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Showing posts from February, 2008

Handheld PDA Research Tools in the Emergency Department

MobileDataforce is working on many mobile healthcare related projects these days. One of our customers forwarded the following article to me yesterday. It shows objective data on the value and benefit of using handheld mobile devices for data collection. Prospective, randomized evaluation of a personal digital assistant-based research tool in the emergency department BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 2008, 8:3doi:10.1186/1472-6947-8-3 Published: 18 January 2008 Abstract (provisional) Background Personal digital assistants (PDA) offer putative advantages over paper for collecting research data. However, there are no data prospectively comparing PDA and paper in the emergency department. The aim of this study was to prospectively compare the performance of PDA and paper enrollment instruments with respect to time required and errors generated. Methods We randomized consecutive patients enrolled in an ongoing prospective study to having their data recorded either on a PDA or a p

Clinical Research Projects and Mobile Handheld PDA Solutions

This article discusses the use of mobile handheld PDA solutions (Palm Treos) in a clinical research environment. Company Overview: Craig Hospital is a non-profit spinal cord and brain trauma rehabilitation and research hospital. Based in Denver Colorado, Craig Hospital has been treating brain and spinal cord trauma patients since 1956 and has treated over 25,500 patients. Research Challenge: Craig Hospital recently received a government grant to perform research on 8 different forms of rehabilitation in order to understand what techniques are most effective for each of the 8 disciplines. Craig Hospital teamed up with 5 other research hospitals (Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Shepherd Center, Mount Sinai, Carolinas Rehabilitation, and the National Rehabilitation Hospital) in order to make the findings representative of spinal cord injury rehabilitation practices nationwide. The data needed to be collected and sent to a main database at an outside location to be analyzed. ISIS/ICOR

MobileDataforce's Office and International Visitors

In the past few months MobileDataforce has attracted some very interesting customers and visitors from all around the globe to look at our mobile software for handhelds and PDAs. Last week in our office we hosted Mayor Dave Bieter of Boise, and just this morning we had a visitor from the French government. A few months ago we hosted visitors from the UK , the Netherlands and the Idaho State Board of Pharmacy. MobileDataforce has also been interviewed by Fortune magazine, Forbes magazine, Inc. magazine and VAR in the past 4 weeks. Many of these interviews focused on quality of life and fast growing high tech companies in the inter-mountain region of the USA. Our office is right on the Boise river and it is a very attractive destination for fisherman, mountain bikers and skiers. If you are a fishing fan - this Idaho Fishing Guide is a great place to learn about fishing in and around Idaho.

MobileDataforce and IBM's Maximo for Mobile Handheld PDAs

MobileDataforce has recently completed a mobile software development project that integrates the PointSync Mobility Platform with IBM's Maximo application. This project was developed by MobileDataforce and implemented in both Australia and New Zealand. Our customer is a very large engineering and construction firm that works throughout the Asia/Pacific region and needs field services dispatch, work orders and asset tracking on mobile handheld PDAs. The software application is a mobile work order management application.

Global Warming & Mobile Handheld PDAs

MobileDataforce is seeing more and greater effects from global warming and energy issues on our business. In our case, the effects are positive for our business. We have a growing reputation as a preferred provider of mobile solutions for large services companies that work on utility and government contracts. My mobility experts in our professional services organization can quickly and cost effectively deliver just about any custom mobile software application that is required by utilities and government agencies. Here are some examples of current projects we are working on that are related to global warming and energy issues: Energy efficiency inspection and service ticket applications for utilities Water efficiency inspection applications and service ticket applications Disaster & Damage inspection and repair estimate applications Public housing inspections in the Benelux Housing Inspections in the UK Canyon County Building Inspection application Many of these projects are

