With Philips joining Motion in creating new Tablet PC based devices many may be wondering why Intel is getting so much of the limelight. Well, the answer is their new ‘Mobile Clinical Assistant’ platform that Intel has been developing.

It seems that Intel has been working with Electronic Medical Records software companies and various hardware companies to help both optimize their products for each other.

The current list of software partners includes: Cerner, Cardinal Health, Eclipsys, Epic, GE Healthcare, iSoft, McKesson, McKesson France, Nexus, Siemens Medical, Siemens Medical France and Welch Allyn.

For software developers, there’s an SDK with tools and applications for linking with the Mobile Clinical Assistant API which is present on all MCA devices.

For more information on the Mobile Clinical Assistant platform see the MCA pages on Intel’s website.

Another new Tablet PC designed specifically for medical use is about to be announced from Philips and Intel. From Engadget:

Philips’ new tablet device will sport a 10.4-inch, 1,024 × 768 touchscreen as well as WiFi and a digital camera, aiming to streamline data entry and better monitor wounds and healing. The device will allegedly read both barcodes and RFID tags to prevent medication errors and confirm staff and patient ID

Links: Engadget, AP, The Register

Barbara Duck has profiled Dr Jack Rubin, an internist and nephrologist who uses an EO UMPC:

Dr. Rubin makes the maximum use of his EO by being able to have the ability to have his patient records with him at all time. In addition, he also responds to emergency calls as needed. By maintaining a synchronized copy of his EMR (electronic medical records) with him, he is able to look up patient information in the matter of a couple minutes, the time it takes to boot the computer if it is not currently running. By having his records available and up to date, he can view all past notes, current medications, etc. relative to the patient chart and avoid creating needless errors.

Read the article here.

Via Medical Tablet PC

Via Scobleizer

Additional Video here - shows nurses using the C5 on the wards.

Motion computing have annouced the release of the first product in their Mobile Clinical Assistant (MCA) category of Tablet PCs.

Flash Presentation of the Motion C5

Specifications:

Genuine Windows® Vista™ Business or Genuine Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition.

Mobile Intel® Core Solo Processor U1400 (1.20GHZ) and integrated high-speed wireless connectivity.

First mobile clinical assistant that integrates technology from Intel® Health.

Identify patients, medications and assets with Radio Frequency (RFID) technology.

Use the optional integrated barcode reader to manage medicines or costly supplies.

The convenient integrated camera allows you to easily take pictures and capture video for patient education and required documentation.

Highly sealed design is wipeable for quick cleaning and disinfecting.

The durable C5 is designed to handle the rigorous demands of the healthcare environment.

Integrated Bluetooth® provides wireless connectivity to peripherals.

The C5 helps you confidently enforce the 5 rights of medication administration: right drug, right patient, right dosage, right route and right time.

Healthcare-oriented security features. Integrated Fingerprint Reader prevents unauthorized access.

Embedded Trusted Platform Module (TPM) protects data by enabling hardware-based encryption.

View Anywhere® technology offers optimum viewing in any lighting, indoors or outdoors.

The Motion C5 is supported by a wide range of Accessories, including the C5 Docking Station with battery charging bay, power and storage solutions.

Engadget has a post up about the possibility of Palm being aquired by the likes of Motorola or Nokia.

Is Palm up for sale? There’s been no official word from Ed Colligan and crew, but shares of the company jumped last week on speculation that they were quietly prepping themselves for acquisition. We’ve heard merger rumors before — there was some half-baked chatter back in the day that RIM was after ‘em — and it does seem like Palm is at a crossroads. The future of its two OS strategy is murky at best, and while the Treo has been doing fairly well here in the US, they’ve definitely had trouble getting traction abroad and have seemed flat-footed in the face of stiffening competition from HTC, Nokia, Samsung, RIM, and Motorola (not to mention the looming threat of the iPhone, which threatens to peel off a good number of the prosumers and enthusiasts that were once Palm’s bread and butter). Of course, all this has us wondering who would actually plunk down $1.6 billion to buy Palm. Main candidates are said to include both Motorola and Nokia, but Moto already seems to be doing just fine with the Q, and to be honest, it’s hard to imagine Nokia snapping up a company that puts out phones running on Windows Mobile.

