The Pediatric PDA Blog

If you go to the pediatric RSS feeds list in pda4peds website you will see a number of services that offer news and updates in the form of RSS feeds.

Of all these services Medworm stands out, for a simple reason, it actually summerizes all the medical feeds that are available and filter out what we specifically needs. So for example we can have the pediatric news channel feed which means a combination of all the great news websites such as Medpage Today, Medscape, Medical News Today and all others. Not only news organizations but also blogs, journals, and podcasts.

Even a search query can be converted into an RSS feed, so if you want to have a special ADHD feed just search the Medworm for ADHD and click on RSS icon in the results page and viola you’ll have all the RSS feeds concerning ADHD on earth!

Not only that but also the results page can be listed according to last published, or most relavant, and amazingly can be filtered to include only the resources that we want so in the ADHD example above you will be filter out specific blogs, or specific drug info, or specific specialty (psychaitry) and so on …

The website also offers membership and each user can have his/her specified feeds ready made and available and can dicuss on each news story and feed.

This is a great technology and really helps out of the confusion of the rapdily increasing number of pediatric feeds and let us have a customized pediatric feed to our convinience. Thank you Frankie Dolan for the great service.

If you like it enough don’t forget to vote for it as the best pediatric RSS feeds….

Back in October 2006 Pda4peds reviewed Skyscape Archimedes and there were many concerns that this great set of calculators is missing a lot of pediatric tools.

Today, Archimedes has undergone tremendous updates and additions and the pediatric section is growing larger day by day. “To see the video below please allow WM player plugin to be installed”

Now it includes lovely tools of growth calculations such as the food pyramid and the normal vital signs. The Glasgow Coma Scale is now coming in three versions (<1, 1-5, and >5 years) appropriately addressing the changes in verbal response scores.

Additionally, they have added live links to external resources such as the CDC growth charts and more detailed information is now available for each calculators and how the equation works and both of these features were missing in the old version.

Also, previously we recommended to go for the free Archimedes version as it has no more pediatric calcs than the paid Archimedes 360, BUT this has changed now there are several more calculators in the paid version justifying the 25 bucks.

Here is a list of those extra pediatric calculators; Caloric requirements, DSM IV criteria, Immunizations, Fold change, TB risk, and a whole set of growth charts.

So thumbs up to Skyscape as they continue working hard in improving the pediatric content of their titles and we withdraw our previous comments…

Two more useful links here;

- Read detailed review of Skyscape Archimedes.

- Vote for Skyscape Archimedes as the best calculator for pediatricians.

Clinical Xpert from Thomson Health Care is an all-in-one PDA application that has all the features and sections that we may ever need at the point of care.

The pediatrc PDA dream software is to have a single interface where we can have drug information, drug interactions, news and alerts, calculators & tools, differential diagnosis, disease information, lab and tests info, and CME all combined in a single program.

The Xpert has most of these except for CME and the best part is that it is available for free for PDR and Micromedex subscribers.

Once you are subscribed you can log on to their online account management and choose the sections that you would like to install on your PDA. These sections will be downloaded/updated upon your next synchronization.

Although these services are still deficient when compared to industry standards such as Epocrates Essentials but hopefully the next versions will include much more contents.

The various sections of Clinical Xpert are reviewed in details in pda4peds. Go to Clinical Xpert review page and from there find reviews of these sections.

Pedseducation.org provides excellent CME credits specific for pediatricians.

Unfortunately the service is not available for the mobile platform as there is no mobile website and no software that can be installed on the PDA.

However, there is a work around …

What we need to do is download Flash Player 7 for Pocket PC which is a CAB file (copy the downloaded file to your device and open it from there). Please note that this plugin is available only for the Windows Mobile Internet Explorer and not for any other browsers or operating systems, Opera Mobile recently announced that their browser is Flash compatible but that is not correct as the Flash player is not showing in the Opera Mobile browser (read here for more details on this).

Then we log on to our account in pedseducation using our built-in Internet Explorer Mobile and this way we will be able to watch the (.SWF) videos on the mobile screen and when the lecture is finished we can go to the posttest and get the CME credit exactly as we do in our desktop or laptop.

However the resolution is quite bad here as we will not be able to read the small commentary texts and even the slides are not very clear.

Our advice to the developers of pedseducation is that either they should develop a PDA version of their service or at least a Power Point version of the lecture that can be downloaded to the PDA

Medical News Today one of the best websites when it comes to medical news and updates with RSS feeds round the clock.

It has a special pediatric section where all child health related issues and news are found.

Fortunately it can be syndicated using any RSS reader like your internet browser or your PDA feeds reader such as Mobipocket or NewsBreak. To learn more about how to read RSS feeds and listen to podcasts see this Pediatric PDA guide.

