ZapBill
ZapBill creates a billing record consisting of procedure and diagnosis codes suitable for creating an HCFA-1500 billing form. It's available from ZapMed at http://www.zapmed.com/zapbill.html. ZapBill is priced at $49. Its Patient Information screen is pictured in Figure B.

FIGURE B

ZapBill also lets you store patient information.

Calculators
Beyond billing needs and calculations, doctors also have to calculate medicinal dosages and body composition percentages. Traditionally, doctors have depended on charts, calculators, and their own memories while putting pen to paper to arrive at answers. However, a new group of calculator applications has emerged to help doctors save their precious time and increase accuracy. Doctors are always excited to hear about these applications. Increasing accuracy in medical calculations is a great asset and saving time is a great bonus.

Here are two I've come across.

MedMath
MedMath is a free medical calculator for the Palm device for rapid calculation of common formulas in adult internal medicine. It was developed by a physician, Phillip Cheng, and can be found at http://mail.med.upenn.edu/~pcheng/medmath/index.html. It's pictured in Figure C.

FIGURE C

MedMath performs useful calculations.

DoseCalc
DoseCalc can be used to help calculate doses by weight (kg, lb., or oz), dose (mg/kg/day), or doses per day solution concentration (mg/ml). It was developed by Jeremy Adler and is available at http://users.erols.com/joadler/software.htm. DoseCalc is priced at $10. It's pictured in Figure D.

FIGURE D

Here, DoseCalc is running on a Palm IIIc.

Patient trackers
One of the most innovative and seemingly obvious benefits of a handheld device is the ability to track patient care and progress. Several good patient trackers are out on the market now. We get positive feedback from doctors and nurses who have used these applications. The applications allow medical personnel to organize patient lists, lab tests, notes, medicine dosages, and more. Plus, the information can be beamed between doctors, nurses, and administrators for a paperless organization. In the near future, we expect this area of software to grow and include even more tools and flexibility.

PatientKeeper
PatientKeeper is one such application. The patient management application is priced at $35 and can be used to organize your patient list, labs, tests, or notes. It can also beam records between users, print directly to printers, or export records to your PC. It's available from VIRTMED at http://www.patientkeeper.com.

Wireless prescriptions
I think the most valuable pieces of software available are the recently introduced wireless prescription applications. These applications allow doctors to write out prescriptions on their handheld devices and then send them via a HotSync, or wirelessly from their Palm VII or RIM Blackberry, directly to a pharmacy.

Obviously, it's a time saver, but it also has the potential to cut down on the miscommunications between doctor's offices and pharmacies. There are always instances of pharmacy technicians misreading prescription notes and dispensing the wrong medications to patients. The wireless prescription, sent directly to the pharmacy computer, eliminates potentially deadly mistakes by providing pharmacies with clearly typed and private prescription notes. This is clearly a win/win situation for everyone involved, but patients also get the added bonus of having their prescriptions prepared and ready for them as soon as they arrive at their pharmacist's window.