Cochrane on Skyscape? Pricepoint inflection points.

Skyscape announced today that they will be offering the coveted Cochrane list for Palm and other devices.

The Cohrane reviews are essentially the Gold Standard in medicine following the introduction of evidence based medicine. In short, this mantra, which is just loved by insurance companies, allows health providers to justify their treatment options. Critics argue that the "art" of medicine is lost with all of this evidence based criteria since most of the decisions fall on a bell curve. If you happen to be one of those patients who do not conform to the treatment options seen by the 95% of the population then there's a problem.

But with personal thoughts aside, the reviews are now available for (probably) physicians to go through at the point of care, which as discussed below, is the most fitting way to do things.

However, having not tried the program I am already seeing several issues:

1. First the price point. $29.95 for each set. Sets can include 3 for anesthesia, 4 for psychiatry, 12 for infectious disease and 7 for neurology. $30 per set seems somewhat steep, given the fact that much of the Cochrane review can be viewed via the computer for much much less than this.

2. Past experiences with Skyscape. Now I will have to be careful how I put this, not wanting to set up the you-know-who's who cannot wait to get their hands on a class action, but Skyscape has had some issues in the Palm Community with software that tended to take over your Palm device, leave stray files upon deletion and have a series of crashes. Additionally, their customer service has not been the best. There is no information about how their software runs on Lifedrives.

If I were in charge of the Cochrane series, I would have chosen iSilo to conduct the search. Most of us in the medical profession can attest that this is really the gold standard for non-standalone documents. They have really done a lot for the medical profession when it comes to standardizing output and making navigation a breeze. If you ever get the opportunity, take a look at DermMeister, a brilliant Dermatology document that is easy to navigate.

Additionally, iSilo and its accompanying documents can run from the SD card. So you don't have to use space on your Palm device.

However, I am willing to let past experiences reside and see -- given the pricing, which I think is somewhat unreasonable -- how well this does. I will also look to see if there are any comments, both good and bad from colleagues who use it.

LDD.

Epocrates To Make Medicare Part D Available

In what has to be the best news to date to sprout from the Medicare Part D department, Epocrates will attempt to alleviate the fears of many physicians and supply the formulary on their now ubiquitous program.

Many of us have grown increasingly confused and somewhat shell-shocked by the new Medicare provision, which appears to have no linearity in its implementation. Patients over 65 are confused and cannot tell if it would be more profitable for them to give up their present prescription coverage which is secondary to Medicare - which until now offered no prescription drug coverage and only covered medical visits.

The confusion is made worse by the fact that few people know what medications are covered by the formulary (The formulary is the name given to the list of drugs supplied by the particular insurance company in question -- in this case, Medicare).

Epocrates has come to the plate and offered support for this endeavor. It is great news for many of us wondering about covered medications for our patients. Epocrates will provide this in the usual manner, by listing it as it does other insurance companies. So we will be able to have a dropdown menu that includes Medicare Part D. This is true point of care implementation. In my view, the best way to do this sort of thing.

To read the article, just press on the title and it will take you to the Epocrates news room.

LDD.

Are issues Resolved with Update 2.0?

Click on the title to see. Brighthand has a very comprehensive forum detailing the recent update experiences.

Many are stating that it is just best to erase a lot of the software and backup your data before attempting the update. Additionally, the time for the update is over 30 minutes at least, more if you delete applications and reinstated them one by one.

However, the most concerning part of the update is the file stability issue. It does not appear that this has been completely resolved with some members complaining of crashes with Solitaire - A non-third party application.

I am still waiting for the reviews before updating. So far, all of my important data is installed on my original TUNGSTEN T (Still one of the best pieces of hardware ever made - petite, powerful and attractive). so I have the time to wait.

(Picture Courtesy of www.brighthand.com)

LIFEDRIVE UPDATE 2.0 HAS ARRIVED !!

It is finally here. I have not had the opportunity to use this as of yet, but all I can say is "THANK YOU." Click on the Title to take you to the Palm Website

I will try the update out this weekend and confer to everyone what I think about it.


=== The following information is from the Palm site:


What is the LifeDrive Update 2.0?
Here at Palm we want to make sure you get the best experience possible with your LifeDrive mobile manager. To help make that happen we have released a new update to the LifeDrive mobile manager.

