If you are reading this blog then you are probably a tech savvy just like me. Tech savvy doctors are geek minded and so they tend to utilize the Internet pretty much for everything from emails to searching the medical literature, and also to buy the tech stuff they crave for.
Now the question is, where to find those great deals and bargains. Your immediate answer to this question is likely to be Ebay or Amazon but what I want to point out here that there is another great online resource Geeks.com.
As the name applies this website is all about those hi tech items that you found your colleague is using and you just can’t find it in your neighborhood Bestbuy store.
So if you ever wondered where to buy that printer that can print right from your Palm and PDA or that iPod accessory that’s no longer in the market then Geeks.com is the place to go.
Geeks.com is a website that is a deal driven [see price grabber ratings], they buy excess inventory, end-of-lease, overstock, or manufacture close-out from vendors looking to liquidate inventory quickly and thence they sell it back to you at exceptional low price. They also have a great customer support as rated here.
As we have repeatedly mentioned in previous posts that the iPhone applications are flooding the medical field, this is just another proof of that.
Apple has allocated a special Medical category; The medical apps were previously listed in the Health and Fitness category But now they are listed in their own category.
As it is the case with other categories, we now have lists of the most popular free and paid apps. As well as as list of the most recently released. Making the task of finding the right medical app much easier.
The category icon is always the icon of the most popular Free App, which is currently Epocrates Rx. This is different from our poll that indicates Skyscape Medical Resources in the first position, probably because our poll is strictly pediatric!
The categorization done by Apple is somewhat inaccurate as there are still Apps that should be filtered and listed in the Health and Fitness category. For example “Eye Test” an app that is currently the second popular free app, is about how people [not necessarily professional] can test their visual acuity. This is definitely a general public app and should not be included in the Medical category.
The Medical category should include only those apps that are used by health care professionals and should not include those apps that can be used by the general mainstream users, Do you agree?
Hopefully, as more apps are developed the more they are specific and the more likely they will be sub-categorized so that eventually we’ll have the Pediatric Sub-category in the app store!
The National Guideline Clearinghouse [www.guideline.gov] an initiative by the AHRQ is the largest and most trusted collection of evidence based clinical guidelines that we can ever have.
Fortunately we can download these guidelines one by one to our handhelds whether its the Palm, Windows Mobile, or even the iPhone.
The video above demonstrates the steps on how to download these .pdb files on Windows Mobile and view it using any .pdb reader like Mobipocket or iSilo [the above example].
All you have to do is to visit the website www.guidline.gov on the windows mobile using Internet Explorer Mobile and then choosing the guidline that you want, then navigating down to Palm download link and saving the file to your handled local directory [in this example I saved the file to a folder that previously created in the storage card and named it iSilo] and that document can then be opened via iSilo. Of course similarly these documents can also be downloaded via the desktop and then can copied to mobile directory.
It’s a good idea to rename these downloaded files [as shown above] into something that makes sense because there original names are only numerical which will make it difficult for us to find files later when the list grow.
For Palm; the same process applies and is even easier as the Palm reader itself can read .pdb files.
In the case of the iPhone; we have to first download these files using the desktop then we can download them into the iPhone iSilo from the desktop [read this post for details].
Here’s how it looks like on the iPhone:
The website also offers these same guidelines in Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF file formats both of which can be viewed on Palm and Windows Mobile but not as easy and as readable as the .pdb files.
Unfortunately this is not so easy to download each and every guideline that we want to refer to on the bedside, and we wish that in there near future the NGC will come up with some kind of a reader or at least a more mobile friendly website to makes it easier for us.
We have been waiting for an update for the iSilo App to resolve the issue of downloading files on the iPhone and iPod Touch but unfortunately they come up with half solution that left us with a cumbersome way of downloading iSilo documents.
The steps needed to transfer your iSilo documents from your desktop into your iPhone/iPod Touch are detailed here on the iSilo website, which involves creating a network space via shared WiFi connection between the iPhone and the desktop!
This is certainly difficult even to the most experienced users and is not practical by any means. iSilo has previously seen spread in the medical field certainly because of the simplicity of the program but this is gone in the case of the iPhone.
