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