Physicians Practice Special Report on Handhelds

Use of handheld data devices by physicians has been steadily on the rise. According to AC Nielsen, 57 percent of physicians increased their use of handheld wireless devices in 2007. The same survey found that an average of 38 percent of physicians used handheld wireless devices for professional purposes. By specialty, emergency medicine led the field, with 58 percent of EM physicians using handheld devices. Read this informative report for more information on the use of handhelds for e-prescribing, charge capture and medical records as well as great buying guides just in time for Christmas!

Lexi-comp on-Hand released for iPhone and Apple Touch

Lexi-comp, a popular and powerful drug information database has just been released for these platforms. To read more, click here.

Transcription for iPhone

M*modal has just released a new speech recognition transcription product for the iPhone. This appears to be a promising technology that I will evaluate in the coming weeks and post back about it's usefulness.

New Mobile Dictation Software from PocketMed

My company, PocketMed, has just partnered with a premiere mobile dictation provider as well as an off-shore transcription company to provide affordable, reliable mobile dictation for physicians in small to medium-sized practices. For more information and to sign up for a free, no-obligation, 2-week trial, please contact: Fred Clark on 954-229-5050 ext. 77.

Top Technology Innovations in 2008

Health Data Management has a good supplement that talks about the top technology solutions for 2008. Many of these make a lot of sense for small practices (e.g. claims submission, mobile dictation, practice management systems, etc.), but most of the sponsors are cost-prohibitive for most primary care offices and other small practice groups. In the coming weeks I plan to highlight companies that provide these services reliably and affordably for these groups. In the meanwhile, the business case for each of these services is very well described in this free e-book.

New E-Prescribing Guide for Clinicians

A comprehensive E-prescribing guide has just been published by eHealth initiative.   It has information for physicians at any stage of engaging in this process and includes full descriptions, a buyer's guide, a listing of state initiatives and much more in a very readable report.  Click here to download the guide.

Turn Your Treo into a BlackBerry

Many people ask me if they should purchase a BlackBerry in order to receive their e-mail automatically, or to be able to check it whenever and wherever they want. Fortunately, this is pretty easy to set up on a Treo using a free e-mail forwarding service throught fastmail.fm That way, you can continue to use all the great medical programs (which you won't be able to do on a BlackBerry). To read about doing this, click here

AMA President Describes Details of e-Prescribing Bonus

AMA President, Nancy H. Nielsen details how you can increase your Medicare payments by as much as 5% in the coming year by combining e-prescribing with PQRI and the recent small increase in the recently passed "Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act." Click here to read more.

E-Prescribing Conference

CMS is sponsoring a free conference on October 6-7, 2008 to inform physicians about the new e-prescribing incentives being offered by Medicare.

Topics will include:

• Equip health care professionals with the knowledge and tools to integrate e-prescribing into their business and business model;
• Generate discussion about using e-prescribing and other e-health initiatives to increase patient compliance and overall improved health outcomes;
• Educate health care professionals about the structure and the Agency's plans for implementation of the incentive payment system in regard to e-prescribing and PQRI;
• Identify and promote opportunities to overcome barriers to adopt this new technology; and,
• Address constituent concerns about privacy, security and risk management in regard to the implementation of this new provision.

New Incentives for e-Prescribing Announced by HHS

Medicare to Reimburse Doctors Extra for Electronic Prescriptions

Beginning in January, Medicare will provide incentive payments to physicians who send prescriptions to pharmacies electronically. Benefits of "e-prescribing" include the potential for fewer drug errors and lower administrative costs, according to Health and Human Services officials.

For the first 2 years of the program, physicians who use the technology will receive a 2% increase in Medicare reimbursement rates. The incentive will be 1% during the following 2 years, and 0.5% in 2013.

However, physicians who do not use electronic prescribing by 2012 could see a 1% reduction in Medicare reimbursement rates. That penalty would increase to 2% by 2014, according to the Associated Press.

