Anyone that’s read this blog knows that I am a fan of mobile devices and touchscreen technology; from the smartphone to tablet PCs and the iPad. My love affair with mobile technology actually began with the HP 200LX palmtop computer when I was in Pharmacy School. I couldn’t believe that something so small could have so much power; funny now, but a marvel at the time. Now fast forward to early 2000 when I purchased a TRGpro, my first Palm OS device, and never looked back.
Mobile phone
Has interest in technology come and gone for pharmacsits?
I spent some time yesterday talking with some good people over at Pharmacy OneSource about pharmacy technology, clinical decision support, data mining, and a whole bunch of other interesting items. During one point of a conversations the history of Pharmacy OneSource came up. Part of that history includes the merger of Pharmacy OneSource with HealthProLink (HPL) sometime in late 2005.
The mention of HealthProLink (HPL) brought back fond memories of a time when pharmacy informatics was really starting to take off and I was infatuated with the Palm Pilot <insert flashback sequence here>. HPL was a set of software tools for collecting and quantifying pharmacist intervention data as well as ADR/ADE information. In addition, the application offered access to several clinical calculators and a fairly robust reporting system. I was part of the implementation team for HPL when I worked at Community Medical Centers – Fresno and used it daily for a couple of years.
This was also a time when Palm Pilots were all the rage and every pharmacist I knew carried one in their lab coat pocket. The Palm OS was a stroke of genius because of its minimalistic approach to the user interface. Anyone could pick up a device using the Palm OS and figure out how to use it in a matter of minutes. They were a model of simplicity and functionality. In addition, several development environments were available for application development as well as several “readers†and database applications. This led to the development of hundreds of medical references, medical calculators, free and commercial peripheral brains and countless ways to track patients, labs, and medications available for devices running the Palm OS. It is the only time in my career as a pharmacist that the entire profession embraced a new technology and used it to their advantage. The literature was full of “studies†using handheld devices for documenting clinical interventions1-4, carrying individually created documents and “peripheral brainsâ€5,6 performing pharmacokinetic calculations, accessing drug information and performing drug interaction checking.7-12 The entire handheld movement was quite impressive to watch.
“What’d I miss?” – Week of January 17th
As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.
Conceptual design for electronic communication in the outpatient setting
From Implementation Science 2009 Sep 25;4:62: Abstract: BACKGROUND: Health information technology and electronic medical records (EMRs) are potentially powerful systems-based interventions to facilitate diagnosis and treatment because they ensure the delivery of key new findings and other health related information to the practitioner. However, effective communication involves more than just information transfer; despite a state … Read more
The digital peripheral brain
The Palmdoc Chronicles:†I’ve had a Palm Pre for about 2 months now and I can declare that the device has seen tremendous improvement with firmware updates (pushed OTA) and a steadily increasing amount of useful applications in the Palm App Catalog and the unofficial Homebrew scene. How usable is it as an smartphone for … Read more
“What’d I miss?” – Week of January 3rd
As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.
“What’d I miss?” – Week of November 29th
As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.
Verizon, you gotta love ’em
eWeek: “Not only did it recently experience a win over disgruntled competitor AT&T, in being allowed to continue airing some cheeky ads, and then enjoy a jump in consumer opinion, but in a Dec. 1 statement, Consumer Reports revealed that Verizon was named the preferred carrier by the people it surveyed in 26 cities for … Read more
“What’d I miss?” – Week of November 22nd
Welcome to the Thanksgiving edition of “What’d I Miss?”. Thanksgiving is a wonderful time that marks the beginning of my favorite time of the year. It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump until the New Year. Â Squeeze Christmas in there and you have the best 6 week span of the year. Good times, good times.
As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.
Lexi-Comp running on the Android OS
I just saw a Tweet from Lexi-Comp announcing that they have a demonstration video of their ON-HAND software running on the Android platform. And because I’m using a Motorola Droid as my mobile device of choice, this is very exciting news. See the video below. Additional information is also available at the Lexi-Comp website.