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I'm curious. I'm going to install your application on my Lenovo TPC and use WSR.
Now to get off my butt and go downstairs and get my TPC out of the trunk of my car.
Chris Wilkerson, D.C. Carson Doctors Group TabletPCs in Medicine Editor-in-Chief www.MedicalTabletPC.com Home: www.Digital-Doc.com
Cool! Let me know if it works. It's never been tried on a TPC. If you still have trouble downloading the demo or if you prefer not to put in any personal information, just plug up the information boxes in the reg process with a bunch of bogus text. It should get you to the link.
Eric
http://fastercharts.com
FasterCharts: Cool! Let me know if it works. It's never been tried on a TPC. If you still have trouble downloading the demo or if you prefer not to put in any personal information, just plug up the information boxes in the reg process with a bunch of bogus text. It should get you to the link. Eric http://fastercharts.com
Works just fine and the install is fast. WSR works great in part because I have a medical vocabulary loaded. I did the Chief Complaint and HPI via WSR and then used the check boxes to clarify the quantity and quality of pain. Nice. Fastest and simplest install I have ever experienced!
Awesome! That's exciting. You're making me want to go get a tablet PC now! Thanks for trying it out.
IDEA: selecting conditions by System is slow. Certainly a useful adjunct would be to have easy access to the most common conditions.
email:
What I think you are destined to find is that for a physician to turn to a computer to generate a note, you will have to meet other expectations. That includes writing the script, ordering lab work, ordering an imaging study, maybe ordering an injectable, generating a reminder, requesting consultation, etc.
Otherwise, it all becomes double entry-- once in the note and once on a paper form of some sort.
DrMurdoch: IDEA: selecting conditions by System is slow. Certainly a useful adjunct would be to have easy access to the most common conditions.
That's a good idea. Actually, the user can easily do this by adding a new group under PMH, naming it "Most Common", and then adding the various conditions as items under that group as they see fit. I think one of the greatest features of this little application is that the user can change, modify, rearrange, rename, delete, etc. any of the data that comes supplied with the application. My programmer thinks it's bad to let the user get to the main data because you can really screw things up. As long as they have a back-up of the maindata.fcd file, it's easy to get everything back to normal.
I like your idea though. I will probably add that to the data base when I get a chance.
Something like this?
mchasemd: What I think you are destined to find is that for a physician to turn to a computer to generate a note, you will have to meet other expectations. That includes writing the script, ordering lab work, ordering an imaging study, maybe ordering an injectable, generating a reminder, requesting consultation, etc. Otherwise, it all becomes double entry-- once in the note and once on a paper form of some sort.
I hope not! This is kind of a "special niche" application. I'm betting there's a population of doctors out there that just want a charting application and nothing else? I was just talking with a friend today that says the ER docs at their hospital hand write their notes and then scan them into the main hospital's EMR program. Illegible and all! I'm thinking an outfit like that could use something like this!
I am an ER doc. Many hospitals pay for and want a transcribed record.....but if you want to sell a note generator to them, then you will need disease-based templates. You will need "draw-on images". You will need voice recognition that is easily integrated. You will need persistence (start a note on one pt, finish up a note on another pt, return to the spot where you left in the first note). Hospitals will put your feet to the fire regarding an audit trail. Regarding the database, consider that many hospitals use Citrix and your program will have to be tested in that environment. You'd better start thinking now about the backend database and how it might function under 10 Citrix servers (that was the number for one of our installs). Someone will ask why must the meds list be entered twice (once recorded by the nurses on a paper chart and then included in the physicians chart....and ditto for vitals, PMH, SH, FH, ROS and other info which might be collected by ancillary staff? Now your talking multi-user...audit trail...logon...etc.
So if you want to sell your program as a simple note generator, then it has to be really, really good-- complete sentences, concise, pertinent (and that means pertinent negatives, not just pertinent positives) and fast. You need lots of different controls to speed input (right-bilateral-left, number, calendar, positive-negative, checkbox, lists with right-bilateral-left, lists with positive-negatives, checkbox lists, editboxes, and others. You should really have a "procedure control" where those things that are done repetitively can be boxed up and instantiated with future pts, but with the ability to change certain things. For example, perhaps a shoulder dislocation or a facial laceration where once it's a right shoulder and the next time a left shoulder and you vary on the amount of Versed, or a 2cm eyebrow lac once but a 3cm chin lac on another.
You'll want to give the user the ability to put in new clinical content (we call it the "clinical store") and then to include those items in different templates. You might want to consider two template types-- unanswered and pre-answered. Few pts are exactly alike.
Best of luck.
FasterCharts has a lot of the features you mentioned (templates, voice recognition compatible, persistence, pertinent negatives and positives, plenty of "boxes", procedure note option). I think if a hospital wants more I will send them to your website! (I like your website BTW!)
If they want an iPhone "like" application without the iPhone, then please send them my way!
Thanks for your advice,
Eric, I am trying out your demo program. Can you recommend a text macro freeware program that can be used with FasterCharts? When I want to add a return visit to an existing patient the program appears to create another "chart" for the same patient rather than a "note" within the chart. Is this the way the program was designed? Just wondering!
Shashi
skumaram: Eric, I am trying out your demo program. Can you recommend a text macro freeware program that can be used with FasterCharts? When I want to add a return visit to an existing patient the program appears to create another "chart" for the same patient rather than a "note" within the chart. Is this the way the program was designed? Just wondering! Shashi
Shashi,Thanks for trying it out! I hope you find FasterCharts useful. Please spread the word! I can't think of any freeware text macro programs. Maybe someone else will read this and have a suggestion? I use Dragon Naturally Speaking a lot and it is great for macros. Not free though.
I think some of the confusion is likely in the words I used to label some of the button functions. Chart and Note are kind of interchangeable, which it really shouldn't be. I am going to go back to work and change the interface a little so that it makes better sense. Your input is so very helpful. Hopefully I will have a revised version in a few days.
The way FasterCharts currently exists.....
When creating a return visit or follow up note in FasterCharts, the easiest way is to create a new note from an old note (if you are going to exam and chart most all of the same things). Just select the patient in the list that you want to make an additional note on and click "New Chart For Patient". It will then prompt you if you would like to use the selected chart as a template. Click "Yes" and you have an exact copy of the old note to change and edit to make the new note. Click "No" and you get a blank note to begin work on.
After you have more than one note for the same person, I suggest changing the screen view by highlighting the "List By Patient" button instead of the "List All Charts" button on the "Patient Charts" screen. To reveal all of the "notes" for your selected patient while in the "List By Patient" mode, just click the "Edit Charts" button. This will then open a new pop up form that will show only the notes for the selected patient. Basically creating a "chart" for your "notes". Does that make since?
Just an FYI, I changed a few buttons around, renamed a few buttons, and made things a little easier to understand thanks to everyone's input here. Nothing major but thought I would post! Sales are picking up and the interest is growing in FasterCharts so I'm excited. I'm more excited though about my new baby coming any day now! Two boys under the age of two!! It's gonna be fun!