Hospital doctors how-to-guide converted to phone app
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Stephy
Mar 13, 2012, 3:44:50 PM3/13/12
to oss-uk-health
Hello all,
I need advice please on how to make this project work.
A group of doctors at my hospital are trying to create a system to
facilitate access to daily practical information.
In certain hospitals this is not required as there is a comprehensive
intranet and a switchboard that is uptodate on bleep numbers and ward
phone numbers. IT are too unhelpful to approach with any new problem
especially if it involves progress, they always say that they do not
have the money or time to help.
We have made a comprehensive folder for all junior doctors to access
all the information they need for each different medical and surgical
speciality that we have named "the How To Guide". This, for the moment
is on the I drive of the hospital which every doctor has access to.
The "How To Guide" is divided into 15 folders named after each
speciality (eg Gastroenterology, Radiology, General Surgery, Urology,
Renal, Respiratory...). Each one of these folders is structured in a
similar way ("The team", "Timetables", "Referrals", "Contact Numbers",
"Guidelines", "Procedures"). The Guidelines document contains a list
of guidelines corresponding to that particular specialty thus making
it easier to search for.
In order to save time, and avoid logging onto computers (which is a
major problem too), we would like to be able to access this
information from our phones. We thought that an app might be the way
to do this.
We are not sure how to start, who to contact, and how these things are
done. We just know that 1- we would be wasting our time talking to IT,
2- if this resource was available as an app (so much work has been put
into it by every team) available to all junior doctors at my hospital,
hours of time would be saved by everyone every time we try to book a
specific test or try to contact a specific secretary. At the moment
every time a doctor changes job, joins a new firm, they have to start
from scratch finding out how to book a specific test, who to contact,
write down fax numbers (sometimes wrong numbers) and wasting a
significant proportion of our time.
In practical terms we have about 100 word documents (roughly 1 A4 page
each) that need to be converted to a mobile friendly version.
We would be grateful for any advice on how to go ahead with this,
Thanks,
Stephanie
I need advice please on how to make this project work.
A group of doctors at my hospital are trying to create a system to
facilitate access to daily practical information.
In certain hospitals this is not required as there is a comprehensive
intranet and a switchboard that is uptodate on bleep numbers and ward
phone numbers. IT are too unhelpful to approach with any new problem
especially if it involves progress, they always say that they do not
have the money or time to help.
We have made a comprehensive folder for all junior doctors to access
all the information they need for each different medical and surgical
speciality that we have named "the How To Guide". This, for the moment
is on the I drive of the hospital which every doctor has access to.
The "How To Guide" is divided into 15 folders named after each
speciality (eg Gastroenterology, Radiology, General Surgery, Urology,
Renal, Respiratory...). Each one of these folders is structured in a
similar way ("The team", "Timetables", "Referrals", "Contact Numbers",
"Guidelines", "Procedures"). The Guidelines document contains a list
of guidelines corresponding to that particular specialty thus making
it easier to search for.
In order to save time, and avoid logging onto computers (which is a
major problem too), we would like to be able to access this
information from our phones. We thought that an app might be the way
to do this.
We are not sure how to start, who to contact, and how these things are
done. We just know that 1- we would be wasting our time talking to IT,
2- if this resource was available as an app (so much work has been put
into it by every team) available to all junior doctors at my hospital,
hours of time would be saved by everyone every time we try to book a
specific test or try to contact a specific secretary. At the moment
every time a doctor changes job, joins a new firm, they have to start
from scratch finding out how to book a specific test, who to contact,
write down fax numbers (sometimes wrong numbers) and wasting a
significant proportion of our time.
In practical terms we have about 100 word documents (roughly 1 A4 page
each) that need to be converted to a mobile friendly version.
We would be grateful for any advice on how to go ahead with this,
Thanks,
Stephanie
Wai Keong
Mar 13, 2012, 5:55:28 PM3/13/12
to oss-uk...@googlegroups.com
Dear Steph,
In this way, if there are updates to a guideline/ time-table etc. you just need to remember to press sync on your app and it will always fetch the latest version of the files. You can of course just use the free dropbox app but you will have to download the files everytime you need it will need an always on internet connection.
I think I have a solution for you.
1. Get everyone a dropbox account
2. Put all your documents in a dropbox folder and share it with everyone
3. Get an App for your iphone/ android/ ipad device that can sync with Dropbox.
I use an iphone/ ipad and I highly recommend GoodReader. GoodReader syncs with Dropbox and has a very fast and powerful search function.
