A Powerful Tool to Show Patients in the Exam Room

I had a woman in the office last week who had malignant hyperthermia and who was bringing her five-year-old in for a preoperative exam, and she asked whether or not this was an inherited problem. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone with malignant hyperthermia and I couldn’t remember the answer to her question, but I found out within 10 seconds using the resources on my Palm. I went into 5MCC, found that indeed it is an inherited problem, and advised her to be sure she discussed this with her son’s anesthesiologist. Without this integrated resource, I would have had to leave the exam room for five minutes or more and gone to look that up and then come back and explain it to her. So it’s pretty powerful to be able to show patients this information right there in the exam room. Programs like these pay for themselves pretty quickly.

Dan Diamond, MD, is an experienced family physician and an award-winning educator of health care professionals and patients. He is in private practice in Silverdale, WA, and also serves as Assistant Clinical Professor for the University of Washington School of Medicine. www.nogginstorm.com