Patient resources for handheld computers

OB/GYN News, May 15, 2003 by Thomas S. McLeod, Jon O. Ebbert

Overview: Many handheld computer applications are now available for personal health management. Personal medical information databases, electronic reference documents for self education, and more elaborate disease management products may benefit patients by improving their knowledge of healthy lifestyles and disease states and may assist them in working with their providers to manage chronic conditions.

Background: An unending supply of magazine articles, self-help books, and television infomercials suggests that Americans are interested inhealth improvement. Furthermore, individuals have a variety of needs when it comes to personal health management. These needs include personal medical information organization, self-education about particular conditions and healthy lifestyles, and tracking of disease management data for health care providers. Personal digital assistants may assist in each of these areas. Medical information may be recorded in basic database programs, and PDA-based reference documents may assist in patient education. More sophisticated applications allow manipulation of data involved with fitness and chronic disease management, helping people become more active participants in their own health maintenance efforts.

Personal Health Databases: Although patients may record personal health information on their PDAs as simple text documents, database programs written for this purpose offer important advantages. Palm OS programs such as My Medical Records (1.21) and MedInfoE (4.1) provide ready-made templates for easy entry of individual demographics, current medications, allergies, immunization records, medical conditions, and provider details. Applications more focused on management of medications, such as On-Time-Rx (2.0) or MiniRx (2.1), will not only record current prescriptions but may be configured to remind the patient of dosing times via an alarm. The inherent organization of these products facilitates data entry, searching, and editing. More generic database programs (see HanDBase next month) offer additional field customization and information security features.

Patient Education Documents: A variety of electronic documents are available for download to Palm and Pocket PC devices. Although unlikely to replace the rack of patient education pamphlets present in many waiting rooms, these small text files provide another option for patient education. A document "reader" application such as iSio for Palm OS devices or Microsoft Reader for Pocket PCs is generally required. 1st AID (1.3) and PalmaServ's Facts about Depressive Illnesses are products that illustrate typical features, including indexing and bookmarks. As is the case for any patient education resource, information source and validity should be carefully considered.

Diet and Exercise Applications: More sophisticated programs are capable of tracking and manipulating patient data. Although designed for patient use, the information managed by these applications may be of interest to health care providers as well. Diet & Exercise Assistant (4.0) and HealtheTech's BalanceLog allow patients to establish weight loss goals, record diet and exercise information, and track progress. Both programs include an extensive food database and exercise catalog, and each has an optional desktop companion application.

Chronic Disease Management: Blood pressure readings can be tracked in applications such as BloodPressMgr (2.7) and UTS Blood Pressure (1.1). Similarly Gluco-Log (2.0) or HealtheTech's GlucoPilot may be used to record glucometer readings. Readings may be categorized by time of day, location, etc., and displayed in a variety of tabular or graphical formats. Even medication changes and daily circumstances such as diet, exercise, and illness may be noted.

Contact/Download Information: The applications reviewed in this column are available, for download from either PalmGear.com or Handango.com. Prices vary from free to $49.00.

Next month: Database programs

DR. THOMAS G. McLEOD and DR. JON O. EBBERT are with the division of community internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Their reviews are independent evaluations, and they receive no compensation from and do not consult with the manufacturers of the products evaluated in this column.