In this way, if there are updates to a guideline/ time-table etc. you just need to remember to press sync on your app and it will always fetch the latest version of the files. You can of course just use the free dropbox app but you will have to download the files everytime you need it will need an always on internet connection.
Beauty of dropbox is that loads of software can access it which means you can even change your documents on whatever device and it will be automatically be updated in everyone's device IF they remember to press 'sync'!
Anyone has anyone other ideas???
Wai Keong
VJ
Mar 14, 2012, 3:35:50 AM3/14/12
to oss-uk...@googlegroups.com
Most ISPs give you free webspace and a fixed URL to that repository. All users need is a link to this.
This is platform independent and free.
Uploads are usually by FTP so each specialty can maintain their own files & no special apps are required at any stage.
The only issue remains making it "mobile friendly". Usually the simplest solution is to ditch the Word format. MSWord and similar all allow you to save as a Web page.
You can continue to edit and save as Word documents but additionally save as a Web page when you wish to publish/share the file. This deals with the freshness/sync issues. You can even save to the website from MSWord.
If you *really* want to stick to Word then make each file 2 pages of A5, instead of A4 so the magnification is small screen friendly.
Regards, VJ
--
Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
This is platform independent and free.
Uploads are usually by FTP so each specialty can maintain their own files & no special apps are required at any stage.
The only issue remains making it "mobile friendly". Usually the simplest solution is to ditch the Word format. MSWord and similar all allow you to save as a Web page.
You can continue to edit and save as Word documents but additionally save as a Web page when you wish to publish/share the file. This deals with the freshness/sync issues. You can even save to the website from MSWord.
If you *really* want to stick to Word then make each file 2 pages of A5, instead of A4 so the magnification is small screen friendly.
Regards, VJ
--
Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
Wai Keong Wong
Mar 14, 2012, 3:49:52 AM3/14/12
to oss-uk...@googlegroups.com
Good point re Word format VJ. I was thinking more in the lines of PDF because it is so easy to create. I think Steph's point about an app is so that they have offline access?
I personally like the Dropbox solution only because it is very robust. (but you need to sign up r an account) The only issue I can see is that web access to it might be blocked by hospital IT. But I guess that they can bypass the hospital IT issue altogether. :)
WK
WK
VJ
Mar 14, 2012, 4:14:17 AM3/14/12
to oss-uk...@googlegroups.com
Most browsers are capable of and by default do cache simple webpages which is what would be the generated output.
Good point about web access though usually Trusts are not restrictive of sites they've never heard of. The internet access is usually blocked by a list of inappropriate sites + Facebook, Twitter etc., rather than allowed on a named basis.
They will need to go through the hospital web access if they are maintaining their files on their I: drive.
Good point about web access though usually Trusts are not restrictive of sites they've never heard of. The internet access is usually blocked by a list of inappropriate sites + Facebook, Twitter etc., rather than allowed on a named basis.
They will need to go through the hospital web access if they are maintaining their files on their I: drive.
--
Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
Dan Fish
Mar 14, 2012, 5:34:56 AM3/14/12
to oss-uk...@googlegroups.com
Can I suggest you take a look at owncloud.org - does need some setup,
but allows you to setup a sort of dropbox but under your control. It's
AGPL licenced to boot!
Regards
Dan
Regards
Dan
Anthony Rowbottom
Mar 14, 2012, 11:07:01 AM3/14/12
to oss-uk-health, n.co...@clinicalcurrent.com
Hi Stephanie,
Interesting you should describe a problem that literally every
hospital faces (in my opinion). I'm working on a project that might be
of some use to you (potentially) - would happily discuss your specific
needs in more detail but have described a quick snapshot of what we're
about below:
I work at a company called Clinical CURRENT and we're currently
developing a free to use health information portal to help clinicians
find and disseminate the latest knowledge and expertise, including
practical information you have described. The key benefit of this is
to enable all clinicians to stay up to date with the latest
developments in their specialism or area of interest. We know that
there is a lot of clinical information 'out there' already but our
platform is designed to specifically help clinicians get to relevant
information quickly - something which other clinicians have identified
as a problem currently.
The portal itself will be web based and include external articles /
debates / questions from various leading medical journals as well as
content from other clinicians, although we are hoping to create a
mobile app version very soon. A mobile web based version is going to
be available at launch, although I'm assuming you mean an offline app
version?
