Mobile Handheld PDAs in the Healthcare Field

MobileDataforce is working on a significant number of interesting mobile software projects for handheld PDAs in the healthcare services, pharmaceutical and medical logistics markets. The following links point to blog articles that describe some of these mobile software applications:

• Home Heathcare Services


• Mobile Clinical Trials Software


• Mobile Patient Monitoring


• Board of Pharmacy Mobile Software


• Mobile Software for Orthodics


• Clinical Research


• Medicine Logisitics, Transportation and Delivery

MobileDataforce Team Photos 2008

MobileDataforce has more than doubled in size in the past year. We are fortunate to have been invited to participate in some very large and interesting mobile software development projects in many different areas in the world.

We want to thank our many mobile software customers for your faith and confidence in our enterprise mobility solutions for handheld PDAs, smartphones and industrial handheld barcode scanners. You have challenged us with the complexity of your IT environments and we have learned much as we have helped you achieve your ROIs!

Inc. Magazine on MobileDataforce's PDA, Handheld and Mobile Software Blog

Inc. magazine's online technology website published an article this week on the subject of - this blog (the one you are now reading).

http://technology.inc.com/internet/articles/200803/blog.html?partner=rss-alert

This very blog is used as an example of a company's CEO communicating with customers, partners and other parties interested in mobile software solutions.

Thanks for reading!

Make More Sales by Using Mobile Handheld PDAs and Smartphones

I often talk to potential customers about the cost savings that can be achieved by mobilizing business processes and deploying them to mobile handheld PDAs or smartphones, however, for many of our customers increasing sales is also a key motivator. Let's talk about how mobile software applications on PDAs can help increase sales:

• Mobile applications can prompt service technicians to renew service contracts
• Mobile applications can prompt service technicians to offer additional and complimentary services. For example: Plumbers can offer to conduct a water conservation inspection in the house while they are there repairing the toilet. The inspection can identify various ways the customer could conserve water by replacing shower heads, toilet tanks, etc.
• Mobile applications can prompt service technician to offer products related to the needs of the customer. Plumbers could talk to customers about water filtration systems, and other products.
• Mobile applications can prompt service technicians to sell extended product warranties
• Mobile applications can prompt service technicians to identify various service and product needs that were noted while on site with the customer. This information can be shared with the sales team for follow-up.

These are just a few examples of how mobile software applications on handheld PDAs and smartphones can intelligently remind and prompt field service technicians to help increase the sales of products and services.

MobileDataforce provides a wide range of both mobile software applications and custom mobile software development services.

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 paper data collection instrument. For each method, we recorded the total time required for enrollment, and the time required for manual transcription (paper) onto a computer database. We compared data error rates by examining missing data, nonsensical data, and errors made during the transcription of paper forms. Statistical comparisons were performed by Kruskal-Wallis and Poisson regression analyses for time and errors, respectively.

Results
We enrolled 68 patients (37 PDA, 31 paper). Two of 31 paper forms were not available for analysis. Total data gathering times, inclusive of transcription, were significantly less for PDA (6:13 min per patient) compared to paper (9:12 min per patient; p<0.001). color="#006600">Conclusions
Using a PDA-based data collection instrument for clinical research reduces the time required for data gathering and significantly improves data integrity.

Marcel P.J.M. Dijkers Ph.D. FACRM
Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine

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 (International Severity Information Services/Institute for Clinical Outcomes Research) was the organization selected to perform the data analysis and to maintain the database to which all collected information was to be sent. The problem was that the hospitals and patients were all in different geographic locations, and the patient care happened in a mobile working environment which made the collection and secure synchronization of the research data to a central database a challenge.

MobileDataforce Solution:
MobileDataforce created a mobile handheld application for each of the 8 different types of rehabilitation. Each healthcare provider was issued a handheld HP iPAQ HX 2190 PDA running Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system and asked to record rehabilitation progress with each of their patients in the study. There were approximately 250 mobile devices across the 6 hospitals.

By using a mobile software application rather than using paper forms Craig Hospital was able to:

• Save data entry time
• Save the costs of shipping and storing paper forms
• Ensure data accuracy through the use of data validation features
• Pre-load patients’ names and information onto the mobile device to save time and ensure accuracy
• Speed up research and analysis by downloading data directly from the handheld devices to the central research database

By selecting MobileDataforce’s PointSync Mobility Platform and professional services, Craig Hospital obtained a complete enterprise mobility platform and an experienced mobile software development team. MobileDataforce developed 8 mobile clinical research software applications that allowed for the 6 hospitals to capture information quickly, in real time, from all across the United States and synchronized it into one central research database. This allowed for research and analysis to be conducted on the data in near-real time.

MobileDataforce implemented software security features to ensure patient privacy and compliance to industry rules. MobileDataforce also helped Craig Hospital select the appropriate mobile handheld devices for their data collection requirements.

Conclusion:
Craig hospital was able to collect research data on 8 different rehabilitation disciplines from 6 different hospitals across the country and synchronize the data into one centralized database using the PointSync Mobility Platform from MobileDataforce, http://www.mobiledataforce.com/. Craig Hospital saved time and ensured data accuracy by designing a custom mobile application for clinical research with the help of MobileDataforce. MobileDataforce assists organizations around the world mobilize business and field data collection processes. For additional information please visit our website at: http://www.mobiledataforce.com/.

You can find more information on these studies here.

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 motivated by the need to conserve energy. In the case of both the mobile energy efficiency and water efficiency applications the purpose is to reduce the use of these two scarce resources.

The building applications and housing inspection applications are focused on compliance with government regulations. These include energy efficiency levels and environmentally sound practices.

We are asked more and more to help with inspection applications that can be used to quickly estimate damage from storms and bad weather.

Our customers are generally the company that is contracted to provide these services. Since these projects are often won through a competitive bid process, each service company is seeking ways to be more efficient so they can provide more services for less and keep a satisfactory profit margin.

Chain of Custody Applications & Mobile Handheld PDAs

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 accountability and auditing.