Jerry Fahrni

Tag: Droid

  • OTC drug interaction analyzer for smartphones

    Medilyzer is a smartphone application designed to provide mobile information and drug interaction checking for various over-the-counter (OTC) medications. The application is available for both the iPhone and Android smartphones, and according to the Medilyzer website a BlackBerry edition is on its way.
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  • One pharmacist’s opinion: iPhone vs. DROID

    I’ve been carrying a Motorola DROID since Verizon made it available back in November 2009. I’ve enjoyed many of its features and consider it a great mobile device. Recently I came into possession of an iPhone. I’ve wanted an iPhone for quite some time, but have been quite outspoken about not switching to AT&T because of poor coverage in our area; Central Valley of California.

    Having both devices in my possession has given me the perfect opportunity to test them head-to-head to see which setup I prefer. My original plan was to carry the iPhone exclusively for a month or so to see if I could completely replace my DROID. Unfortunately number forwarding only works with calls. Text messages would continue going to my DROID which would create a problem for me as I receive text messages several fold more than I do direct calls. So I have been carrying both devices for the past few weeks.
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  • Motorola DROID getting some attention in the pharmacy literature

    The February 2010 issue of Hospital Pharmacy (PDF) contains a review of the Motorola DROID, and the authors overall impression of the device is positive. I’ve had a DROID since its release in early November 2009. My initial impressions of the device can be found here.

    As mentioned by the authors in the article the currently available pharmacy-related applications are limited when compared to devices like the iPhone, but the numbers are growing. Drug information resources like Lexi-Comp, Skyscape and ePocrates are now available for use on the DROID as well as some medical references like Merck Medicus, Unboud Medicine and UpToDate (via mobile browser). Unfortunately I don’t have a list of available medical applications for the Android operating system nor do I know of a site that does, but the popularity of the Android operating system is growing and it’s only a matter of time before other medical references start popping up.

    One piece of advice in the article that I found interesting was to “begin by selecting the telecommunication service that is most reliable and has the best connectivity coverage for voice and data in the community where you live.” Imagine that, selecting a mobile phone that first and foremost keeps you connected. I’ll make sure to keep that in mind the next time I feel the need to purchase another smartphone. Then again maybe I won’t. I guess that depends on how badly I want the device.

  • Looks like there is at least a little interest in Android and pharmacy

    I happened to check some statistics on my website this morning and found that the top searchpharases that brought people to my site over the weekend were related to the Droid and Lexi-comp (image below). I find this very interesting as well as encouraging.

  • “What’d I miss?” – Week of December 27th

    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.
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  • Lexi-Comp medical references for the Droid

    Recently I was fortunate enough to be a beta tester for the new Android version of Lexi-Comp’s suite of medical information software. I was very excited for the opportunity as I’ve been using what I would consider inferior drug information resources since purchasing my Droid about a month ago. The installation was a problem initially as the databases wouldn’t install directly to the microSD card on the Droid. As you can imagine, the databases are large and immediately filled up the physical memory on the device. Within a couple of weeks of reporting the problem to Lexi-Comp they had corrected the issue and sent me a new build that installed seamlessly.
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  • “What’d I miss?” – Week of December 13th

    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.

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  • Exhibit Hall ASHP #Midyear2009

    I finally had an opportunity to roam around the exhibit hall at the ASHP Midyear today. Of course I had to sacrifice a session to attend, but it was worth it. If you’ve never been in the exhibit hall at one of these events you owe it to yourself to check it out.
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  • “What’d I miss?” – Week of November 15th

    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.
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  • The popularity of multitouch technology is growing

    InformationWeek: “As touch-screen hardware and tools for developing multitouch applications become more prevalent, businesses of all kinds will want to leverage the technology. Get ready to see it in all sorts of apps, including those used in retail, stock trading, manufacturing, inventory management, healthcare, appliance repair, and delivery services. Touch-sensing interfaces aren’t new — operations as diverse as the U.S. Postal Service and McDonald’s are using them. But these systems are based on users making a single point of contact with the screen, and they don’t support gestures. Compare that with the emerging class of multitouch sensing that lets users interact with devices using more than one finger and employing a drag-and-drop capability. For instance, users pinch their thumb and forefinger together to shrink a photo. Users of MacBook Pro, with its multitouch trackpad for manipulating objects, are familiar with multitouch, but the technology is just gaining traction on other platforms. Besides Microsoft, Qt Software is supporting it with QTouchEvent and QGestureEvent classes in the Qt 4.6 framework.” – It looks like the only people not interested in multitouch technology are those in healthcare and the makers of my Droid, i.e. Motorola. Doh!