Tom Cobin wrote to tell us about his website CME 4 PDA:

I’d like to make you aware of CME4PDA, a new product available for physicians to complete CME on their PDAs.

CME4PDA is different in important ways from other options for PDA-based CME. Each CME4PDA activity is a stand-alone item, not contained within a separate program. There is no subscription necessary, no special software required, no wireless signal needed. Each activity file is downloaded directly to the physician’s PDA during synchronization, and does not in any way disrupt the routine functioning of the user’s handheld unit.

After extensive research and planning, we believe CME4PDA will be of great interest to physicians. We expect to provide our first activities within the next three months, and are now accepting registrations from physicians who would like to be notified when these activities are available.

There have been a few questions and comments on the forum about medical PDA software that works with Windows Vista.

The current advice from Skyscape and Epocrates is below:

Skyscape:

Dear Chris,

If you are thinking of upgrading to Windows Vista> then go ahead. All of your favorite Skyscape resources are completely Vista compliant.

Many of you have known us as pioneers with a rich history of over 13 years of innovation in the mobile medical information market. Based on our philosophy of offering a broadest portfolio of resources on the widest array of platforms, we have been allowing you to tailor your experience to suit your needs. It is no surprise that we anticipated Windows Vista release and are ready with the compatible mobile and desktop resources. So you can have complete confidence using all your Skyscape resources and programs with Windows Vista, utilizing Palm Hotsync and Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center (the Vista replacement for ActiveSync).

We’re keeping our steadfast commitment to being the most up-to-the-minute, trusted mobile medical information provider and most technically advanced company with your best interests at heart. It’s just another reason to trust Skyscape - and enjoy using it!

If you need any details on how to handle the Vista upgrade for Skyscape resources or for any other matter, please visit, www.Skyscape.com/Support. And remember, our online chat is open for you 24×7x365.

Sincerely,
The Skyscape Team

Epocrates:

Dear Chris,

We think it’s important to let you know that many Palm® OS and Windows Mobile® (Pocket PC) OS software applications, including all Epocrates products, cannot at this time be installed or synced via computers with the new Windows Vista operating system.

We strongly recommend that if at all possible, you postpone installing Vista or upgrading to a new PC with Vista installed.

Since resolution of this problem depends upon software changes by both Palm and Microsoft, we regret that we cannot give you a firm date for a fix.

If you are already using Windows Vista, please review our FAQ for the latest recommendations from our customer support and engineering teams. Read FAQ »

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,

The Epocrates Team

Here’s a new way to easily record the audio from your stethoscope. Could be useful for teaching, or even adding the audio to the EMR. The kit includes a Thinklabs ds32a Digital Stethoscope with 3-Year Intelligent Protection Plan, a 2GB Apple iPod Nano plus the XtremeMac Micromemo recording accessory.

Anyone using one of these?

Via Engadget, Make and ZedoMax.

Journalist: Let’s imagine a hospital where life support systems are running Vista. Would you trust it with your life?

Bill Gates: Security has been the top priority for Microsoft for quite some time and that’s why I put out a key call for us to focus on that in a very big way over three years ago, and that’s why we’ve made investments like having people from Gecad ( Romanian company ) join on the security action from Microsoft. The answer to your question is that, absolutely, Vista is the most secure operating system we’ve ever done, and if it’s administred properly, absolutely, it can be used to run a hospital or any kind of mission crytical thing. But it’s not as simple as saying “If you use Vista, that happens automatically”. The issues about patient records and who should be able to see them, the issue about setting up a network, so that authorized people can connect up to that hospital network, the issue about having backup power, so that the computer systems can run even if the generators go down. There are a lot of issues to properly set up that system, so that you have the redundancy and the security walls to make sure it fullfils that very crytical function. So we are working with partners to raise their skills to make sure that when get involved in an installation like that they can make it secure. So I feel better about Vista than any other operating system, but there’s a lot of things that need to be done well, and we’re certaintly committed to step up and make sure these security issues are ieasier and better understood.

Source: Our-Picks.com