This software update (version 2.0) provides a variety of enhancements for:

Wi-Fi coverage in low signal areas
Roaming performance
File system stability
Sound quality when listening to MP3 files
More flexible multimedia functionality, including file transmission over wireless connections, file saving, and faster recording and playback
Browser performance, including more efficient, faster page rendering
The VersaMail® application to version 3.1C for large document attachments
The Docs To Go application version 7.006
New hard reset option to erase Program Memory but not Internal Drive contents more info
Also included from the LifeDrive Update 1.0
(previously released June 2005)

Fixes intermittent connectivity issues with these Wi-Fi routers:
Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router
Belkin High-Speed Mode Wireless G Router



What to expect

The LifeDrive Update 2.0 will change the permanent (ROM) software in your mobile manager. Please set aside at least 20 minutes to complete the update process.



Caution: This update will erase all data in Program Memory. Read the instructions in the installer carefully; they will guide you through backing up and restoring your personal data.
After the update, you'll restore your data from these backups. However, some third-party applications change the way your device backs up data. Other third-party applications do not back up data. If you have third-party software on your device, please contact the developer to learn what components are backed up during a HotSync operation, and if HotSync conduits are altered. Any data not backed up will be lost.

This update does not erase the contents of your Internal Drive (pictures, music and documents) or an inserted expansion card.

====


LDD

Any news on a Lifedrive Update?

I am still awaiting the word on when Palm will release an update to the Lifedrive. It is usually around this time that we can expect an update of their product cycle to correct problems.

I believe that December is also a good month for these things. Right now, my Lifedrive is acting as an overpriced MP3 player. It does that very well. It crashes after viewing movies, using mobidatabase, dataviz's programs both for extended periods of time. Wifi is becoming another problem, with many crashes during use. Blazer is unstable for most of the time.

I have just purchased a 1 g ultra card which is magnificent, but for my real work, that of billing etc, I have had to go back to the Tungsten 1. It is getting harder and harder to recommend my "precious" to anyone but a video collector and picture buff. Still, I haven't gone over to the other side, although i have been tempted.

I am also not jumping into the waters for a Tungsten TX. No, I am waiting for an update --probably idiotic to do so -- in the hope that Palm will make things right again. I can only hope.

On another note, I am now begining to wonder whether it is really worth my time setting up databases with mobi Database. I am finding all sorts of restrictions with this program that inhibit me from writing a really good app to collect patient data. It is begining to look like a tool for rearranging and presenting data in a different way, rather than real time updates.

And, since my last post, it appears that Dataviz has struck back in the Office Space, bringing out Version 8 of their Office product. This time they are advertising carbon copy technology that renders word documents exactly the same as their originals -- a page taken from mobi office I presume-- and the very radical native PDF program. Although someone has posted a glitch on the web, the product has been a long time in coming. I will of course wait for version 2.0 of the product to come out before I buy.

So, now without further adieu, I will hibernate once more awaiting the Palm update for the Lifedrive.

LDD.

Highly Recommended List -- Reading long documents

I had the pleasure of going through an important document using my Lifedrive yesterday. It was thrilling. It was not boring as most contracts are. It was very linear and I felt as if I was in control of what I was reading. It was really a very new experience and well worth the time invested.

This information may help many professionals who have a lot of document reading to do. Lawyers, Students, Actors and of course Doctors come to mind.

First off, let's go through the motions of this and what I found to be the most useful:

1. Getting the document into the lifedrive:

o The Lifedrive doesn't crash if you install the document
onto the lifedrive itself. However, it is faster to save
it in memory. Equally as fast is if you use an SD Ultra
II card. It reads from this as though from internal
memory.

o Secondly it helps if the file is in a word format. I am
lucky to be in a place that is very tech savvy in this
regard.

2. Which program to use once it's there:

Well, I have two programs that I use now. Although I have
heard that Wordsmith is one of the best for .doc files, I
have not used it. I have also not used QuickOffice, which
has received great reviews. But here are my thoughts on
the the two that I do use:

o Documents to Go.

This comes standard with the Lifedrive. Apart from some
early crashes, the upgrade (*a) to it appears to make it
very stable. It loads .doc files very quickly and appears
to navigate equally as fast.