It's our hope that by building up a community of clinicians in both
the UK/US initially and using our particular online search functions,
we will streamline the process of sharing information amongst doctors
in both primary and secondary care - thereby saving time, money and
improving patient outcomes.
Do let me know if this sounds like something that might be able to
help - you can sign up to our newsletter for more information here:
signup.clinicalcurrent.com
Or just tweet me for more info: @ClinicalCURRENT
Good luck, hope you find something easy to use soon!
Kind regards,
Anthony
Interesting you should describe a problem that literally every
hospital faces (in my opinion). I'm working on a project that might be
of some use to you (potentially) - would happily discuss your specific
needs in more detail but have described a quick snapshot of what we're
about below:
I work at a company called Clinical CURRENT and we're currently
developing a free to use health information portal to help clinicians
find and disseminate the latest knowledge and expertise, including
practical information you have described. The key benefit of this is
to enable all clinicians to stay up to date with the latest
developments in their specialism or area of interest. We know that
there is a lot of clinical information 'out there' already but our
platform is designed to specifically help clinicians get to relevant
information quickly - something which other clinicians have identified
as a problem currently.
The portal itself will be web based and include external articles /
debates / questions from various leading medical journals as well as
content from other clinicians, although we are hoping to create a
mobile app version very soon. A mobile web based version is going to
be available at launch, although I'm assuming you mean an offline app
version?
It's our hope that by building up a community of clinicians in both
the UK/US initially and using our particular online search functions,
we will streamline the process of sharing information amongst doctors
in both primary and secondary care - thereby saving time, money and
improving patient outcomes.
Do let me know if this sounds like something that might be able to
help - you can sign up to our newsletter for more information here:
signup.clinicalcurrent.com
Or just tweet me for more info: @ClinicalCURRENT
Good luck, hope you find something easy to use soon!
Kind regards,
Anthony
Carl Reynolds
Mar 17, 2012, 7:19:14 AM3/17/12
to oss-uk-health
A shared dropbox folder + dropbox client for android and/or iphone
which can sync to allow offline access (I think)
would probably be a simple pragmatic thing to try out first. Suppose
needs to be simple enough to explain to colleagues or it wont be
sustainable....
As Dan suggests owncloud.org looks cool and would give you much more
control.
I'd prefer a wordpress site with a mobile theme/plugin or a moin moin
wiki with a mobile theme as nice alternatives but if no internet then
sorting it so that can access offline might not be straightforward....
Finally if a pretty mobile 'app' like experience is key, internet
present, and don't care about it open source then http://mobile.wix.com/
might be worth a look. I've never used so don't know how easy would be
to maintain.
Best, Carl
On Mar 14, 3:07 pm, Anthony Rowbottom
which can sync to allow offline access (I think)
would probably be a simple pragmatic thing to try out first. Suppose
needs to be simple enough to explain to colleagues or it wont be
sustainable....
As Dan suggests owncloud.org looks cool and would give you much more
control.
I'd prefer a wordpress site with a mobile theme/plugin or a moin moin
wiki with a mobile theme as nice alternatives but if no internet then
sorting it so that can access offline might not be straightforward....
Finally if a pretty mobile 'app' like experience is key, internet
present, and don't care about it open source then http://mobile.wix.com/
might be worth a look. I've never used so don't know how easy would be
to maintain.
Best, Carl
On Mar 14, 3:07 pm, Anthony Rowbottom
Stephy
Mar 17, 2012, 7:47:27 AM3/17/12
to oss-uk-health
Dear all,
Thank you for your helpful comments.
I have taken some time to digest them all.
I think that Wai Keong's dropbox idea might be the fastest way to make
a start. The disadvantage is that the files would not be as accessible
as in an app (not as user friendly, lots of clicks). The major
advantage is that we could update them and that with sync they would
update on everyone's phone.
I have introduced the group to a few of the hospital doctors I work
with who are working on the folders project and we are working through
the comments.
I hope we manage to make this happen.
Thanks a lot.
Stephanie
On Mar 17, 11:19 am, Carl Reynolds <drc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> A shared dropbox folder + dropbox client for android and/or iphone
> which can sync to allow offline access (I think)
> would probably be a simple pragmatic thing to try out first. Suppose
> needs to be simple enough to explain to colleagues or it wont be
> sustainable....
>
> As Dan suggests owncloud.org looks cool and would give you much more
> control.
>
> I'd prefer a wordpress site with a mobile theme/plugin or a moin moin
> wiki with a mobile theme as nice alternatives but if no internet then
> sorting it so that can access offline might not be straightforward....