Yes; we know that iPhone does not support file transfer but there should a work around [see how Skyscape came with a wonderful easy to use App that can download all there contents and files].
If iSilo want to seriously compete in the iPhone market they must find another method by which the mainstream user can download files.
As we posted in an earlier post that Skyscape has launched its native version on the iPhone. Now, what’s interesting is that we can actually migrate whatever titles that we’ve purchased for the online version to the native version.
Here are some screenshots
We can notice above that there is a message that we SHOULD migrate before 12/31/2008! What does that mean? It seems likely that they will stop iphone.skyscape.com altogether and want us all to reside native.
For us end users it does not make a difference, we will still get the latest updates via WiFi or 3G and in fact it might be even better as we will have access to the content even if we are disconnected as the files now will actually be installed on Skyscpae Medical Resources app rather than on Skyscape’s servers.
It could be quite confusing for the geek-impaired [like me] pediatricians or doctors to understand the difference between built-in native applications and online applications available for the handheld devices.
This post tries to delineate the differences;
Built-in [also called Native or Installable] Apps are basically applications that you install on your PDA and they will stay there and be available whenever needed even when you are offline. While online applications are those which are not installed on the device but instead they are on the server and can be accessed via internet connection.
Now pediatric speaking, most of the programs available currently are essentially built-in apps and in most instances they are compatible with Windows Mobile and Palm devices, But recently several major developers started to create the online versions of their software such as Merck Medicus.
These online applications can take one of the following two shapes:
Online apps: real applications executed online and this is not yet very popular among medical developers.
Mobile Websites: websites designed to specifically fit into the PDA small screen and to work with the stylus-tap technology or the finger-touch technology of recent devices such as HTC Touch or the iPhone. Some of these websites works with just about any device including the iPhone such as Pepid Mobile and wireless websites from Unbound Medicine while others have made a mobile website to work only on the iPhone or iPod Touch and the example here is Skyscape iPhone website. A list of pediatric mobile websites is available from pda4peds.
Now how to tell whether a website is having a mobile version and how do we go to it from our mobile devices? the answer is that they usually put a link to the mobile version from the classic version and the link is named mobile or mobile website and the URL usually is one of the following formats:
either http://mobile.website.com
or http://m.website.com
or http://www.website.mobi
note that there is no www in the first two formats because these are sub-domains and not a dedicated mobile website. There are exceptions of course such as the New England Journal of Medicine which is having http://handheld.nejm.org as its mobile destination. Further, most smart websites will readily recognize that we are actually visiting the website using our handheld device and so it automatically takes us to the mobile version. Go to Google on your PDA and you’ll find yourself visiting Google Mobile and not Google.
The classic websites originally made for the desktop screen can also be visited by the mobile browser but this will result in awkward pages scrambled into the small screen and a highly unpleasant experience. Consequently a generation of third party developers have created special mobile browsers that can reformat the page to fit into the small screeen. One great example of these is Opera Mobile which can transform the desktop experience into a wonderful mobile navigation, and the screenshots below shows how this blog looks like in Opera Mobile.
Another approach to tackle the problem of viewing the online content on handhelds came from AvantGo which simply translates the online content and deliver it in its own format to the mobile device and make it available for off line reading a method sometimes referred to as aggregation.
The latest Internet Explorer Mobile has some improvements such as the ability to view web pages in a single column which makes navigating the web quite easier.
The iPhone was marketed as a device that can provide near desktop experience when surfing the internet with it’s built-in Safari browser and so developers like Opera Mobile or even AvantGo did not target the iPhone. But it looks like that this is not true as the screen size is still small [320x480] compared to the usual desktop [1024x768] resolution and it is lacking video support [ except youtube ] and java scripts. Hence, developers such as Pepid, Skyscape, Unbound Medicine and others have figured out the problem and they are doing their best to make websites specifically designed to fit the iPhone “small” screen.
All of the features built in the essentials package are great and make no mistake about it peds are using them more frequently than other programs check out this poll
Every single portion of it can be customized to the pediatric needs check these pda4peds reviews to see how each one of these Epocrates products can be an invaluable tool to every pediatrician: Rx, Sx, Dx, CME, ID, Lab, Tables, MedTools.
