multiple colors, extract text, create shapes, etc. In addition, all my notes can be saved to the PDF and printed with the document should I choose. See the image below for an example of notes taken on a PDF handout at the unSUMMIT.

As useful as PDF Annotator was I found that I still had to file the documents and keep track of them. I’m an information pack rat and have several hundred – thousand? – pharmacy and informatics articles stored in various “cloud” locations. So I decided to continue searching for a suitable note taking solution.

I already knew about Microsoft OneNote, but had never really taken the time to understand how to use it. Based on information I gathered from user reviews at various websites I decided to give it a thorough test and make it my full time note taking application for the tablet.

With OneNote I can keep all my notes in one location through the use of notebooks, tabs and pages. It works great. Everything is in one tidy location for easy retrieval. And the note taking tools are easy to use and provide you with pretty much everything you’ll ever need. Because OneNote is well integrated with Microsoft Office it’s easy to move information back and forth. If you want something in OneNote simply “print” it to one of your many OneNote notebooks. I use this feature frequently for meetings at work. I print the meeting agenda into OneNote and take notes directly on the agenda. Then when meeting minutes are sent out I simply print them to the end of the page below my hand written notes. Piece of cake.

Unlike the unSUMMIT I decided not to use PDF Annotator at Innovations 2010, instead opting to use OneNote. I downloaded all the presentation handouts that were available in advance and printed them into my OneNote Innovations 2010 notebook. Then I just sat back and took notes directly on the tablet while listening to the presentations. It worked amazing well. I’ve found it quick and easy to retrieve information from the notes since the conference; a major plus. Below are a couple of screen shots of notes taken while at Innovations.

In my opinion OneNote is the single greatest application in the Microsoft armamentarium available for the tablet PC. Throw in the addition of OneNote in Windows Live and the ability to back-up my notebooks to the cloud, and you’ve got yourself a real winner of an applications.