However, for reading some docs, it has several drawbacks.
First, it's default setting appears to be ALL BOLD and the
fonts are too large. It doesn't feel "natural" to read a
document. I found myself having to manipulate the document
to make it readable. Thus, I was never certain whether
certain aspects of the document were important or not. I
felt no continuity or naturality (is that a word?) as I
read it. It was as if a computer just opened the document
and everything was there to be read.

In defense of Dataviz however, once the fonts are changed
there is better readability.


o Mobisystems Office.

Mobisystems offered immediate opening of a document without
queries. The original .doc document opened flawlessly and
appeared as original as the printed copy. The feel of the
reading experience was as close to reading the document on
paper as one could have. I actually flew through it,
highlighting areas and saving versions of the document
(as redundancy is always the key to medicine). I could scroll
through the document at will and I knew exactly where I was at
all times. The bookmark feature was also flawless.

If there is a drawback with Mobi's version it is the slowness
in loading. Whereas, Dataviz loaded the document in about 10
secs, it took Mobi 30-45 seconds to load and render. After
that, things worked out very well. Another small drawback is
the fact that the font files are over 200k each, so that
rendering and formatting comes at a price if you don't have a
lifedrive.

Additionally, I have not been able to use the print function
with Mobi yet. It works well with Dataviz's product. I am
certain that may be an issue with the network though.

I have been told that it is possible to load the entire Office
suite onto an SD card. I recommend an ULTRA card if possible
and I will try this soon to see if this works.

Overall, the better program in regards to naturally reading a document was Mobisystems Office. It was actually "fun" to read. And Mobi's very intuitive, Explorer like loading-file window is the best I have ever seen on a Palm device. It even has an area for network files.

3. Advice on Storage:

If you can, I really recommend the ULTRA SD cards for storage. I purchased a Sandisk Ultra II card recently and I have to tell you programs, podcasts, files operate as though they were in memory. It is that fast! It is like having 1 gig of Ram. In terms of storage, I use the Lifedrives' 3.8 g's to just store the files. That seems to work. But always, always, always let redundancy be your guide. Back up and copy everything, especially if it is really important.

LDD.


(*a) Upgrade to Documents to go if it constantly crashes. This answers the memory leak probem:

http://support.dataviz.com/support.srch?DocID=13122http://support.dataviz.com/support.srch?DocID=13122

Getting Closer

I am getting a little closer to putting up some Mobi Apps, more medical than not.
I am still having some issues with the program. The main one is redundancy, or lack thereof. One cannot copy databases verbatim to make backups. One can only copy the skeleton or the empty database with all of the queries, forms etc intact. However, once I work out all of the logistics with the host that I wish to use to host the files, I hope that many of you out there will add to the list of files created using this.

I am particularly looking for medical files if possible, but I am not limiting the search to this. Other apps can be added as well. As for selling these apps, I'm not certain that will be a possibility for now. I am just going to use the website in the hope that it helps others. I will probably use the advertising model (NOT THE FOUR LETTER WORD BEGINING WITH S ) to subsidize it.

I think that we can start using this as a source for other projects too, including Dataviz's Smartlist, Handbase among others.

LDD.

Old Faithful

Old faithful Dataviz returned to the rescue this week. I have been using Smartlist-to-go (sltg) for years and began a slight detour to Mobisystems Database. Unfortunately there were a few problems with this program that I have not been able to correct.

First and foremost I think that it is really necessary for a company to respond to its phone calls or emails. Mobisystems has done neither over the past 8 weeks. Here are a few negatives that I ran into attempting to write a Patient Database program with what I feel is one of the Desktop's best Palm Database programs. I should also add, I feel that Mobisystem's Database is one of the best reference database programs ever written for the Palm. The ability to add photos and continuous search functions is so intuitive and easy to use, conforming to many of the Microsoft standards, that it almost seems like heresy to write anything bad about it. In defense of Mobisystems though, I must add that some of the problems are Lifedrive related.

Issues with Mobisystems Database:

1. Several crashes seem to occur when attempting to access linked files.
2. There is no ability to print from the lifedrive, including with Printboy.
3. Individual records are difficult to access, without the use of Primary Keys.
4. Recently I wrote an On-Call program which showed the pictures of Physicians
on call, with the dates of availability for call. Several additional issues were
noted:

A. I was unable to use the Rom calendar to apply the dates.
B. Each date had to be created as a separate record.
C. The Applet creation function from the Forms section worked well until it
was hotsynced. Following this, there was an icon in the launcher menu,
but no program. Even after several resets.
D. The ability to transfer an Access file only includes tables, which is
basically a CSV table transfer.



