“An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” – Orlando A. Battista
So much happens each and every week, and it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Here are some of the tabs that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts….
The mug below was sitting next to my laptop filled with chocolate covered espresso beans last Saturday morning, Valentine’s Day. A gift from my lovely wife. Apparently she’s aware of my addiction. It made me smile.
My “swag bag†from the unSUMMIT contained an issue of Specialty Pharmacy Continuum, a throw-away pharmacy journal focused on specialty pharmacy practice. Like most throw-away pharmacy journals I read these days, I found the content timely and interesting.
One of the articles – Get Appy! New Tech a Bridge to Patient Care – discusses how Avella Specialty Pharmacy is using mobile technology to connect with their patients. Apparently Avella is pretty forward thinking.
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“Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
So much happens each and every week that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Here are some of the tabs that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts….
Not to be confused with the Golden-Showers Headset (post for another time), the Golden-i Headset is a mobile computer worn by paramedics made by Ikanos Consulting, a Nottinghamshire, UK firm. The headset itself is butt ugly, but the functionality is cool. The headset can be controlled by both voice and head gestures.
How many use cases can you think of for something like this in pharmacy? Several, I’m sure.
Medgadget: “The headset has a camera and microphone for interacting with applications and to communicate with hospital physicians. The Paramedic Pro software performs voice recognition and allows patient data lookup and entry through voice alone. Remote physicians can see and hear through the headset, allowing them to guide paramedics in stabilizing their patients and starting treatment in difficult cases.â€
Healthcare requires a lot of data input. Unfortunately that’s where tablets fall woefully short, i.e. doing lots of typing. So it’s was with great interest that I read about the new SwiftKey Healthcare keyboard for tablets.
SwiftKey Healthcare is an intelligent keyboard solution that offers unrivaled next word prediction for healthcare professionals. Built using real-world clinical notes data, it makes text entry on mobile devices fast, easy and tailored to your healthcare context.
SwiftKey Healthcare is based on the SwiftKey language engine. This uses patented Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning techniques to understand the relationship between words and offer powerful corrections and targeted next-word predictions that run straight from a device.
My daughter uses texting apps on her Android phone with “next word prediction” and I have to admit, the kid can text pretty stinking fast. While I don’t think an onscreen keyboard will ever totally replace a physical keyboard, things like SwiftKey Healthcare are certainly a step in the right direction. I’m looking forward to giving it a whirl.
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).
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.â€
“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.â€
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.
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?â€
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 Fujitsu Arrow Tab LTE F-01D is similar to many tablets currently on the market today. It has all the goodies like a 10.1-inch 1280 x 768 screen, a 1GHz dual-core processor, a pair of cameras, 16GB of storage, micro-USB, microSD card slot, and Android 3.2 Honeycomb. Now for the really cool stuff, it’s waterproof and obeys gesture commands via its front facing camera.
It warms the cockles of my heart to read stuff like this. The I.V. Compatibility module for Lexicomp is now available for the Android OS. I couldn’t find any screen shots so you’ll just have to use your imagination.
You can find more information here.
Lexicomp’s I.V. Compatibility module is now available for your Lexicomp On-Hand subscription for Androidâ„¢! By following the update instructions below, you can add this module to your existing Lexicomp On-Hand subscription. There is no additional charge for this enhancement.
The I.V. Compatibility module allows you to review compatibility and stability information for hundreds of parenteral medications and fluids. This module is based on information from the King® Guide to Parenteral Admixtures®. Thousands of clinicians are already using Lexicomp’s I.V. Compatibility module every day – now you can access this vital information on your Android smartphone or tablet as well.
To update your subscription to include I.V. Compatibility, follow these instructions:
Ensure you have a strong Wi-Fi or cellular connection.
On your Android device, tap the Market icon and search for Lexicomp.
Select Lexicomp and tap Update. When the warning appears, tap Accept & Download.
When the application is installed, tap the Lexicomp icon to access your software.
