Automating your EMR

There are times when your SOAP note has statement that requires input from the user. Study those statements that could be responded to by a standard response, e.g. "YES", "NO", "NEGATIVE", "No significant issues." etc. Instead of typing in the responses, the user can program function keys on the keyboard to automatically post the response into your SOAP note.
The application that can do this is AUTOHOTKEY (www.autohotkey.com). It works for windows only. There may be some out there that work on Mac and Linux. Download the app and read through the tutorial.

What is the best Tablet PC for EMR use?

I have roamed the internet and computer stores to find the most ideal laptop/table/ultrabook for EMR (electronic medical records) applications. Wares that do not have stylus capability were not even evaluated. I was looking for one that could accept handwriting with a fairly good handwriting input interface. Using stylus with stubs as pen is out of the question. I prefer the pen-like size of stylus. The three I considered for evaluation are the Lenovo X230Tablet, Microsoft Surface Pro and Sony Vaio Duo 11.
All of them have good pen-input response. Having loaded the Medical Dictionary helped in the recognition of medical terminologies. Lenovo lends itself for use without being carried around. It is slightly heavy to be cradled. The Surface Pro has some heaviness to it also. With the keyboard the ergonomics of converting to tablet is not as effortless as the Sony Vaio 11. I gave the Sony two thumbs up.
For a comprehensive review see: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Sony-Vaio-Duo-11-SV-D1121X9EB-Ultrabook.84581.0.html

Automate your picture uploads to the web

It is very easy uploading pictures if you do not have a lot to upload, but when you have a lot of them then uploading becomes very tedious. I also want them in my PC as my back up and not endanger their existence when uploaded into the cloud. You can also do this using your mobile phone pictures with the appropriate app, e.g. Factamobile Picture Upload app for Android. I am sure there is an FTP* picture upload for IOS. Here is my solution:
My camera, a Canon EOS 7D is equipped with WFT5 wifi attachment. You may also use the EYE-FI SD card to transmit your photos via a hotspot. The first thing to do is to install an FTP server on your PC. I use FileZilla server. It is freeware and easy to configure. It comes with great tutorials and support from other users. During the configuration you will be asked to name a default folder to receive the pictures sent by the camera. Once you set-up this folder, configure it to sync with either Picasa or Sugarsync. That takes care of automatically uploading to the web. To receive the photos from anywhere you must open up your internet router to port forward to your PC. To port forward to your FTP server, here are the steps you need:

• Determine the IP address of your PC where the FTP server is located. It usually starts with 192.168.....
• Open up your modem/router. Consult with your router manual for the IP address.
• Log on to your router from your favorite browser and look for "Port Forwarding" or "pinholes" option.
• Forward port 21 (usually the FTP port, change if otherwise) with the IP address of your pc.
• Determine your WAN* IP or Internet IP address. If you do not know this, google using your PC and search for "what is my IP". This should show your internet IP.
• In your camera setting, select FTP server option. Enter your credentials and the FTP address as InternetIP:21 (replace InternetIP with the IP you obatined).

Fireup the server. Turn on your camera and see if it can upload the picture. NOTE: If you are within your local network, use the PC LAN* IP, the one that starts with the 192.168.etc

*Note: FTP - File Transfer Protocol; LAN - Local Area Network; WAN - Wide Area Network