App to organize patient information/data?

[donjuano44]

Hello,

Newcomer here. I am looking around for an app before I buy an iPad 2, to make sure it can be suitable to my needs

Here's the situation - I wish to get an iPad 2 for my mother, who is a physical therapist. She is an in-home therapist, meaning she goes to people's homes and performs whatever sorts of physical therapy for them. She frequently has to lug around massive amounts of paperwork, most of this containing patient data describing what may need to be exercised, where they live, who referred them, and so on. So I was wondering if there was some sort of application where she could enter and organize this data easily, as well as navigate seamlessly to acquire any specific information about the patient. It might even be something simple as a powerful pdf organizer, and she could just scan all the current physical documents into pdfs. I understand migrating to virtual documents will be difficult, but I believe it would help her tremendously

Please let me know if you have any ideas!

 

[thewitt]

There are a number of options here.

If I were doing this, I would look at some of the custom form applications where you can design your own form. There are dozens of them with different features and functions.

You could also use one of the apps that allows you to update PDF forms or annotate PDF files.

For the static data - that is what she needs to do for each patient - Goodreader would be my first choice simply because of it's flexibility to display virtually any document format, and it's ease of getting documents into and out of your iPad.

Good luck. This is a perfect application of the technology. You just need to decide how best to solve the problem.

-t

 

[twerppoet]

There are some fairly strict laws involved where patient data and computers are concerned. I'd make sure and consult an IT security profesional in the medical field first. You wouldn't want to get your mother into trouble.

 

[Gabriel1]

I agree entirely with Twerppoet however, if you do go ahead (I can definitely see the benefits in this kind of work) there are already apps set up for this on the app store, I would do a search, maybe a google search, for the type of app you want and you will certainly find something which is ready to go.

The Archangel

 

[thewitt]

We have done several medical applications and in the US, HIPAA requirements are fairly easy to address on a single user computing device. You might want to read about HIPAA here

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/index.html

Before going too far, however simply using an auto passcode lock and not uploading any patient data to Amy shared data storage devices is all you need to meet the limited access regulations.

If you have any doubts see a HIPAA qualified attorney, but just using an iPad to replace paper documents is not an issue if you already have associate business partner or other noted access to the information.

-t

 

[twerppoet]

Thanks for that. I did not want to sound allarmist, but knew it was something that should not be ignored.

 

[donjuano44]

Thank you all very much for the replies! I shall definitely be aware of the legal issues. The main course I want to pursue is anything to simplify her life, really. She is not very technologically adept - she has an iPhone though, so she is familiar with the apple interface, at least! Goodreader was at the top of my list of organizing scanned documents.

Do you have any specific recommendations about custom forms apps? They seem to be very promising. I found absolutely 0 results when I tried to research myself apps about organizing patient data or something along those lines

 

[Gabriel1]

This is well outside my field of expertise but there is an app called Patients Database HD "lite edition", it may help?

The Archangel

 

[thewitt]

I've used one called FormEntry with success. There are quite a few of them though. I like the ones include signature options as well. One customer used it for a petition drive after first clearing it with his local election board. It worked great and people were happy to sign the iPad...

-t