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Turn Your Android Phone Into an EMS Tool – Part 2

September 15, 2010 By 2 Comments

…..and I’m not talking about the kind of tools you see on Jersey Shore.

Welcome to Part 2 of my “Android EMS” series. I have some exciting stuff to demonstrate and some really cool applications to recommend.

In this tutorial we are going to be covering the following:

  • A list of useful applications that can be used in a pre-hospital setting.
  • Placing your local protocols on your “EMS Screen”.
  • Adding shortcuts to useful websites directly on your “EMS Screen”.

Prerequisites:

There are a couple apps that you need to have installed in order to complete the steps in this tutorial. These 2 applications are free and available on the Android Market.

  • Adobe Reader
  • ASTRO File Manager

Please be sure to install these 2 applications before proceeding.

Step 1 – Get the apps

There are tons of useful apps available for free on the Android Market that can be used by all medical professionals. Not all of these apps are designed specifically for EMS professionals but definitely have their place on your “EMS Screen”. The market is full of essential tools that you would have never thought to look for. Below is a list of applications that I personally recommend for your everyday use in the field:

  • Epocrates – An all in one tool for medical professionals. It features pill recognition, drug doses, algorithms, drug interactions, drug reference, and medical math. For more information on Epocrates, check out my review.
  • Mini Nurse – Features med math, drip rate / dosage calculators, pregnancy wheel, medical terms, lab values, skills demonstrations, burn calculators, and much more.
  • Google Translate – Used to translate your voice into any foreign language imaginable. The app can also interpret text. The translated phrases are spoken out loud by a computer voice that is very easy to understand.
  • Scanner Radio – Used to scan radio traffic from public safety agencies around the world via the internet. Great for monitoring Police, Fire or EMS channels without having to mess with your radio.
  • Droid Light – (Motorola Droid Only) Turns your camera flash into a high powered light with the touch of a button. Great for use as a makeshift flashlight or for checking pupils when your forget your penlight.
  • Google Maps – Great for routing to calls. Very accurate and frequently updated. Also includes satellite photos and street-view photos of your destination.
  • Caller ID Faker – Changes your caller ID when making outgoing calls to whatever number you wish. Aside from creating havok with your friends and supervisors, this can be used to disguise your number when calling family members of patients. For example, you could change your caller id to match your dispatch phone number. (2 minute conversation limit on the free version).
  • AK Notepad – Used to jot down notes of any sort. Can be used to take notes on calls, store information for a short period (or long if your wish) of time, and set reminders. I actually get tons of use out of this.

There really are tons of cool apps out there that could be used in the field. For the sake of saving space on your screen, I limited the list to the essential apps that I use and recommend.

Once you install the apps on your phone, you will need to add them to your “EMS Screen” for easy access. To do this, simply open up your application menu. This is typically done by tapping the tab located on the very bottom of your screen. Scroll to the app that you want to add to your screen, press and hold it, then move it to the desired location and release your finger from the screen. Simply repeat these steps with all of the other applications to add all of your desired apps to the desktop.

Step 2 – Add your protocols to the EMS screen

This step is going to require that you have Adobe Reader and the ASTRO File Manager installed. We are going to be creating a shortcut on the “EMS Screen” that will link directly to a copy of your protocols. This is assuming that your protocols are already in a .pdf format. If they are saved under a different format, you can download Open Office for free and convert it.

To begin, we need to actually download the protocols. You can do this by navigating to your EMS agency’s website and simply downloading the document. By default, all files downloaded through the web browser are automatically saved to the “download” folder located on your external memory card.

Once you have downloaded the desired documents, then it’s time to create our shortcut. To do this, press and hold your “EMS Screen” until the menu comes up. You will need to select “shortcuts” and then “ASTRO”. Now you need to navigate to your download directory and select the appropriate document to add to your screen. The file manager may or may not already be in your download directory (depending on your phone and software version). To be sure, you can simply hit the “Home” button (which will bring you to the top of your external memory directory) and select the “download” folder. In there you should see your protocols.

Selecting that icon will bring up a dialog to change the shortcut name. This is optional and will not affect the actual document. Click “OK” then you are done! Your protocols are now on your desktop. These steps can be used to add any document that you wish to your screen. Feel free to experiment around and see what works for you.

Step 3 – Add website bookmarks to the EMS screen

This step is really easy and extremely valuable. We are going to be creating bookmarks of websites that we find to be useful and adding shortcuts directly to the “EMS Screen”. Some examples of useful sites include:

  • Road Closure Information Sites
  • EMS Agency Sites
  • Medical References

To begin, you need to open up your web browser and navigate to your desired website. Once the site is done loading, click on the bookmark button located directly to the right of the address bar.

Below is a screenshot showing the correct button.

Pressing this button will bring you to the list of bookmarks. To add this site to that list, press the “add” button located on the far left of the screen.

Below is a screenshot showing the correct button.

Once you are done saving your bookmarks, return to the “EMS Screen” . Just as we did when adding the protocols, press and hold the screen until the menu pops up. Select “shortcuts” then “bookmark”. This will bring up a list of all your saved bookmarks. Simply select the one you want, then it will show up on your screen. Repeat this process until all of your bookmarks have been added.