The feeds are essentially the latest breaking news in pediatrics ranging from recent research studies to commentaries on prominent articles in high profile journals to legal and economic issues of common pediatric interest with a full database of archives dating back to 2003.

This is a must have RSS feed that every pediatrician should read in the morning (better than what happened to Britney News!).

Have a look at pda4peds review page .

If you like this RSS feed don’t forget that you can vote for it in the best RSS feeds poll.

The pediatric content of Dynamed is more than enough and includes all the diseases and conditions that a pediatrician may need in clinical practice. However Dynamed is designed with family physicians and primary health care professionals as the target audience but nevertheless it is still very useful for any peds even sub specialty peds.

Dynamed is so vast that its reviewed in more than 10 categories at the pda4peds website because it has enough information to be listed as a child psychiatry resource for example.

Dynamed could be the best 55 MB of memory that you will invest into your memory card, don’t lose the opportunity to have informed decision and to practice evidence based pediatrics. Go to Dynamed PDA version download page.

One of the fabulous features of Dynamed is the patient information section with links to handouts and online content, a feature which is particularly useful for pediatric residents in dealing with parents.

Another nice feature is that information can be looked up by index by recent updates and also by carefully arranged categories of medical specialties (each with its own drugs sub category), drugs, diagnistic testing, …etc. But I wish to see a text search tool just like the online version though we should ask Skyscape for that not Dynamed.

Another cool feature is that each topic is adequately cross linked to other topics and drugs and is thoroughly referenced to articles and guidelines, some topics have 250+ references! with fabulous grading of evidence of each recommendation.

Enough said with the good stuff and now let me list some bad stuff about Dynamed:

1. Price: is quite expensive compared to other similar services
2. Pediatric Topics: pediatric versions of common diseases are needed such as a dedicated pediatric asthma topic
3. CME: credits are available online but not for the PDA version, hopefully they will consider adding this service in the future.
4. Images: Just imagine a pediatric dermatology reference without images! pictures are really needed in Dynamed (UpToDate has images), and don’t tell me that there are links to online pictures this is scanty and not enough.
5. Labs and Tests: To have a complete resource you need to have some labs and test database.
6. Diagnostic Approach Topics: Much more needed of the type like (anemia differential diagnosis)

Finally if you would like to have more details about Dynamed for pediatricians have a look at this pda4peds review page or the video demonstration page.

Also if you like Dynamed don’t forget to vote for it in the best Evidence Based Pediatrics and References categories.

Ever wondered what was the reason there were concerns about the risk of autism with vaccine administration OR have you ever asked yourself where do I found that systematic review which stated that amoxicillin is safe in pregnancy OR did you face the scenario when you want to treat your acute seizure patient in line with the national guidelines!

All these questions and much more are answered by this HUGE knowledge base of evidence based medicine delivered right into our hands at the very point and moment of care.

Dynamed: a name which originates from “Dynamic Medical” is the way we should think of our references in the near future (or perhaps now!), information is updated on a daily basis and by 100s of doctors throughout the world and all of that collected in a single online treasure. In fact you yourself can edit the information if you find a mistake or if you want to add some information (of course editors will moderate your contribution and have to approve it before it is posted). It is just like a professional medical wikipedia perhaps they should call it medipedia!

So as the name implies this is a transformation from the classic conventional static information database to the dynamic online content of the technology era.

This vast database is available for the PDA (Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, and Windows Mobile) and although is not updated as frequently as the online counterpart but it is updated every week thanks to Skyscape SmartUpdate technology.

The first sentence with each Dynamed topic mentions the date when the topic was last updated and you will be amazed about how fresh is the information in your hands. Since we are talking about the first page I have to say that I did not like having the Rx page as the default page for all topics it should be the introduction and ICD codes.

Every fact and every decision is backed up by its reference giving us confidence and informing us of the origins of today’s modern medicine.

Not only diseases and conditions but also a comprehensive drug database that is constantly updated and revised as well as topics about symptoms and presentations, latest developments, important research studies, and others.

Dynamed acquired by EBSCO in summer 2006 offers an online platform which if you subscribe to it you will be entitled for a free PDA version developed by Skyscape but amazingly if you search Skyscape for Dynamed you won’t find any results!

Another amazing story here is that if you go to www.dynamed.com you will find a bogus website!! So don’t get confused and go to www.dynamicmedical.com. Also, unfortunately there is no mobile version of the website which is a great disadvantage when compared to UpToDate “one of the few competitors”.

However dynamed supersedes UTD in two major features 1) more frequent updates 2) links to references and resources are live and when clicked (desktop) or tapped (PDA) they will take the user to the original online content as apposed to inline excerpts of Pub Med references of UpToDate.

This article is continued in part2