Software Review: Riley Kidometer & Shots 2006

Riley's Kidometer is a God-Send for Pediatricians and Generalists alike. If you have ever listened to a child's heartbeat and said to yourself, "Is that normal?" or looked at a newborn CBC and wondered, "Is that Hemoglobin for real #$%* ?" then Riley Hospital for Children's Kidometer is for you.

Edited by Dr. Joel Topf, the Kidometer is a statistically fact based solution that graciously simplifies the obvious. If you are looking for the respiratory rate of a 1 month old, you select the age at the bottom of the screen and select from the dropdown menu on the top right of the page - selecting Basic Vitals. The data is broken down into a range (in this case, 36-64 (awake)) and in parentheses the mean value is also given for the range. Thus in the case of our excited one month old, this is average (Caution to Care providers: Always use judgment with this as you well know, if the kid looks septic don't take the "average" or normal value to mean that he/she is normal - I really trust that everyone reading this would take that into account).

This program exemplifies two things that I greatly appreciate in "the perfect medical program:" SPEED and SIMPLICITY. This program is much more complex than it would appear. Age specific data is not that easy to compile and deliver in a concise format, yet the developers manage to do just that. You select an age and select the information that you are looking for and voila, the information is there.

So, are there negatives with this product? Not really, it works well on the lifedrive but I would like to have seen a simpler presentation of the vaccines, since this is something that is constantly changing. Although it still presents itself well with the information provided, I picture students or early residents looking for a quick response, not appreciating all of the reading that is needed to decide upon the 2,4 and 6 month vaccines. It is a detour from the succinct presentation listed in the rest of the program. Again, this is not really a negative but an observation.

On the subject of immunizations, I cannot recommend the immunization program SHOTS 2006. (http://www.immunizationed.org/) I was going to write a review about the product, but decided against it since I had nothing good to say about it. The product nearly destroyed my LIFEDRIVE. The program, which comes in two versions - a graphically intense version which sports graphic images of the childhood diseases being vaccinated against and one with fewer graphics. Unfortunately both appeared to crash. The "lite" version still appeared to look for pictures found in its counterpart graphics-intensive partner. Since it could not find them, it would crash! The larger version of the program appeared to fall into the vast Lifedrive Wormhole attempting to look for the picture files and not finding them. Even if the picture files were in the same directory (which they were not even during a hotsync), the sound of "ker-Klink" and reset would take hold.Even after I rid myself of the program from the LIFEDRIVE, the device went into a cyclical reset and stopped short of a Hard Reset, resetting all of my files in memory by wiping out the registration info, but leaving the files intact.

It is a shame that I could not get the Shots 2006 program to work on the Lifedrive since the group, The Society of Teachers for Family Medicine (STFM) does such fantastic work. They are driven to providing education and immunizations to children and this misstep in providing software for what I must assume is all NVFS devices appears to be a slip from the norm. I have used their previous versions of Shots in the past without problems, but I surmise that the issue may be in trying to provide these diverse files which the Lifedrive has problems accessing. In regards to their software for other devices, it would appear that there is no problem, but I think that a big Caution should be presented on their download page for owners of Lifedrives, until they have corrected the problems listed.

So, thumbs up for the RILEY KIDOMETER - Living proof that there is still good software out there that is well written. I highly recommend it. The company offers a 30 day trial, followed by a request for $17.95. The information is sent via email.


Disclaimer: As with all of my reviews, this review is independent of any secondary gain. I feel that I must publish this disclaimer with any glaringly enthusiastic reviews that I give.

LDD.