I certainly hope that this tutorial was useful. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me or comment below. As always I welcome all feedback.


Filed Under: Field Medicine, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Epocrates for Android phones reviewed

June 12, 2010 By 5 Comments

If you work in EMS and own an Android phone, then you have probably searched for EMS-related applications with little success. I wrote a blog post a little while back on the subject. Like most people, I have had little success finding useful applications for EMS professionals. However, with the recent release of Epocrates for Android, this has changed.

Before I get into the actual review I am going to talk about the phone and operating system used to test this software. All of my testing was done on a Motorola Droid from Verizon. I currently have Android 2.1 installed with the latest version of Epocrates. Your experience may vary with different cell networks and phones. If you have a different experience, please let me know!

Installing:

Epocrates for Android is available in the App Market. The quickest way to install it is to just do a search, but it can be found under the health section as well.

Putting it to use:

This app has several different features that can be extremely useful in the field. The “Pill ID” features is great for drug overdoses or identifying pills that belong to patients who cannot communicate. You simply identify the pill by matching a number of different variables like color, shape, markings, etc. It then shows a list of matches with pictures and you select the pill that you have. It then shows you details about the medication.

My favorite feature on the app is the “Interaction Check”. It gives you the ability to select multiple medications and see if they interact with each other. For example, we all know that if you administer Nitroglycerin to a patient who recently took Viagra, that it can cause an unsteady drop in blood pressure. If you enter those 2 medications into the interaction check, it will tell you that there is a contraindication and list details on the reaction. You can enter as many meds as you want. I suppose you could put all of a patient’s medications into the checker, but it would be time consuming.

Epocrates for Android also comes with a drug reference guide, which can come in handy for looking up a patient’s medications to get a better idea of their medical history. Another neat feature is the “tables”. This is basically a list of algorithms for all types of medical situations. It contains sections for ACLS, Emergency Medicine, Cardiology, etc. I could see this being handy for study material or as a refresher, but not so great in the field. This kind of stuff should be pulled from our brains on scene of a call, not a phone. But that’s just my opinion.

One more feature is the “Med Math”. This is probably handy for nurses or doctors working in longer care environments. It is basically a bunch of medical calculators. There were a couple neat ones that could be handy in the field like a “Dosing Calculator” and a “Pregnancy Wheel”.

Possible areas for improvement

I would like to see more medical calculators that are relevant to work in a pre-hospital setting. Some quick drip rate calculators like Dopamine or Epi would be really handy. I know that there are paid versions of Epocrates software that contains more features. I haven’t had a chance to review the paid versions so I don’t know if it exists there. Other than that, I really don’t have any gripes about the program. It’s stable, fast and free. Can’t beat that.

Conclusion

After testing Epocrates at home, and having the opportunity to use it on a couple calls, I feel that it is a must for EMS professionals. I would definitely add this to my list of essential EMS apps. I do know that the software is available for iPhone, Windows Mobile and Blackberry as well.

If you have any questions or comments, please voice them below or e-mail me. Thanks!


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Scanner Buddy – Android App Review

May 5, 2010 By 2 Comments

While searching for more mobile applications that could be useful to EMS providers in the field, I came across a very handy free tool. “Scanner Buddy” is a free radio scanning program for android phones. It’s basically like a hand-held scanner for listening to public safety radio frequencies. I was actually quite surprised to find out that a few people in my workplace already use this application and have for some time. I downloaded it and tested it on my Motorola Droid via the Verizon network. Your experience may be different than mine if you use a different phone or cell provider.

Installation

This application can be found in the android marketplace. Simply do a search for “scanner buddy” and it should be the first result in your search. Download and installation only takes a few seconds. When you run the application for the first time, it will take a few minutes to download the most up-to-date frequency list.

Putting it to use

Scanner Buddy streams radio traffic from public safety agencies all over the world. When you open the application, select the “list” button located on the far right hand side of the screen. This will bring up all of the frequencies that are available. They are categorized by country, then sub-categorized by state. To listen to a station, simply select the frequency and hit “play” on the main screen. The stations typically only take a couple seconds to load.

Here are screen shots of the main screen and a list of frequencies.

This is great for use while on duty. It can be used to monitor police traffic while staging for an incident, monitoring fire traffic while responding to large scale incidents or simply just listening to the radio to hear what’s going on in your response area. An absolute must for EMS providers.

Possible areas for improvement

There isn’t really anything bad to say about this application. It loads fast, and typically doesn’t cut out. Having said that, there are a couple things that I would like to see included.

  • Bigger list of providers in the US.
    -My county was not included in the list. I did my testing on a neighboring county’s frequencies.
  • Option to sub-categorize by county and type of agency.

Conclusion

Overall I feel that this application is solid. It’s an extremely useful application for anyone working in public safety or EMS. I would highly recommend this product to anyone with an Android phone. I would even recommend this over the paid alternatives on the market.

As always I welcome questions, comments and suggestions for new applications to review.


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