So, the solution for last weekend was to go back to old faithful, SLTG. At least for the next few weeks. There is no delay (a Lifedrive problem) with the input or the output. I can easily transfer via IR to a text file all of my patients for the month/week/day, but alas, there was one small problem, even with the SLTG program. Dastardly crashes !!!!

Since I had a lot of the DRG and CPT codes in different files, which were accessed relatively quickly on the Lifedrive, the potential for crashes was always a possibility. Due to this problem while I was on call, it was time to do something ridiculous. You cannot imagine the absurdity of trying to enter DRG and CPT codes with resets occurring randomly. There was only one solution (of course, short of going to the Windows platform).

I am now using two Palms. The Palm Tungsten (1) for all my medical stuff and the Lifedrive for everything else (web browsing, mp3's, movies, Office files, ebooks etc). This morning I picked up a 1 gigabyte SD card and I hope to attach the MobiPrograms and the Dataviz ones directly to the card. Hopefully if I can load the Database to the card and use it directly with the Palm Tungsten I will be very happy.

Amazing isn't it, what's old is what's new.


LDD.

What's This? Mobi Database Files ???

Well, it turns out that there is now an area where you can download a few apps. They appear to be simple apps, but apps they are.

Now Mobi, if you could just answer the phone, or return a call or two. Open up the site to have people send you apps. It is the only way that this program will get the recognition it deserves. And don't leave a page such as this hidden. I found it by accident.

LDD.

http://www.mobi-systems.com/products-db.asp?MSSID=19fa7637b9de6857aea3547c0b2aea18

CALLING ALL MOBISYSTEMS DATABASE USERS

Okay,

So there is this powerful program that no one seems to take notice of called Mobisystems Database. It parallels Microsoft Access in many ways. It has wonderful dropdown menus, the ability to pull up a form from within a form, intuitive editing features (but a poorly written manual) and many more positives. It is perhaps the best forms presentation program that I have ever seen on a Palm platform. Well, maybe a little short of Pendragons, but that particular software in its full form is usually a house payment.

So, one would think that with all of the power behind this software, its
speed, its wonderful graphical interface and the fact that Mobisystems
looks as though they used it to make MobiDiets (selling for 19.95) and
the incredible sample Database Apps that come with the program (all 5 of them !!!!!) , that Mobisystems Database would be an absolute must-have product, with incredible support and hundreds, if not thousands of apps floating around somewhere for people to download and use.

One would think that Mobisystems would take a cue from HandBase and Smartlist, their competitors-at-large and create either a competition or promote the product by encouraging people to send in apps made for it.

Well, you would be wrong if you thought that !!! I have been scouring the web for 2 months and have not seen one posting of a Mobisystems Database App. I have been trying to write a few myself, but have become limited due to the Lifedrive Fiasco --- ie. Every time I try to link a database to another database file, the Lifedrive Crashes !!! I await the update !!! As I turn blue, holding my breath, I am making a public call out to those of you who have this program or its original predecessor Mobisystems Access. There must be hundreds of you out there who have made apps for this program. If anyone has an idea where to put this up, or who is willing to host a site, or maybe if one of the powers that be at Mobisystems will give up some of that Free Ftp space that is so wonderfully distributed in Mobisystems Office to host this, I think that this would be great.

Additionally, Mobisystems, you are doing yourselves no favors by not picking up the phone. I have called your offices at least ten times in the past month. I am begining to feel like a Firefly fan, dragging this company to do something with a great product, because for the last 4 years they have no idea what a great product they have created.

For those in medicine, I think that if you don't have a Lifedrive that is prone to crashing, but you have a stable Palm Product, you should check out the demo. It is a little different and has a little more of a learning curve than Smartlist, which is my favorite Palm database for the price conscious. But this thing is very powerful. Its search features are wonderful. Its ability to filter out data and present it in a form layout is second to none. Additionally, one can transfer the files to a .csv format for printing.

What they do need is an ability to print out a form in its native mode. Once that is in place, this product would be sensational. If I were to compare it to something, I would say Pendragon forms with an Access twist for a fraction of the cost.

Yahoo Groups does appear to have a board on this product, with about 3 message entries the last time I checked and most of those appear to be asking the same question, Mobi, where are you?



