There’s an App for That
If you are like me, you can’t wait to have the latest gadget. In between playing Scrabble and watching movies on Netflix on my iPad, I have actually found some useful apps related to taking care of patients in their home.
My favorite by far is the WebMD app which is available for both iPad and iPhone. If you are fortunate to have a 3G iPad you can use it in the home for teaching. It has an extensive searchable list of both medications and diseases complete with patient level teaching guides. The same information is available on a PC so information can be printed. I keep thinking how wonderful it would be to have this tool available in the house for those visits when the patient has new medications or a new diagnosis.
The WebMD app also has a searchable list of health care providers using the GPS location of the machine to find results closest to the user. This means that when the patient tells you that their drug store is on Main Street and there are five locations of the popular chain on Main Street, you can narrow it down and call prescriptions into the right place.
Whether you buy your own iPad or can talk your employer into buying one for you, it will definitely make your life easier. Add Netflix and Scrabble and together with your email and music, it is well worth the investment.
I would be interested to hear about other useful apps that can be adapted for use in the home setting for hospice and home health. Geeks like me want to know.
I am also into electronics and any app that will make my life easier. Some of the apps that I have on my iphone that I use for home care are: 1) UMMS Medical Info, 2) Medscape, 3) Medico, 4) Skyscape RxDrugs, 5)IV Meds and 6) MU – Medicine University (offers free CEUs). Anyone with additional apps…. would appreciate you sharing them. Thanks.
Here’s one for iPhone that can save you when on the road, its called Sit or Squat. Users rate public restrooms for cleanliness! sometimes in a hectic day in the field a clean pit stop can be a bonus…. Also, Yahoo Y!sketch is a free app where you can circle a location and it returns all restaurants in the area. I also use Medscape for drug info and a great drug interaction checker (and free CEUs that they track for you).
I don’t use an iPhone. Wouldn’t have one if it was given to me free. But epocrates.com has had an updateable medication data base for about 10 years and it is free. It was originally designed for PalmOS on their old PDAs. It came back then in two options, one for free, and one you paid for that had more PDR related information on it.
Now, it is available for Blackberry, Palm, iPhone, and Droid (might be one more). It is wonderful on a smart phone because it calls the web. It’s usable on a laptop, does interactions quickly and even gives a relative cost based comparison. On my old trusty PDA, I had to synch it.