Why use ClearSense health reports?

Health information is an extremely detailed and complex area that, until recently, has been an area exclusively for trained health care professionals. ClearSense wants to help you understand your health information. As the only internet site designed to make health data analytics accessible to everyone, ClearSense puts a powerful set of tools into your hands and allows you proactively manage your well-being.

I've heard of Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault. Is ClearSense the same thing?

Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault are two of the most visible Personal Health Records (PHRs). PHRs are designed to let you collect, store and manage your health information. ClearSense helps you understand the information stored in your PHR through our easy to understand health reports. In fact, you will soon be able to link your ClearSense account to many PHRs to make the report creation process even easier.

More at Clear Sense...

Anatomy of a ClearSense Health Report...

I am a second year neurology resident. For the last 3 months I've been using Jott (www.jott.com) to keep myself reminded about clinical tasks that I have to accomplish at the hospital. While technically not a medical service, Jott is basically a free transcription application, hence it could be used by clinicians in many different ways. You guys should cover Jott for your readers, and I'd like to see if anyone uses it in their practice.

The letter resonated with us because we've been using Jott for about a year now, primarily to coordinate our blogging activities.

For those of you who don't know much about Jott, it is a brainchild of ex-Microsoft executive John Pollard. Jott converts your calls into text. After registering you can call a free number and Jott will recognize your cellphone. Then you are given 15 seconds to dictate your text (more time for a monthly fee). Almost instantaneously, Jott sends you, or designated people from your contact list, a typed transcript and the recording itself. Some use it as a reminder service. Others use Jott for quick recordings of thoughts. Others, like us, to coordinate group activities. The idea of using Jott for clinical duties hasn't occurred to us, but it certainly is a very interesting one.

So we would like to ask our readers: How do you use Jott or similar services like SpinVox and TwitterFone? We want to hear from everyone: doctors, nurses, EMTs, and patients. Let's brainstorm, and help each other figure out the many different uses for text services like Jott in medicine.

Benefits of the iMedConsent according to the company:

SAFETY- Advances patient safety by making the patient an active, informed participant in the care plan

SATISFACTION-Improves comprehension of, and comfort with, proposed treatments and procedures

COMPLIANCE- Ensures conformity with mandated standards for informed consent

DOCUMENTATION -Automatically documents the informed consent process in the patient's medical record

Latest press release: Dialog Medical Installs Informed Consent Software at William Beaumont Army Medical Center (.pdf)...

Product page: iMedConsent

Product brochure (.pdf)...

Some of the services to be offered:

Online personal health record: Keep all your health care history information in one secure location. Information includes procedures, medications, your doctor list and insurance information. You can even print out a card to keep with you at all times.

Text messaging program: Choose the health topics that you're interested in and receive text messages on your mobile phone.

Express check-in: At selected facilities, you can expedite your check-in process and take advantage of on-site concierge services. Community Health Network is the only health care organization in the Midwest to offer this self-service model.

SharingSite: A secure blog for new parents or long-term care patients to update their status and post pictures for loved ones anywhere in the country.

Find a doctor and request an appointment: Search by ZIP code, specialty insurance, gender and more. Request, schedule and confirm your physician appointment.

24-hour interactive online health resources: Exclusive ability to chat with a registered nurse, schedule your physician appointment, complete health risk assessments and utilize health and fitness tracking tools.

Mobile eCommunity: Community is the first health care system in Indiana to offer this type of smart phone service, applicable to any Web-enabled mobile device or smart phone with Internet connectivity. The technology allows you to order a prescription refill without using a phone tree or automated pharmacy line, get immediate directions and phone number access to your doctor.

Press release: Community Health Network unveils new program that will provide total health care integration for consumers; myCommunity offers convenient passport to complex health care world

myCommunity homepage...

(hat tip: our own system)

Ryan Howard, CEO of Practice Fusion, explains to Medgadget:

The offering is unique in the marketplace, because it is completely free and web-based, eliminating all of the risks for physicians, making Practice Fusion one of the fastest growing medical professional communities in the country.

We generate revenue by embedding advertising, including pharmaceutical products, into our physician tools. We also incur revenue through the sale of anonymized patient data to research groups, pharmaceuticals, and health plans.

... Practice Fusion releasing a suite of physician applications, including Practice Management, Scheduling, Secure Email and Patient Management that are free and web-based. These are effectively ‘Google Apps’ for doctors - everything a practice needs to run their office, manage and schedule their patients, communicate with other members of the office – all web-based and at no cost.

Be it a market disruptor or not, there's nothing stopping a practice from trying the software for free without investing in infrastructure.

Press release: Practice Fusion Unveils Free Applications for Physician Practices...

Multi-modality PACS imaging The Diagnostic Luminance system delivers a DICOM-calibrated luminance of 800 cd/m², allowing for simultaneous reading of color, grayscale and fused modalities. Coronal views, for instance, can now be combined with smaller MIPS and volume rendered images on the same screen to facilitate diagnostic decisions.

Diagnostic precision
The integrated ULT of Coronis Fusion 6MP DL distributes the brightness equally over the entire 30-inch screen surface. Supported by an intelligent backlight design, this reduces non-uniformities caused by the LCD as well as the backlight to less than 10%. As a result, all images comply perfectly to the DICOM standard, no matter where they are positioned on the screen.

Automated Quality Assurance
The latest version of MediCal QAWeb, combined with the unique I-Guard sensor, ensures fully automated image Quality Assurance with no need for human intervention. MediCal QAWeb tracks, maintains and logs viewing performance, automates QA tasks, initiates display system calibration and establishes an accurate DICOM Look-Up Table calibration.