LDD.

Just a thought......

This weekend, I again tried to do some database programming. This time using Mobisystems. Of course it crashed, as has become now an obvious problem with the Lifedrive. But before it crashed, I began to notice something very interesting.

When I used the other database program, Smartlist, I noticed that the device would crash when it went to look for a database that was locked on the memory card. It would crash every time, until the database was brought into the main memory of the machine. It would crash only once or very rarely once that was done. I began changing fields in a new database written in Smartlist, this time limiting the number of additional files and storing them in lists instead, in order to minimize file access. This apparently made a differnce in Smartlist, however some linked files are unavoidable and this is when the problem would resurface.

Well, on Mobisystems, the crashes are fewer, since the program is using a sort of Access type relation, thus most of the data is stored within one database. However, wonder out to another database using the Lookup or link command and you find the same problems with crashing.

Well, the interesting thing that I have noticed is that if the file being accessed is on the Lifedrive (outside of the 64 mb section), then the crashes occur more frequently. This weekend I am going to try to place all of the databases into the 32mb portion of Ram not the extended 32mb, which is the disc drive and see if that makes a difference. My theory is that it may have something to do with the FAT-32 system. Since using Resco, I have been able to see where some of the programs are residing.

Are many of the files in the database programs reading the palm structure as a .PDB which is the classic palm file system , all linear and treated as a serial database, thus thwarting their abiility to assume that bits of files may be somewhere else, as in the disc drive? A possible solution could loom here.

LDD.

When a Major Player gives up, what does this say?

Today, I read with amazement that Sammy McCloughlin has ceased using his Lifedrive. Infact, he gave it away to one of his partners. I wrote a long piece detailing this important news, but the blog timed out before I could save it. However it was a long diatribe about how Palm should do something about this device quickly, such as offering rebates for a new model or correcting the software glitches. I am losing money with this device. It is no longer keeping track of my charges because with each patient that I add, it crashes. This, despite the numerous resets.

Anyway, I have decided to spare the long diatribe and leave open the question, what does it say about a device and a company when one of its major supporters, one day before the announcement of a Microsoft enabled Treo, publicly announces that he is returning to his old Palm device?

I'll save the long speech.

http://palmaddict.typepad.com/palmaddicts/2005/09/i_am_back_using.html


LDD.

Rumors Abound about the new Tungsten

Palminfocenter is reporting that Palm may release a new product, tentatively nicknamed the Palm X. It is supposed to replace the Palm T5 and a release date is presumed to be in October.

(Picture Courtesy of Engadget.com and Palminfocenter.com)


The new device supposedly supports the following features:

1. Palm OS Garnet v5.4.9
2. 312 MHZ Xscale Processor.
3. 320 x 480 pixel display.
4. 128 mb non-volatile memory.
5. 802.11b and Bluetooth 1.2
6. SDIO Expansion Slot.

Not readily confirmable is the following:

1. Internal Camera.
2. Internal Voice Recorder.
3. Price of $299.00

My take on this:

I think that the addition of the 802.11b is a good one, along with the NVFS (nonvolatile memory, allowing you to let the battery run down and not lose the information in the machine). However, I would think that Palm would have been able to put a faster processor in this machine and begin to add not only SDIO card slots, but Memory Sticks for pictures. When one considers that the leading selling digital cameras are Sony's, it only stands to reason that this should be included. (While on the subject, whatever happened to the Lifedrive Memory Stick Adapter)?

The price point is quite appealing, because this is the MSRP and not the "street" price. It will make those holding sacred the unrelenting PALM TUNGSTEN 3 (Debatably the best Palm product ever made :) ) look to upgrade, since the T3 goes for about 250.00 on Ebay. Although, not lost in this comparison is the fact that the T3 has a faster processor. That is somewhat surprising. However, as I stated before, the Garnet Operating System is not compatible with multitasking, thus Palm may believe that the processing power is not really needed.

For medicine, I think that if the price is 299.00 retail and by January it can be found for about 240-250, this is a very good Palm. It could become a better seller than the Zire series, which is by far the most popular new Palm for healthcare providers at the moment.

