 | The Palm is a pocket computer that can be used as an address book, a note book, agenda, etc. It can also be programmed for various functions such as patient file maintenance, medical calculations, image and prescription storage, search, e-mail, downloading files from the web and infrared beaming of data between physicians and other healthcare personnel, and even their patients. |
| I use my Palm IIIc as an address book and for daily schedule planning including housecalls and emerg and CLSC shifts. At the Centre médical Berger, my secretary Manon maintains my schedule with Palm software installed on the office computer system. I can then plug or "HotSync" my Palm into a special port which then downloads changes to the pocket computer for my reference.
I have two other ports: one at my home so that my wife can keep tabs on my whereabouts, and the other on my laptop for immediate information at my place of work whether it be at the Jeffery Hale Emergency Room, my office, or when I am on out-of-town duty. |  surf the web from my Palm  |
| A recent useful Palm OS accessory for physicians is Seiko's SmartPad which instantly converts handwritten notes and drawings into electronic form on the Palm. Using this device I can save my prescriptions on the spot with no need for the tedium of rewriting into the chart. This technology is obviously especially useful on housecalls. |  |
 When I arrive back at the office I print out my clinical notes and records of housecalls and salary work done outside the office on an infrared port-equipped HP printer using PalmPrint, a Palm application I purchased on the web. MedCalc, an assortment of quick calculators using basic medical formulae such as anion gap, BMI, unit conversion, creat clx etc., is useful for some emergency room calculations, although many of the programmes are more suited for internal medicine or intensive care work. |
There are several patient chart maintenance programmes available on the web, although I often find it simpler to simply use the Palm pocket keyboard to enter notes into patient dossiers using ThinkDB applications, along with the smart pad prescription records. All these accessories are easily portable with a medical bag along with the usual medical instruments.
 In the past, I have used 3 principal pharmaceutical databases in my daily work:
*N.B.: ePOCRATES takes a good 25 minutes or so for first-time handheld synchronization Another download I find myself using frequently is DoseCalc for pediatric prescriptions. According to the programmer's user map, as of 13 November, 2000 most Canadians using this tool reside in Quebec! |
| Another accessory which increases the utility of a physician's Palm is Kodak's PalmPix which converts it into a digital snapshot camera. Wounds and skin infections can thus be photographed on the spot and then printed out instantly for the chart for future reference. Both Palm III and IIIc's make colour photos with the PalmPix accessory. |  Click for fullsize view |
With the help of FocV Project's PalmTheme colour package, you can customize the colour scheme for your Palm IIIc. If you have a Palm IIIc, you can add a medical office decor to it by downloading my theme from FocV's Theme Park (after downloading PalmTheme Pro). |  |
 | I have created an HTML site, drcooper.palm©* downloadable onto all Palm systems as an avantgo.com channel. The site was launched on avantgo.com the 12th of February, 2000. If you already subscribe to avantgo.com, you can download drcooper.palm by clicking below: |
| The curious nature of the internet has permitted my "fame" to spread across the pond to the French Côte d'Azur (not quite yet as "célèbre as the movie stars of Cannes, but hey, it's a start...), as the "geriatric member" of the
Vedettes du Palm...! For a comprehensive archive of information on the use of Palm systems in medicine, another Canadian site, Jim's Palm Pages is highly recommended. |
|  download drcooper.palm |
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