Increased performance
The new Coronis Fusion 6MP DL display system is driven by a high-speed MXRT display controller, specifically designed to support 3D PACS applications with 30-bit color precision. As a result, Coronis Fusion 6MP DL is ready for the latest 3D CT, MR and PET applications in combination with standard 2D PACS reading.

From a recent press release by the company:

The system introduces the world’s first seamless 30-inch color LCD that can be used either as two seamless 3 MegaPixel heads or as one wide-screen 6 MegaPixel display. This makes it possible for radiologists to read chest X-ray, CT, MR, cath and echo cardiogram images, or any other combination, side by side on a single diagnostic screen. This wide-screen LCD screen is combined with a high-performance display controller and an online system for automated softcopy Quality Assurance, resulting in a turnkey solution for PACS imaging.

In their search for the preferred softcopy display solution, the Beatrix Hospital set up a steering group that brought together the radiology department, a Clinical Physicist and an external consultancy company.

Press release: Barco's 6 MegaPixel diagnostic display system gains wide acceptance...

Product page: Coronis Fusion 6MP Diagnostic Luminance...

Clin-eguide Evidence-based Guidelines – covering the more than 300 diseases that account for up to 80% of inpatient hospital admissions

5-Minute Clinical Consult – to-the-point guidance for the diagnosis and management of more than 700 medical conditions

5-Minute Pediatric Consult – immediate, practical advice on over 450 medical problems seen in infants, children, and adolescents

A-Z Drug Facts – integrated drug information reference that combines successful drug therapy protocols with patient care considerations

Drug Interaction Facts – drug-drug and drug-food interaction information, including detailed significance ratings, onset, severity ratings, documented effects, mechanisms, and management options

Press release: Wolters Kluwer Health Launches Mobile Clin-eguide for "On the Go" Clinical Decision Support...

Clin-eguide homepage...

The Unbound&trade platform...

Here's more:

The C5 now features integrated mobile broadband and solid state drive (SSD) options to extend its usability to the point of care, regardless of patient location. Additionally, the C5 and F5 now feature improved capacity with standard 80 GB hard disk drives (HDD) at no additional cost.

“Motion understands mobile workforces and we are focused on improving productivity across a broad range of environments, from the patient bedside to the construction site,” said Mike Stinson, VP of Marketing at Motion. “Customer feedback is a critical part of improving our tablet PCs, and based on recent input we’re confident that these upgrades will enable our target customers to be more productive, no matter where work takes them.”

With the C5’s optional integrated mobile broadband, mobile clinicians can improve productivity by accessing important patient information, including digital images and patient history details. For many mobile point of care applications, such as those in home healthcare, ongoing connectivity will enable better collaboration with other treating clinicians and reduce travel time by allowing the immediate transfer of documentation after every patient visit, which can reduce processing delays and improve billing cycle times. Additionally, the optional SSD will help further protect the C5 from the occasional bumps and drops experienced by highly mobile professionals.

Press release: Motion's C5 MCA and F5 Semi-Rugged Tablet PC Enhance Mobile Workforce Productivity with Upgrades, New Peripherals...

Product page: C5 Mobile Clinical Assistant Tablet Computers...

Flashbacks: Motion C5: Mobile Clinical Assistant ; DINAMAP to Marry Motion C5 Mobile Tablet; Hands-on with Motion Computing's C5 medical Tablet PC.

What makes the U1 especially suited for healthcare is a combination of the design considerations put into it. Because of the cooler, more efficient Intel Atom processor, the U1 doesn't have ventilation ports through which liquids can enter. The device is effectively sealed, and Panasonic claims that it can take a good splash (of urine or C. diff., we assume) and keep on ticking. (Just don't take it SCUBA diving with you. Its not fully water proof.)

Nursing staff and the IT department will also be happy to know that the U1 sports two separate battery slots, which lets the user hot-swap batteries without having to turn off the unit. A hospital can even buy multi-battery chargers to hang on the wall at the nurse's stations for round the clock operation. Somehow this feature seems like it was specifically designed with nurses in mind, who already have enough to think about without having to deal with complicated battery changes during busy hours.

The screen is 5.6 inches and is fully touch sensitive, which means it can be controlled with your finger, not just the stylus like so many tablets out there require. (The advantage becomes obvious once the stylus is accidentally left back at the desk.)

Optionally it can come with a bar code scanner, which can be utilized for device or medication tracking, and a built-in webcam, which we envision can be employed in a futuristic communication system between clinicians in a hospital ward.

We're really impressed by the U1, and would like to see more portable computers come out suitable for use in hospitals. Not to say that this is a good general replacement for a real laptop, as it has only 1GB RAM and tops out at 32 GB for a solid state disk drive. But its nice to have all the data and tomographic images of the patient wirelessly accessible at the bedside.

Press release: Panasonic Unveils the Handheld Toughbook CF-U1, a Rugged Ultra Mobile PC for Field Workers in Extreme Environments ...

Product page: Toughbook U1 ...

From Modality Netter's Anatomy product page:

Using outstanding anatomical illustrations from Netter's hugely popular Atlas of Human Anatomy (4th Edition), Netter's Anatomy allows you to carry the bestselling reference for human anatomy on your iPhone or iPod touch. Navigate through images with the flick of a finger, pinch to zoom, and tap to test your knowledge of muscles, bones, vessels, viscera and the joints. Use study mode to explore images at your own pace and quiz mode to test yourself on what you know.

The concise text reviews areas of origin, insertion, action, innervation, and anatomical relevance. The notes also include clinical correlations, where appropriate. A regional organization parallels Netter's atlas as well as most of today's anatomy courses.

Watch Modality showing off their software at the 2008 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Note: Modality's presentation starts at 45 minutes into the video...

Product page: Netter's Anatomy and the rest of Modality's medical packages...