>
> Finally if a pretty mobile 'app' like experience is key, internet
> present, and don't care about it open source thenhttp://mobile.wix.com/
Thank you for your helpful comments.
I have taken some time to digest them all.
I think that Wai Keong's dropbox idea might be the fastest way to make
a start. The disadvantage is that the files would not be as accessible
as in an app (not as user friendly, lots of clicks). The major
advantage is that we could update them and that with sync they would
update on everyone's phone.
I have introduced the group to a few of the hospital doctors I work
with who are working on the folders project and we are working through
the comments.
I hope we manage to make this happen.
Thanks a lot.
Stephanie
On Mar 17, 11:19 am, Carl Reynolds <drc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> A shared dropbox folder + dropbox client for android and/or iphone
> which can sync to allow offline access (I think)
> would probably be a simple pragmatic thing to try out first. Suppose
> needs to be simple enough to explain to colleagues or it wont be
> sustainable....
>
> As Dan suggests owncloud.org looks cool and would give you much more
> control.
>
> I'd prefer a wordpress site with a mobile theme/plugin or a moin moin
> wiki with a mobile theme as nice alternatives but if no internet then
> sorting it so that can access offline might not be straightforward....
>
> Finally if a pretty mobile 'app' like experience is key, internet
Ash
Mar 17, 2012, 7:38:56 AM3/17/12
to oss-uk-health
Hi,
I'm one of the people working on this project with Steph. Thanks
everyone for their advice.
The options so far may be summarised as follows:
1. GoodReader + Dropbox
2. opencloud.org
3. Wordpress with mobile plugin
4. wiki (mobile version)
5. http://mobile.wix.com/
6. Native Apple app
Dropbox in conjunction with GoodReader - I feel that perhaps adding
extra layers of complexity (registering on dropbox, sharing folders
and buying the GoodReader app for £2.99) are likely to deter users
from buying into this idea. So, the simpler the better!
So, initially, it may be a good idea for us to keep such a website
online since most people have web-enabled phones (android/iPhone) and
then later consider making it available offline, once we an initial
strong base of early adopters.
I tried to make a native apple app, but it turned out to be a bit
complicated to squeeze into the few free hours outside of work.
I managed to make a basic website using http://mobile.wix.com/ a
couple of days ago, which wasn't particularly complicated. Though I
imagine it'd be tricky to keep information up to date on such a
platform. It might make a good initial start to such a project though.
Carl's idea on using Wordpress/wiki may well be much more straight
forward, and perhaps well worth trying out at an early stage. I don't
have much experience of developing wikis or wordpress websites, but
I'll look into it.
Thanks very much for your advice everyone. If you have any further
advice/comments, they would be much appreciated!
Ash
I'm one of the people working on this project with Steph. Thanks
everyone for their advice.
The options so far may be summarised as follows:
1. GoodReader + Dropbox
2. opencloud.org
3. Wordpress with mobile plugin
4. wiki (mobile version)
5. http://mobile.wix.com/
6. Native Apple app
Dropbox in conjunction with GoodReader - I feel that perhaps adding
extra layers of complexity (registering on dropbox, sharing folders
and buying the GoodReader app for £2.99) are likely to deter users
from buying into this idea. So, the simpler the better!
So, initially, it may be a good idea for us to keep such a website
online since most people have web-enabled phones (android/iPhone) and
then later consider making it available offline, once we an initial
strong base of early adopters.
I tried to make a native apple app, but it turned out to be a bit
complicated to squeeze into the few free hours outside of work.
I managed to make a basic website using http://mobile.wix.com/ a
couple of days ago, which wasn't particularly complicated. Though I
imagine it'd be tricky to keep information up to date on such a
platform. It might make a good initial start to such a project though.
Carl's idea on using Wordpress/wiki may well be much more straight
forward, and perhaps well worth trying out at an early stage. I don't
have much experience of developing wikis or wordpress websites, but
I'll look into it.
Thanks very much for your advice everyone. If you have any further
advice/comments, they would be much appreciated!
Ash
Carl Reynolds
Mar 17, 2012, 8:07:19 AM3/17/12
to oss-uk...@googlegroups.com
Welcome to the list Ash, please do keep us posted on how you get on
with this. We'll be happy to help if you get stuck :-)
with this. We'll be happy to help if you get stuck :-)
It's likely to also be possible to interest nhshackday folk in lending
a helping hand http://wiki.nhshackday.com/wiki/NHSHackDayWiki
Best, Carl
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