Medical Shorthand for Palm OS??

Factual Questions
1

This is driving me INSANE. I have tried a few different search engines, to no avail. I’ve tried different wording, to no avail. So, I turn to the Teeming Millions in the hopes of finally catching a vail. ( Apologies to famed cartoonist B.Kliban, from whose cartoon I stole that pun ).

I need to find a source for medical shorthand. That is to say, writing Pt in a circle instead of the word “patient”. It’s an art I very badly wish to master, and would LOVE to be able to find some of it in the Palm OS format, so that as I do my paperwork at a hospital, I can have at my fingertips a variety of shorthand phrases and icons.

Has anyone found a source for after market niche stuff for Palm OS ? I use a Handspring Visor, but it runs on Palm OS.

Help ! Many thanks in advance for the person who scores this info :smiley:

Cartooniverse

2

I have a few suggestions.

  1. Do you have TealScript? It’s a wonderful program that lets you adjust the handwriting recognition and includes recognition for lowercase letters. You can add additional drawings for letters or phrases, and can change or remove the standard ones. They still have to be single lines, but you can make a circle P produce the world “patient” type of thing. It’s about $20 if you buy it fair & square.
  2. A friend of mine has one of the font making programs and has created a number of symbols he uses for taking notes, like arrows and stuff, but the problem is they’re not ASCII so printers and word programs on the desktop won’t recognize them when you beam/sync them.
  3. There are also word completion programs. (I use TextPlus.) When you write a couple letters (or however many you choose) it pops up a list of words or phrases that you programed in (you can choose them from text programs like memo or wordsmith or directly in textplus).

I don’t know if these are what you’re thinking of, but if you find it, let me know?

Good luck,
PC

3

I don’t know about any specific computer programs about the subject, but there have to be some out there, considering the prevalence of docs and other fellow healthcare prefessionals using Palm Pilots and such.

As far as looking medical jargon up the old-fashioned way, publications such as Taber’s Medical Dictionary or equivilent have abbreviations. As a nurse, I find it a very useful resource in the rare times I need a clarification. BTW, I have never seen/used “pt” with a circle around it for “patient,” only without. Perhaps the circling is a regional thing. Of course, you still see some nurses/docs using “w/” instead of “c” and “w/o” instead of “s.”