What is not mentioned is the lack of a hard drive. I would suspect that without a hard drive, this is probably faster in "real life" than My Lifedrive. At least at the point of entering data. However, I think that many of you know my opinion of hard drives in the Palm. If you can have a fat-32 system on a solid state device, then I believe that this is the best option for speed, weight and size. The battery life is also better on these products (ie. Ipod nano, Tungsten T3).

I certainly hope that the bugs are worked out in Garnet. The glitches found in the Lifedrive are by now historical and just downright annoying. A stable operating system is needed, particularly when using a handheld device.

Nevertheless, if this product appears as mentioned above, I think it would be a good addition to the Palm line and bodes well for the possibility of a magnificent upgrade to the Lifedrive line (hopefully with solid state materials ---> Just read that Samsung is creating a 16 gig card to rival the disc drives).


LDD.

Reset City

So today was a pivotal point in my Lifedrive chronicles.
Last week I sat down ready to explain a few things to a
patient, using the wonderful memory capacity that is my
Lifedrive. We are a computerized outfit, thus interconnectivity
is our only desire. Bluetooth and 802.11b and soon -g permeate
our offices.

We can send charges to our billing clerk, immediately from rounds,
or in my case, at the end of the month. So far, so good. Lifedrive
has lived up to its promise.

The downside comes from the other things that we need it to do.
Inexplicably, the device will go through a series of soft resets.
"Free Handle" errors are the norm. Once I start seeing a few of these,
there is a simple solution. If "File" still works, I look for a stray
file, usually a numbered file ie. "38.txt." I then look at the Checksum
file and note that the Lifedrive, just as with a PC, has made a file, that
is surprisingly useable. I then reenter the program that crashed and see
if it crashes again. If it does, I make a backup of the file that crashed.
I then go to the "38.txt" file - again if "file" is working and I erase the "38.txt" file. I then return to the offending application and usually it starts working without a problem.

I believe the "Free Handle" errors are termed by programmers, "Memory Leaks."
It turns out that Palm, somewhere in their documents, or perhaps it was on
a web site, (lifedriver.blogspot.com) gives a good discussion on this.
However, if the "file" program crashes, it's usually "lights out!" You will
probably have to do a hard reset to get everything back.

I am certain that there is a clever programmer out there who knows how to stop
the memory leaks. This was apparently a problem with the Dell Axim and it was apparently fixed without problems.

My problem last week was that I downloaded some contracts that I had saved, large
documents, over 30megs a piece, some incredible medical videos, playable on the
TCMP program. Soft resets throughout the entire presentation. At 3-5 minutes
per reset, I ended up spending twenty minutes during a busy day trying to
show this important video and print out a contract.

This was not what I envisioned I would be doing with my Lifedrive. I really love
the device, but really a solid state solution may need to be obtained, or the
software developers need to learn how to work with non-volatile memory. It is the
latter that I believe may be the biggest problem of all. Documents to go was a big culprit in this.

Anyhow, I am begining to think that Software sales are going to decline substantially, at least from clients who have upgraded to the Lifedrive. This does nothing for the Palm Lifestyle.

PALM, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, YOU NEED TO COME UP WITH AN UPDATE OR SOMETHING, OR MANY OF US WILL BE MIGRATING TO MICROSOFT. This type of delay in documentation input and the numerous software crashes, requiring -- at least on my part -- a hard reset once every 2 weeks is completely unacceptable.

As our institution is looking into obtaining more devices, the LD sounded the most promising, due to storage, but the woes that I and a few others have encountered, are leaving us second guessing our decision. We have critical data on our Lifedrives that needs to be accessed quickly and distributed quickly - sometimes to patients, sometimes to other physicians. Crashes are not an option. During a busy day, I do not expect to wait for the machine to start up; slow down graffiti input because of a delay; wait for 5 minutes as the machine boots from a soft reset. TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE !!!! Last week, during a telephone call with another physician, I actually had to open up my Rolodex, something I haven't used in 5 years, to look for a name, because the Lifedrive was too slow.

This is a great device, but we need to leave Reset City and get back to Nirvhana.
The Hard reset went well today, but another hour wasted in setting up parameters and waiting had to be done. I also have to find other data files that I saved on a CD.
Let's hope that the acquisition of Palm Source will entertain a new avenue of progress for this company. It would have been easy for me to switch to a Microsoft product, but I have grown up with Palm and I wish to stay with them. Hopefully they will oblige and give us what we need.