The AP reports that it costs roughly $3000 per physician to set up the necessary software and equipment.

Health and Human Services press release (Free)

Associated Press story (Free)

Epocrates Rx Now Available for iPhones

Epocrates has announced that their excellent drug reference software is now available for iPhones. Previously, Epocrates could only be used wirelessly, but it is now available as an application for iPhones.

Palm Treo 800w Review

This looks like a solid device for medical practice. It has great memory capacity, good screen size, and can run Windows mobile apps, as well as Palm apps (using Styletap).

iPhone 3G Review

The new iPhone 3G phone is creating quite a "buzz" among gadget folks. I still stand by my recommendation that this is still not the best type of device for doctors. However, new applications that are being developed may change my opinion in the coming year. Also, Styletap is rumored to have an iPhone emulator in the works that would run all Palm applications (they have already done this for Windows devices). Until then, you may want to check out the Treo 800W (reviewed above) if you're in the market for the latest smartphone in your practice.

e-Prescribing Just Got a Little Easier

The merger of SureScripts and RxHub gives one nationwide network for e-prescribing. This should make e-prescribing easier for mobile programs, EMR's and enhance adoption.

Pics of new Treo 850

It's rumored to be coming soon! I only hope that they add more memory so that docs can run all their applications without having to pick and choose....a serious limitation in the current Palm smartphones.

The Latest Pocket PC Smartphones

An excellent review of all the Pocket PC smartphones that are currently available, including: Blackberries, Symbian, Windows Mobile 6.1, Android and iPhone reviews. A must-read before considering your latest device. The only flaw with this article is its premature dismissal of Palm OS devices....still very popular in medicine due to the myriad of Palm medical applications. Nevertheless, this article is great if you're considering a Pocket PC smartphone.

New review on medical software for PDA's

Medical Economics does a nice job of summarizing the various PDA programs available and the latest directions in software development. They forecast that more apps will be available via wireless web which has the advantage of not having to download, install and update software constantly. The article lacks mention of good charge capture programs for small practices such as our very own PocketBilling and competitors like BlueFish and MD Coder. Several thousand physicians use these types of programs on a daily basis, so hopefully there will be an update on charge capture software in the near future.

New Windows Mobile Treo may Have WiFi

Palm InfoCenter reports that some Palm customers have been receiving invitations to beta test a new device for Palm. The requirements of the testing suggest that the next generation Windows Mobile Treo device may include WiFi.

Some Text Messaging Tricks for Physicians

Texting isn't only for teenagers! Doctors may find many useful features here, such as being able to check the calories on restaurant menus (for patients too!), doing Google searches online, getting your appointment lists from Google, and many other cool text features that are ripe for the medical world.

Free Up Memory with Epocrates Memory Management

Finally, physicians have a way to free up memory from one of the most popular physician software applications---ePocrates. This software normally takes up at least 5MB on a Palm OS device and at least 3MB on Windows devices. Previously, it had to be installed in main memory and took up valuable memory space. Now you can move it to the card. See directions in the support section at ePocrates by searching on "memory management." Thanks ePocrates!

New Windows Mobile Treo is Rumored

I still use a Treo 750P and find it very adequate for running the majority of my medical applications, serving as a phone and pager, and keeping my calendar. Unfortunately, I'm very near the top end of my memory (approx. 60MB on the Palm version), and have always wanted more memory. There are a few ways you can maximize your memory: ePocrates can now be moved to the card from their menu interface, and all reference materials should reside on your card. However, there are still many applications that just won't work well (or at all) on the card. Therefore, rumors of a new high-end Treo 800W might solve some of these issues. It is rumored to have 256MB of memory (although this is Windows memory, so may be only slightly more than the 60MB of Palm memory, depends on the applications your run). It is also supposed to have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, eGPS, a 2.0MP camera, and many other great features. Stay tuned, and we will keep you updated on this device. In the meanwhile, read more about it here.