Hello, folks:
Forgive me for re-hashing an old topic, but I had been talking with Bert and Roy about this topic in the past, and trying to decide what to do. I think I have come up with a personal solution to the problem, but I have also been trying to think of a way to solve this problem for other present and future users. This post represents my best thoughts on the matter, which I now present for your consideration:
Many have noted the massive and cumbersome list of items in the AmazingMeds database, fraught with embarrassing misspellings. Many, including Roy, have commented how much simpler it would be to sort through a short list of custom meds, perhaps selected by specialty. Bert has suggested that the best approach is to start with a blank slate and build an excellent list, rather than trying to trim down a list of tens of thousands of redundant meds, which I believe is true.
What I think would be ideal is if Amazing Charts allowed me to populate the database with the prescriptions I personally write every day, in the same way that it allows me to populate my clinic notes with macros of my commonly used phrases.
In other words, every time I wrote a prescription, I would have the option of pressing a button, and (in one fell swoop!) adding the med, the quantity, and the "sig" to a custom database.
In this way, just by writing prescriptions at each encounter and adding them as indicated, my database would practically write itself. I estimate that within a few months (starting with a blank database), it would be populated with 90% of the medications that I commonly use, without any grueling sessions of inputting meds into an Access file. Within a year, virtually 100% would be accounted for.
This feature should also include the ability to modify your entries, from within or without the patient's chart, in case you ever misspelled something yourself, and then save your changes. You could also remove drugs that get black-boxed or taken off the market. You could put in the latest drugs without waiting for an update.
This would automatically create customized databases for each individual doctor who desired it, providing ultimate personal control. The database would be smaller, requiring less memory. It would be faster and easier to navigate through.
Also, instead of some omniscient person creating specialty-specific databases for every specialty (and having to decide what each kind of doctor needs), each person's database will automatically become specialty-specific as each specialist populates his/her own database. It will reduce the job into manageable chunks and nobody will be liable for anyone else's mistakes except their own.
In Dr. Bertman's post of 7/17/07, he favorably responded to the idea of people posting their own customized med lists, etc. Using this system, anybody who thinks their personal database is the cat's meow will be free to copy their database file and publish it on the forum for scrutiny and/or applause.
I see this as a straight-forward solution to a much-discussed problem. I think it fits with the functionality and even the personality of Amazing Charts. I can even hear Dr. Bertman's voice-over as he clicks on the "Add" button, and his favorite medication is added to his personal medication database: "and that's how simple it is!"
As Paul said the other day, "Talk among yourselves"
Brian
