Integrating Tablet Computers Into Your Practice
Photo Courtesy Tom Raftery via flickr
With Mac releasing the iPad last week, it is time to think about how these new tablet computers that are flooding the market can become a valuable member of your PT team. But to many, abandoning your traditional pen and paper for a sleek touch-screen tablet computer seems overwhelming.
The potential for these devices to make your office more efficient is almost limitless. Combining tablets with electronic documentation (you are using electronic documentation, right?) could give you the opportunity to integrate information from multiple levels. Imagine having diagnostic images, the patient’s medical history, the PT chart, physician’s orders, and functional outcome measures all easily accessible on one, ½ inch thick screen. But, the benefits go beyond working in a paperless environment. Having the internet in your hands during treatment sessions allows you to browse special tests, diagnostic information, drug information, and more importantly patient education materials like instructional videos. Some tablets also feature 3G capabilities, allowing PTs in home healthcare the ability to access the same information available on a WiFi network. Ideally, this would result in the opportunity to be more efficient and spend more time treating and educating patients, not writing SOAP notes by hand, scheduling, or billing.
But, introducing these devices into your clinical practice is not for everyone. It is important to remember that no single device (not yet anyway!) is appropriate for all clinics or settings. The potential is great for integrating these devices into PT practice, but is there an app for that? Since this technology is so new, the documentation software you prefer or the features you want may not be available yet. Cost may be another barrier to integration, ranging from $499 to $829, the iPad can be expensive, especially if you are integrating into a large clinic or hospital setting. Apple is not the only company on the tablet front, HP-Compaq, Dell, and Panasonic ToughBook all offer competing models. Compared to laptops, the current trend, tablets are easier to disinfect, less cumbersome, touch-screen, feature a longer battery life, and easier to operate overall.
These platforms also open the door for PT specific apps and programs to be developed. At an average of $1.99 per download, the apps for the iPad are more expensive than their iPhone counterparts. As PTs and the general public catch the app downloading bug, there is profit to be made in every sector, not just healthcare. The question then becomes, should PT specific apps be limited to PTs? And, if so, how do we regulate who downloads them?
UK Sends Data to The Cloud
One of the big barriers to both performing and consuming research is the issue of closed doors and ownership of data. Researchers struggle with gaining access to information. Readers of research struggle with gaining access to manuscripts locked away behind expensive subscription fees. Thus, the move to open access publishing is useful on multiple levels. The ability to have access to the best recent research findings is a critical component of best care.
The United Kingdom has taken a postive step with data from the public sector and goverment commisioned research by moving away from proprietary copyright laws and adopting the very popular Creative Commons licenses. They recently launched a new website, data.gov.uk as a resource for gaining access to this information. People developing the information will also have an easier time securing the protection of their data using the easy stardards of the Creative Commons rules. This certainly seems like a win-win for everyone.
By the way, this is really about opening data up to “the cloud” and I think we’ll see more and more opportunities to connect and free up data. To that end, you have to love the presence of the “Semantic Web” definition on the landing page for the UK’s new site.
What kind of data is available?
Here’s a data set to chew on: “The patient journey post hip fracture: What constitutes rehabilitation?“
A Simple Solution: Posterous.com
I get asked by quite a few physical therapists about the best way to establish some sort of online identity for themselves or, more often, their business. While my gut reaction is to suggest a WordPress, this does take at least some footwork to get off the ground and to look nice. Another option which, due to the insanely simple process of setting it up, maybe more palatable to some folks is Posterous.com
Posterous allows everyone to make a blog on the fly, and they take care of images, hosting, posting, etc. All the user has to do is to remember the email address to post something (post.posterous.com), find something of value on the web worth sharing, or write down some thoughts, and click send. That’s it!
This article by Guy Kawasaki does a great job explaining how one can use Posterous to it’s full potential, including simultaneously posting to several social media sites and blogs.
I'm back and so here's a link
General apologies and regrets for the long delay between posts. One of the things I was up to was presenting at the annual APTA Conference in Baltimore with Tim Noteboom. I thought it might be nice to direct all those folks who I coerced into subscribing to my blog by way of a how-to demo to the slides from the presentation.
Here they are posted on my Physiopedia Page.
Physiopedia vs. Medpedia
Many of you may already know about Physiopedia, but perhaps some of you do not. Physio-pedia.com is a project, orginially conceived by Rachael Lowe, that she and I, with the help of her technologically gifted husband, Tony Lowe, have been working on for the better part of the last year. Our aim is to create a world-wide, open access encyclopedia written by, and targeted to physical therapist and physiotherapists around the globe. This is a growing, long-term project, but has recently been gaining some good momentum.
A new wiki for health care was launched this week called Medpedia, take a look, it's incredibly impressive and comprehensive, and is likely to become the key reference for the public on medical matters.
You may be wondering why we need Physiopedia when Medpedia is available? Well these are my thoughts in this regard. With Medpedia being driven by doctors it will not truly represent our profession. It is primarily focused on educating the general public with good quality information about conditions that affect them, also providing a place for professionals to publish their work and create a profile. Physiopedia also offers the opportunity for therapy professionals to publish their work and create a profile, however Physiopedia is also an educational resource aimed specifically at the physio/physical therapy profession. It will provide evidence based information for physiotherapists relating to common conditions, interventions and management options that we come across in our daily practice. With Physiopedia we aim to truly represent, promote, educate and develop the physio/physical therapy profession. So the emphasis of Physiopedia is on developing the profession which is significantly different to Medpedias' emphasis on informing the public.
So, while Medpedia may be getting all the press right now, Physiopedia maintains its awesome potential to be a great resource for physiotherapists. But, just as the Medpedia sites grows as more contributions by authors are made, Physiopedia needs your content. Come on physios! If the medical community can do it, then so can we. Let's show them just how valuable our profession is.
Join in the Physiopedia efforts.
Come collaborate with us!! www.physio-pedia.com
2009 Healthcare Trends: Are PT's Behind the Times?
From CNN Health we are given this list of upcoming trends in healthcare for 2009:
- Online House Calls
- Virtual Clinics
- Ask-a-doc websites
- Getting your test results online
- Twittering Doctors
Google Reader for Beginners
I get a lot of follow-up questions about using Google Reader from audience members when I present on using feeds to enhance evidence gathering for clinical practice. The official Google Reader Blog has made some new videos which may prove a helpful resource. Check them out!
Patient-centered Marketing Beats Fringe
I have a Google News search feed (you can copy and paste this url into your reader, fyi) for "Physical Therapy" set up in my reader program to help me keep up with what's going on. Sometimes there's some interesting items, sometimes not so much. But sometimes, the thing that captures my interest lies not so much in the individual news items, but in the patterns of groups of news items.
Cyberchondria
Just about everyone I know has experienced some form of this condition. I'm particularly susceptible to the pet version of this. Basically, doing a web search for a health condition can leave you feeling anxious and sure you are facing a serious crisis. Have a headache? It must be a brain tumor, right? After all, that's what all the results are about!
The table I pulled from the article lists probabilities of certain conditions occurring during web searches. If we stick with our headache example, a common benign condition, we see that we have a probability of seeing "brain tumor" 0.03 of the time. In actuality, the probability of your headache being a brain tumor is more along the lines of 0.000116, or 1:10,000.
Clinically Proven?
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