Chain of Custody Applications & Mobile Handheld PDAs

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MobileDataforce is currently working on a very important mobile software project for implementation in Africa using mobile handheld PDAs. It involves the transportation and delivery of AIDs medicine and other critical healthcare tests and materials. The project enables the organization to track and validate that the medicine that is intended for a specific location actually arrives at that location. In one of the most recent mobility projects we delivered - the transportation of the medicine required a total of 8 signatures to be captured at the various supply depots along the way. These signatures were from the individuals accountable for verifying the correct medicine, in the correct amounts had arrived and been forwarded. The organizations responsible for transporting and delivering the medicine is looking at standard consumer grade PDA phones using Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS. They will wirelessly sync the chain-of-custody information back to a database in North America for

Mobile Software Applications for Handheld PDAs in Africa

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Who would have thought it? MobileDataforce is working on a long list of very large mobile software application projects in Africa. In my original business plan for MobileDataforce, I must admit that the continent of African did not play a significant role in my 5 year plan. Much of our work in Africa revolves around developing mobile software for PDAs on government projects, water delivery, medicine delivery, logistics and inspections. A lot of these projects originate in Europe or North America but extend to Africa. The mobile software application industry is certainly very exciting and ever changing. It is fasinating how new opportunities pop-up in unexpected industries and geographies on nearly a daily basis.

This is Not the Way to Mobilize Work Orders for Handheld PDAs

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I was in Starbuck's on friday . I must confess this is not out of the ordinary for fridays, nor any other day, but I witnessed an event that was. Two service technicians were sitting at a table reading a work order on their mobile phone screen. This phone had about a 1" x 1" screen. They squinted at the screen and then filled our a paper work order on a clipboard. This is certainly one way of mobilize field service technicians, but I would recommend some better ways, and different mobile handheld PDAs or smartphones. Provide a service technician with a full work order on a mobile device that has a big enough screeen to read. I can still see both service technicians squinting at their tiny screens over their mochas . Don't make them rewrite the work order. Use a mobile work order software application on the handheld mobile device. Let them read the service ticket, fill it out, and sign the screen. Don't use a paper work order. Wirelessly send new and completed w

Managing Remote Locations & Franchises with Handheld PDAs

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One of my marketing team members, Matt Jantz, has been working with a number of franchise companies that are interested in mobile handheld PDA solutions. He compiled the following list of reasons why a company with franchises or remote locations may want to mobilize their business processes. Streamline business process with immediate data transference from handheld devices to main office Save money, administration costs and time by going paperless Ensure business processes are being carried out correctly by franchisees and their employees Protect franchise name and reputation by ensuring processes are being completed to franchise standards Improve time and cost efficiencies by eliminating data interpretation and entry into home database Improve customer service by providing customers with prompt billing and service information Receive payment for service faster by getting payment on site (mobile credit card processing and or using mobile printers) or sending customer invoices and billi

Handheld PDAs - More than Data Collection Devices

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When some people think about replacing paper forms with handheld PDAs or smartphones - they are only thinking about collecting data and sending it wirelessly back to the office. However, simply collecting, storing and moving data would be a missuse of a powerful handheld PDA or rugged handheld. A computer should compute . By that I mean - a handheld computer should analyze the data collected and take action based upon the data. Here is an example: Your house is on fire. You can take out a handheld PDA and enter data that says, "my house is on fire," and store it as the house collaspes around you, or you can program your handheld PDA to automatically call 911, turn on the sprinklers, call your work to report you will be in late, order new carpets and cancel the evening poker game, and provide a damage estimate. OK - so that is a silly example but the point is a handheld computer can analyze the data you enter, and be programmed to take action. Handheld computers should do the

Growing a Business Using Mobile Handheld PDAs

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One of the major reasons small service companies call MobileDataforce is to investigate our mobile field service solutions for use on mobile handheld PDAs and smartphones and to try to understand how they can grow their business without adding additional administration resources and costs. This is the age old problem of how do you grow beyond the capabilities of the immediate owner/manager. The answer is to automate the business processes that are related to field services. Use wireless dispatching of service orders Synchronize completed service orders directly to the office accounting system Accept digital signatures on service orders completed in the field Use a mobile printer to print completed work orders Use time tracking on the handheld computer to monitor the time spent on each job Track inventory used on the handheld computer and have this information synchronized to the office so all parts and equipment usage is tracked Include a customer survey on the handheld device and ass