Patient Databases

I have seen a few Patient Keeper Databases and I must say that I think that many suffer from a simple case of too much information. They tend to want to do too much and become extremely bloated.

Keep it simple. In my opinion, a patient keeper database for inpatients should consist of a few simple necessities:

1. Patient Name (Last,First).
2. A Unique Key (For repeat patients, it can become confusing if a patient is admitted twice in the same billing period). I like to use a name database now, since this tends to cut down on the amount of redundant information that one has to keep entering.
3. DOB.
4. Medical Record Number. (Preferably not SS number).
5. Emergency Contact or POA etc.
6. Optional Insurance Carrier.
7. Usually in a separate database for linking, the CPT codes).
8. I haven't figured out a way to simplify date entries, since CPT codes should
be billed on a daily basis.
9. A memo section, which pretty much could include a lot.
10. An alert function.

A few databases that I have used for the above are as follows:

1. HandBase. I stopped using this when they began selling separate ODBC products. Something that I think should have been included in the original software. Additionally, the GUI appears too "cartoony" and takes up too much space on the screen. It is also dreadfully slow when more than about 30 patients are in place.

2. Smartlisttogo (SLTG). I am currently using this and still love it. However, I have outgrown it and have found its main weakness is in database links. One can get lost in nested links in SmartList. And I have found out that I am not the only one getting confused. The program sometimes gets confused and links to the wrong database during programming. Additionally, some of the query options are nonstandard and become difficult to follow as you expand your database. But there is a lot to be said for a program that I have used for 4 years now. I have nothing against it, just a need for more. It is quite robust. I have had 200 patients in the database and there was little delay. On a lifedrive it flies.

As for ODBC and ActiveSync. A word to the wise on both HandBase and Smartlist.
IF YOU VALUE YOUR DATA, DON'T USE IT !!!!! Back up your data often on both products and use other alternatives to print it out or to exchange information. If you are a diehard and feel that you can't live without ActiveSync, then please back up your original.

I have chosen to send my data to the MemoPad, transmit it to my laptop via I-R and then print it out. I also use a Bluetooth and/or an 802.11g option with printboy for handbase (in the past) and there is a direct print option, which prints beautifully with the built in print feature on the Smartlist program.

3. Mobisystems Database. Well, I've graduated. I plan to experiment with this database for a while. I have written a PatientKeeper App, but I am still writing it. It is a lot more complicated to write it with Database (MBSDB) but it appears to be worth it. The forms are very compelling. Again, I don't like ActiveSync, and keep in mind that I am using the buggy LifeDrive, so I am already fighting the resets as I write the app. I am using the beta version of the program right now, but it is looking as though I will purchase the full Desktop version next week some time. It is quite powerful and I am enjoying it. I am keeping very much aware that the more relational databases that I link this thing with, I am in danger of encountering more errors. But after all, isn't that what programming is all about? Trial and error.

The one thing that I will miss, switching to Mobisystems is the active changes in fields that can be done with Smartlist. I haven't fully tested it out yet, but I think that modifications to the database causes resets to all of the fields. A major problem if I decide to add a field or two on the fly as I did in the first two years of using SLTG. Again, I am hoping to put up some these files for use by everyone. I love feedback as well, so that would be nice as well.

If I could get some feedback on this activity, it would be nice.

LIFEDRIVE DOC.

LifedriveDoc

Welcome to LifedriveDoc.

I decided to write this blog because no one seems to be able to voice the opinions of those who are both happy to have a Lifedrive and frustrated with it at the same time.
I love Sammy's PalmAddict Lifedrive, however I must say that there are a few too many cheerleaders out there who are not explaining all of the positives and negatives.

Right now, I am holding my breath waiting for the Lifedrive to reboot from its third reset. The last time that this happened this often, I had to scour the web and do a hard reset, reinstall Documents to go and hope for the best.

The most recent set of crashes have occurred since I installed Mobisystems Paint. However, in its defence, the crashes start after installing any software. I previously blamed Documents to Go due to the fact that their memory leak problems were occurring long before the LifeDrive.

I plan to use this forum to keep track of my woes and successes in the hope that it will help others. And more importantly, give us a clue to recovery and no more crashes.

Comments always welcome.

I will also try to put up some files on this site, if I am allowed to. I am still trying to get a handle on the whole blog thing. Probably a podcast will be next.

LifeDriveDoc.