The AIDS.gov blog has four excellent posts on SMS Text Messaging for appointment reminders, medication reminders, and treatment compliance.  These posts are very timely and the information provided is applicable to virtually all healthcare providers.

Several vendors mentioned in links below offer solutions that schedule and track appointment and medication reminders.  Our SaaS solution,  InphoniteVoice, offers the ability to send SMS text messages for as little as $.10 per message.

Part I - Why

Part II - How    

Part III - Costs

Part IV - Privacy

We are pleased to announce that online training videos for ReminderPro are now available! If you are new to ReminderPro, or could simply use a refresher on some program basics, visit this page and select the video you would like to see.

In order to view the videos, you will need to have Adobe Flash Player installed.

We hope you find these videos useful.

According to a study in the June 22 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, "Primary care clinicians and their staffs sometimes fail to inform all patients of the results of lab or screening tests -- or fail to keep records that patients were informed and thus have no proof."

For more information on this issue, here is link to the related WebMD article by Bill Hendrick. 

The study included a review of 1,889 abnormal test results (selected at random) and found that for approximately 7.1% of the tests, either the result was not communicated to the patient, or there was no record that the patient had been informed.

The article does not address specific solutions that offer patients secure, phone-based access to lab test results.  For example, at least one LabRetriever customer uploads between 450 and 500 lab results each day.  LabRetriever also provides an accurate record of those patients have not yet accessed their lab results.  This informs healthcare providers as to which patients require follow-up.

Some of our customers, including Del Mar Family Practice of San Diego, have implemented LabRetriever and ReminderPro as an integrated solution.  ReminderPro can automatically call patients to inform them that their lab results are available. A patient can then transfer to LabRetriever and access those lab results immediately with a secure access code.

According to the article above, Atlanta internist Sandra Fryhofer, MD, past president of the 120,000-member American College of Physicians said, "(I'm) glad they did a study like this that uncovers this problem. It's a wake-up call to doctors and patients".

Well, ReminderPro does wake-up calls too.

I am pleased to announce that service pack 1 for ReminderPro 2008 DX is officially released. This service release fixes numerous problems reported to our technical support department. If you are a ReminderPro 2008 DX customer you can download the new service pack here:

Here is a link to a March 2009 article in Physicians Practice regarding appointment reminder systems by Jonathan McCallister.

In previous articles, I have discussed using Windows' Remote Desktop to connect to your ReminderPro computer. It's actually a great tool you can use when the computer is in a location that is, well, less than convenient to get to. However, there are some things to be aware of.

The primary issues with using Remote Desktop center around sound. That is, how does Windows handle it? After all, we have two computers that are connected here, and both have the capability of having sound. Which computer gets it? And what if there are conflicts that can cause problems?

When you connect via Remote Desktop, the first thing you want to do is set the sound to remain at the remote computer. In other words, open your Remote Desktop connection window and click the Options button at the bottom. Then go to the Local Resources tab, and set the sound option to Leave at remote computer. In essence, this just leaves sound active at that other computer, ensuring ReminderPro can record messages and play them.

The other suggestion I want to make is that you disconnect your remote session after starting the call session. There can be problems arise when incoming messages are being recorded by a patient, or automatically due to an operator intercept — again, an issue with sound. Now, I want to emphasize the word disconnect. You do not want to log off, because that will close the programs you have running, including ReminderPro. But if you disconnect by clicking the X on the yellow toolbar at the top of that window, your programs will continue to run, and when you reconnect, you will see basically what you saw when you disconnected. In short: Disconnect — do not log off.

Hopefully these tips will help you use Remote Desktop more effectively with ReminderPro.

If you use Remote Desktop and have some tips you would like to share, please do so by clicking here.

Healthcare IT: Obtaining Stimulus Grants & Incentive Money

You do not need to be a LinkedIn user to access this page.

In the Microsoft Windows world, malware like viruses and spyware are a part of our daily lives. I particularly enjoy the ones that install a program on your computer that continually nags you to buy their software to remove it. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. And the software that is installed can bog down your computer and interfere with the programs you run. Quite a pain.

Last weekend, a conversation with a friend gave me an idea to blog. I've always dealt with the situation I described quickly, and never really gave thought that some folks may not know what to do (outside of paying Geek Squad to fix it), just as my friend didn't.

So here's what I do: The easiest way that I have found to rid your computer of the effects of this stuff is to perform a System Restore. Of course, this assumes that you have that option enabled. (You can turn it off.) Performing a System Restore returns the state of your computer to a previous time. Its like this: Windows takes a snapshot of the computer periodically, and then lets you return to that time in history. Its as though the infection you just got never happened. And none of your documents or other data is affected. What a great feature of Windows! Go Bill Gates!

Now, let me tell you how to make sure the System Restore option is available. First, go to Start and then right click My Computer and open Properties. From there, go to the Sysytem Restore tab, and make sure the Turn off System Restore box is unchecked. That means its on. And that's it. It's now available.

So should you ever need it, you can restore your computer to an earlier date by simply going to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore. You can select a date to restore to and then the tool guides you through the remainder of the process. Pretty slick. In fact -- and this is recommended -- you can even create a "restore point" on that window that will then be available. Of course, you will want to do this while your computer is healthy, but it is a good idea if the System Restore option had been disabled.

Have you ever used System Restore before? Do you have other ways to recover from a malware infection? Let me know your thoughts.