A Physician's Odyssey: "eHealthcare" and Windows Powered Device

It has been a little over a year since I wrote "A Physician's Toolbox"  (www.pocketpcmag.com/Jan00/physician.htm). Since then, many "dot.coms" and other technology-related companies have come and gone, and many fortunes have been lost. These events have had a dampening effect on the excitement associated with electronic healthcare technology. Investors are not putting money into eHealthcare ventures as readily as they were a year ago, and the promise of the wireless broadband Internet has been slow to materialize. However, I have found that physicians' interest and excitement about incorporating a "virtual office" into a handheld device continues to grow.

Most of the companies I looked at in the original article are still around, and striving to improve healthcare for patients and providers. As the medical editor for Pocket PC magazine, I am privileged to get an advance look at the latest gadgets, software, and technologies that will ultimately make for more efficient, effective and, most importantly, safe patient management.

iPAQ Pocket PC: the physician's choice

I firmly believe that the 64 Mb Pocket PC is THE device that will bring the practice of medicine into the physician's pocket, and do itwirelessly! Go to any healthcare informatics show today and you will no longer see PalmPilots being touted—they have all been replaced by Pocket PCs. With the recent introduction of the 64 Mb iPAQ Pocket PC, large medical applications requiring 16 Mb or more of internal memory can be handled more easily and efficiently. The extra RAM means that there is less risk of program overload. I predict that the 64 Mb iPAQ and other Pocket PCs that follow its lead will become the choice of healthcare providers for many years to come!

Using the Pocket PC to Write Electronic Prescriptions ("e-Prescribing")

Many companies have attempted use the power of the Pocket PC in the emerging field of "e-Prescribing." Instead of scrawling your prescription on a piece of paper, the doctor enters it into a computer or mobile device at the office. From there, it can be printed out on a local printer or automatically routed to your pharmacy so the medicine is waiting for you when you stop by. Among other things, this system will reduce the risk of medical misadventure due to illegible prescriptions. Companies involved with this include Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, iScribe, ParkStone, and PocketScript.

The only program I have personally had a chance to use is ParkStone. This program, loaded onto my iPAQ Pocket PC, provides me information about medications, including drug interactions and the relative cost of the medications I am prescribing. My patients are also very impressed with my "Star Trek"-like ability to "beam" a legible Rx to my printer.

Screen 1: TouchWorks is the Allscripts suite of clinical solutions that enables physicians to prescribe, dictate, capture charges, and reference a clinical library, all from a single integrated application.

In an attempt to jump-start interest in their products, Parkstone, iScribe, and PocketScript had been giving the software and hardware to qualifying physicians for free. Many of these companies were hoping that pharmaceutical and other healthcare organizations would provide subsidies for the initial cost of the system. However, these companies did not have a model for generating incremental revenue in the future. To date, it appears that the majority of physicians have failed to buy into this "free" approach, and most of these companies appeared to be struggling to survive at the time I wrote this article. The one company that appears to be doing well is Allscripts, with more than 5,000 physicians currently using its handheld wireless solutions. Allscripts charges a fee for their product (hardware and software) and the cost per physician varies based on the size of the practice. However, they also offer several free downloadable software titles (see "Allscripts Pocket Library").

Allscripts TouchWorksTM

(Available for Pocket PC)