Sunday, June 3, 2001 Baylor students pilot new palm patient data system
By ALICE ADAMS
Employment Correspondent
chron.com
Most people agree that doctors can't write, legibly that is.
However, the advent of new technologies will soon remove the need to ponder over a doctor's scrawl as physicians enter their data and instructions on hand held computers.
A new device that is making this possible is the Palm Pilot that the Baylor College of Medicine Physician Assistant Program is using instead of the traditional writing pads and pens.
Now, instead of scrawling a patient's information onto a writing pad and typing it into a computer later, students in the Baylor program enter a patient's data into the Palm Pilot, including observations and diagnosis and easily download it into the main computer data base.
Tana Young, a student in the Baylor program currently completing her pediatric clinical rotation at Ben Taub Hospital, estimates the Palm Pilot saves an hour and a half each day.
"The program is set up to make recording data for each patient take no more than a minute or two," she said. "So, depending on how many patients you see in a day, the ease of recording data is really a definite time saver."
She also uses the Palm Pilot to keep a medical dictionary, the Merck Manual and a drug formula at her fingertips.
"It's a lot handier than having to carry several books around," she said.
Instituted nine months ago, the new hand held data logging program is one of the first in physician assistant programs around the country.
Physician assistants are mid-level health care practitioners who are trained to do evaluation of patients, obtain diagnostic tests, order treatment and prescribe medications under the supervision of a physician. Most physician assistants work in private practice with physicians, in the hospital and in other clinical settings.
The program at Baylor is offered at the graduate-level. Training encompasses 30 months of classroom and clinical work.
The original programs were designed for military medics coming back from Vietnam in the 1960s. There are 30 students -- predominantly women -- in the Baylor program ranging in age from 21 to 50.
"We have used many systems with our students, who are required to record data about the patients they see during their clinical rotations," said Virginia Schneider, director of the physician assistant program at Baylor. "Rosemary Sebastian, one of our faculty members, came up with the Palm Pilot idea and after working with Digital Consulting and Software Services, we devised this solution."
Of the 30 students in the program, seven were already using Palm Pilots to have medical dictionaries, drug formulas and other information at their fingertips.
"The student buy-in was critical," Schneider said, "and since most of them were knowledgeable about computers, they were excited to use the Palm Pilots instead of writing records on every patient.
Students are required to record information about what types of patients they see, what types of procedures they observe or perform and what diagnosis they observe or perform, along with the disposition of the patient, whether the patient will be seen in follow-up and other critical data.
No names, social security numbers or other identifying information is recorded to protect the patient's confidentiality.
Schneider said by knowing exactly what a student has done or is doing on each of their clinical rotations, faculty advisors can assure they have all the essential experiences during their clinicals and the program can adjust its curriculum based on what Schneider and her staff learn about what students are doing in their clinical rotations.
Baylor funded the Palm Pilot initiative with funds they received from the Shell Foundation several years ago.
"Up until using the Palm Pilots, students just did not do patient records justice," said Schneider, adding that these same records provided -- with certainty -- a real picture of what students were learning as they completed their rotations. "We know how many well-woman exams are done, how many pelvic exams they do, how many times they use a chest tube and we have a much better idea of what our students can do and we can, therefore, quantify their progress to a greater extent."
Young said the Palm Pilots and the patient information program is very user friendly.
"I'm not a tekkie at all but this program is really easy to use," she said.
A graduate of Santa Clara University, the student applied to Baylor's program because of its reputation as one of the top training experiences in the country.
"It is just impossible to explain the benefit we all receive on our rotations, working with some of the top physicians in the world here in the Texas Medical Center," she said, adding that the physician assistant program at Baylor was appealing, not only because of its high ranking in the country, but also because the type of clinical training students receive make it possible to specialize in more than one area during their career.
Physician assistants average $55,000 annually and, depending on the specialty, they can easily make six-figure incomes.
Other programs around the country are testing the Palm Pilot data program, but Baylor is a step ahead. Schneider said other departments in the medical school were also looking into similar tools for students in the medical and health professions.
Cost of the individual Palm Pilots ranges from $170 to $200 and now is included in the tuition for the next new class.
"This program provides an efficient way for students to be in compliance with our requirements and for the requirements this program meets for accreditation," said Schneider, "and it allows us to add to a student's clinical experiences because it tells us exactly how many of a certain procedure they've observed or performed."
Longer term, Schneider looks forward to comparing data from the Baylor program with others in the region and around the country.
"By doing so, we will be able to give physicians, licensing agencies and the public a better idea of what students do to prepare to become physician assistants," she said. |
