Posted July 22, 2001. Not too long ago Rolour has been complaining of very little material that's out there to get the alumni or residents or med student to keep on coming into the site. Unfortunately, I'm guilty of that myself. Not Medscape, or Physician's On-Line, nor AMA, can keep me from coming in for some more. Recently though, there has been quite an explosion in the Palm Computer (palm pilot and visor) world and I got entangled. About December last year (2000), I subscribed to E-physician in the hopes that I can speed up my writing of prescriptions. I had other things in mind though. I did not like the program that came with my handspring visor. But I found a wealth of (free ... yes free) medical and not-so medical programs that lies untapped in the internet. I wish I had my visor when I was in medical school, or residency ...It would have made my life a bit easier and easily organized. These palm devices used to cost more than $200 and now the prices had fallen, which doesn't surprise me. It's all about the Memory and the Speed ...

     Anyway, so what can they do for you, your life, and your practice? I tell you a whole lot that what you can imagine. This little computer machine packs up 8 megs of memory. You can do your schedules and it will remind you. You have a to do list, memo, address book, document reader, calculator, expenses list, a worldwide clock as basics. So what else can this power machines do? This is my peripheral brain ... when I am in a rut in trying to figure out treatments, or what is the preparation of pseudoephrine, or what are the interactions of the 20 drugs that I have patients on. It can automatically tell me what your weight in pounds converted to kilograms. It advices me on the latest immunization shots. It can even interpret ABG for me. Remember those little handbook we used to carry ... what you call 'em? Current Clinical Strategies in Family Medicine. I have it on my Visor that's a hefty 332 kilobyte of memory though. So what else can I do? I can get documents ... like this article and convert it into a palm document format and store it on my palm machine. Amazing won't you say. In this days of litigation, it would be insane not carry this device on your side. You gotta have it ... I think the visor now cost $179 to $199. Translated to Pesos (if its still P 50 to a buck) would be P 8950 to 9950. Man ... that's a lot to think of though. I don't know what is a docs comfort level out there. Oh, did I tell you that Epocrates, my pharmacopeia, is updated automatically when I press the hot sync button on the visor link pad. I have also got a small keyboard for my device that makes my writing a little faster. This is usually good when you listen on through lectures. Also remember those formulas or pre-op criteria that you had scribbled on that bulky pocketbook you have... I have 17 of those formulas plus additional ones you call "Medrules". Let's say you're not sure if a patient you're seeing needs to be on DVT (deep vein thrombosis) prophylaxis, just consult the ol' medrules program and it will out flat tell you how much at risk he is. Now you can have this little device with you and you have a portable computer on hand. Even a portable wordprocessor. You can print out things with the help of a program known as Palm Print or Print Boy. You'll have to attach an Infrared Port to you existing printer to get this device to print. Otherwise, you can transfer your data to the Memo Pad and hot sync it on the computer. Oh, by the way the system updates itself once you hit hotsync.To add, the pharmacopeia I have gives me doc alerts, that warns me what drugs had been pulled off the shelf or what meds have added on a new contraindication or warning. This include herbals that has been contaminated. Currently, I am fumbling with a prescription writer program where I can write prescriptions directly on my visor with touch pen technology and print it through the IR port and to my printer. I'll let you know how it is.

     Life is much easier indeed in this digital world. Your patients are connected and it is your responsibility to direct them to the sites that are evidenced based. It is hard to seive through the mountain of information. But that is the way things are. If you don't catch up ... then you are left at the way side. Patients will get these information and you better be prepared to answer to them.

     An updated link of the sites that provide information on PDA's and Palm Device Softwares will be posted on the next article or attached here as a table. More power to the alumni and to this website. More power to the webmaster. Ain't (is not a word) you glad you have all this technology to muster with.

     For questions/inquiries e-mail jrconsing@manofmed.com.

     All views expressed on this column and any other by-lined articles on this site are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization or its members. For comments, please e-mail the author.