So here’s the suggestion, Why don’t you make a pediatric version of Essentials!
As far as the Rx, We don’t want to bother ourselves with adult doses, we are all syrup-minded!
We don’t want to read about asthma in adults make a special pediatric Dx.
We don’t want to pay for coronary artery disease formulas we just care about Kawasaki!
Who said that colorectal CA and ulcerative colitis are common causes of GI bleeding, get your Sx a child version.
And the laboratory results are obviously different in the pediatric age group.
And so on for all your content.
So invite a good number of pediatric figures and start working on a real pediatric version and let it be little less pricey than the general package, after all peds are less wealthy than surgeons!! And if there are pediatric people who still want adult and general content they can then purchase the general package.
By the way don’t go into the mistake of PEPID as they marketed a pediatric suite but in fact it is just has to be purchased within their whole package.
Hope this message reaches the ears of Epocrates …
Oh, a reminder for peds readers, forget to tell you that if you really like essentials as your best all-in-one application please vote for it in the best pediatric PDA programs poll.
Pedseducation.org provides excellent CME credits specific for pediatricians.
Unfortunately the service is not available for the mobile platform as there is no mobile website and no software that can be installed on the PDA.
However, there is a work around …
What we need to do is download Flash Player 7 for Pocket PC which is a CAB file (copy the downloaded file to your device and open it from there). Please note that this plugin is available only for the Windows Mobile Internet Explorer and not for any other browsers or operating systems, Opera Mobile recently announced that their browser is Flash compatible but that is not correct as the Flash player is not showing in the Opera Mobile browser (read here for more details on this).
Then we log on to our account in pedseducation using our built-in Internet Explorer Mobile and this way we will be able to watch the (.SWF) videos on the mobile screen and when the lecture is finished we can go to the posttest and get the CME credit exactly as we do in our desktop or laptop.
However the resolution is quite bad here as we will not be able to read the small commentary texts and even the slides are not very clear.
Our advice to the developers of pedseducation is that either they should develop a PDA version of their service or at least a Power Point version of the lecture that can be downloaded to the PDA.
Recently I received an email from Skyscape telling me that my subscription is expiring! and they explained that if I don’t renew (offered discounted price) I will be losing the advantage of updates!
Well, I don’t want to renew, the product is available on my PDA and on the memory card and it will not stop working (check Skyscape’s page) if I don’t renew so why should I renew?
Frankly I don’t like Skyscape’s policy of annual subscription and here are my reasons:
1) Skyscape products (I am talking about references here) are static and they hardly ever get a real update.
2) If ever there is a new version of the reference or a major upgrade such as from Harriate 16 to 17 then you ultimately have to buy the new version and the previous purchase is not going to help in any means.
3) When you buy a product from Skyscape, they don’t mention that what you are buying is annual subscription and you get a sense that this product is yours forever.
A message to Skyscape: We love your products but please revise your subsciption policy …
It’s never without a PC that you can get a fully functional PDA (read this post) and now that most of us thinking to upgrade to the new Microsoft Windows Vista (with its new Windows mobile device center with a built in activesync) then it’s wise to remember that this is going to affect our PDA functioning and the ability to add remove programs and to synchronize data.
Epocrates has announced (read this page) that both of their platforms Windows Mobile and Palm are now compatible with Windows Vista much to our relief. Several peds were relectant to upgrade to Vista because of fear of losing their Epocrates Essentials package, now they can relax and think seriuosly to enjoy the new Windows OS.
In addition to that and fortunately Skyscape had announced (read this page) that their references and programs are all compatible with Vista whether the PDA version or the desktop version which is good news.
On the other hand Pepid have also announced that their mobile solutions are compatible with Vista including the Windows Mobile and the Palm platforms.
Similarly Unbound Medicine hurried to join the others and announced that all of their popular platforms are readily available for the Vista OS. That will include Merck Medicus of course.
Unfortunately though PocketConsult cannot be synchronized with Windows Vista PCs and in this way we will lose all the advanced features such as Nelson Updates, ContentClipper, MD Consults News..etc. This is really bad, these people should find a solution.
USBMIS have made many of their titles compatible with the Vista platform but Not all of them.
