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Case Study Example of a custom pda application (not for resale)

Enterprise Case Study: PalmPilot / Palm medical software for healthcare (not for resale)

Physicians Efficiently Document Patient Encounters to Support Accreditation of the Ophthalmology Residency Training Program.

Enterprise: The Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Ophthalmology, Storm Eye Institute.

Industry: Healthcare, Education

URL: www.musc.edu

Application: "Patient Encounter Forms": Efficient Documentation of the Circumstance, Diagnostic Category and Services Rendered to Patients Evaluated at the MUSC Storm Eye Institute.

Profile: The Albert Florens Storm Eye Institute at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina provides comprehensive services for the diagnosis and management of all types of eye disease. Members of the Department of Ophthalmology each year perform more than 2000 major eye operations. The faculty includes specialists in Oculoplastic Surgery, Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, Glaucoma, Corneal and External Diseases, Refractive Surgery, Vitreal and Retinal Diseases, Neuro-Ophthalmology and Low Vision Rehabilitation. In addition, the Department maintains both an active Basic Research and Residency Training Program. The Residency Program is accredited by Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and graduates four Comprehensive Ophthalmologists annually. The ACGME is responsible for the accreditation of post-MD medical training programs within the United States. Accreditation is accomplished through a peer review process, and is based upon established standards and guideline.

The Problem: To maintain its accreditation, the residency program must provide documentation to the ACME Residency Review Committee that details the circumstance, diagnostic category and services rendered to patients evaluated within the Department of Ophthalmology. Until recently each physician was responsible for keeping a written record of this information. Periodically these handwritten records were collected and the data manually entered into a computerized database. The system proved cumbersome and only marginally reliable.

The Solution: In collaboration with Tom Teates and Ron Carper of Pen Computer Solutions, Inc. (Pen Computer Solutions) John R. Moran, Ph.D., M.D. (moranjr@musc.edu) of the Storm Eye Institute, developed a program that allows physicians to collect the required data on-site and in real time using the Palm III handheld computer by 3Com. Key features of the program include automatic time and date stamping, pull down menus of surgical procedures and a virtual numeric keyboard that allows extremely efficient data input. Most patient encounters can be documented on a single screen in as little as 10 seconds. The data is Hot-Synced to a central database from which customized reports can be easily generated. The database is also linked to Microsoft Access allowing highly flexible queries of the information.

The Department of Ophthalmology has now equipped all Resident Physicians with Palm III computers and the "Patient Encounter Forms" application. Data collection is now more accurate and complete and report generation is virtually effortless. Furthermore the data collected provides a new and valuable resources for analyzing the individual physicians and Storm Eye Institute's medical practice patterns.

By incorporating the Palm III into the MUSC Department of Ophthalmology's clinical, research and teaching environment physicians now have better information and more time to focus on the true mission of The Storm Eye Institute: "…helping our patients to see clearly into the future".

Although developed explicitly for Ophthalmology, "Patient Encounter Forms" can be easily customized to suit the needs of all medical fields. Screen shots of "Patient Encounter Forms" are available at Pen Computer Solutions.

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