Palm solutions in healthcare cover such topics as:

• Positive patient ID;
• Medication administration;
• Laboratory specimen collection;
• Vital signs;
• Medical record tracking;
• X-ray tracking;
• Insurance forms;
• Supply management;
• Home healthcare;
• Pharmaceutical/medical device sales force effectiveness;
• Clinical trials;
• Billing/charge capture;
• Patient information management;
• Clinical guidelines;
• Practice management;
• Patient monitoring;
• Ambulatory care;
• Pharmacy orders;
• Formulary information;
• Medical references.

In this article, I'll highlight some compelling solutions from HIMSS that solve specific healthcare challenges, taking an in depth look at such topics as billing and charge capture, medical charting, drug database and medical reference, electronic prescriptions, lab and patient tracking, and outcomes data collection.

While this article is targeted at healthcare professionals, the information in this article is bound to be helpful even if you're not a doctor.

Billing and charge capture
Outside of solutions that assist decision-making processes directly related to patient care, charge capture is one of the more popular solutions. Particularly in this evolving era of healthcare reform and insurance regulations, efficient and accurate billing is a necessity. The most basic of these types of solutions allow you to reference ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Edition) and CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) codes so you can complete your paper-based superbills more quickly. There are also calculators to help ensure your coding is in compliance with the newer E&M (Evaluation and Management) coding recommendations. One such example is 1-Box Practice Manager from e-360, Inc (at http://www.1-box.com). A free E&M calculator, the topsE&M Coder, is available from e-MDs (at http://www.e-mds.com/emds/prodserv/tops_emcoder.html).

For a billing solution that can integrate with existing legacy billing systems, such as IDX, Cerner, SMS, and other HL7-compatible systems, look to PatientKeeper, Inc. (formerly Virtmed). Their ChargeKeeper application allows charge capture entry at the point of care on the Palm handheld with integration into virtually any backend system. The company has also introduced LabKeeper, a lab results interface, in addition to the popular medical charting product, PatientKeeper, after which the company is named. LabKeeper is pictured in Figure A.

FIGURE A

LabKeeper allows physicians to communicate with the lab throughout the day.

Of note, PatientKeeper (at http://www.patientkeeper.com) has moved to a platform strategy, meaning developers and other users wishing to tie into existing legacy systems with a Palm OS device can simply obtain PatientKeeper's SDK. This is very exciting news for the healthcare community, as I expect many in-house developers to build custom front-end solutions for Palm devices that can then be integrated into existing legacy systems without the challenge of the integration component, as this can be supplied by PatientKeeper.