I read an interesting article today in the November 1, 2009 issue of the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy (AJHP). In the article the authors report the results of survey sent to 200 hospitals in the US developed to assess the use of various informatics resources by pharmacy departments. The survey consisted of two-sections with a total of 20 questions. Only hospitals with at least 100 beds were included, and of the 200 surveys mailed only 114 were returned More information on the specifics of the survey can be found at the AJHP website here.
Month: November 2009
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.
One week with the Motorola Droid
I have been carrying the Motorola Droid from Verizon around for a little over a week now, and while I haven’t learned all the ins and outs of the phone, I have certainly used it long enough to form an opinion.
Cool Technology for Pharmacy
There’s a running joke among pharmacists that we have medication to treat just about everything. It’s kind of like Apples “There’s an app for thatâ€, i.e. “There’s a pill for thatâ€. Well, we’re getting closer to making that statement a reality. The SmartPill is a diagnostic device in the shape of a giant capsule. It is taken by the patient and wirelessly transmits data to the physician as it journeys through the patient’s small and large bowel.
Pharmacist perception of Wikipedia as a drug information resource
The Annals of Pharmacotherpy (Vol. 43, No. 11, pp. 1912-1913): “Approximately 80% of pharmacists use the Internet to obtain drug information.1 Wikipedia, often found at the top of Internet search results, is a free-access, collaborative, online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone.2 Incidents of vandalism have occurred, since the site allows anyone to contribute. … Read more
Dealing with the shortcomings of healthcare information systems
This week has kept me busy dealing with issues surrounding our various clinical systems and how they fit, or don’t fit, into various processes. If you’ve been reading this blog then you are probably a little too familiar with one of the problems; the dreaded allergy issues which I’ve discussed here and here. The issue … Read more
Get a diagnosis by coughing into your mobile phone?
Telegraph.co.uk: “Software being developed by American and Australian scientists will hopefully allow patients simply to cough into their phone, and it will tell them whether they have cold, flu, pneumonia or other respiratory diseases. Whether a cough is dry or wet, or “productive†or “non-productive†(referring to the presence of mucus on the lungs), can … Read more
How about a self-sanitizing keyboard?
Everyone that works in a hospital knows how nasty computer keyboards can get. Well check out the Viogurad Self-Sanitizing keyboard. From the Vioguard site: The Vioguard keyboard is stored in a mechanized enclosure (which doubles as a monitor stand) when not in use. It safely floods the keyboard and track pad with germicidal ultraviolet light. … Read more
“What’d I miss?” – Week of November 5th
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.
Cool Technology for Pharmacy
While not specifically related to pharmacy, this is very interesting. Stephen S. Hau, the founder of PatientKeeper in the 90’s, has created a new product called Shareable Ink. The product uses a digital pen on paper forms to capture handwriting. The information is transferred, via wireless connection, to a server where the information is digitized. The technology is not new per se, but the application to medicine in this way is.