Scribe (20 July 2001)

Master's Thesis Becomes Marketable Invention

Reprinted from the Medical Society of Metropolitan Portland's The Portland Physicians' Scribe, July 20, 2001 edition. Used by permission

By Cliff Collins

Jon A. Blackman, MD, hopes Pocket Practitioner becomes one of your favorite medical tools, as familiar as the black bag and stethoscope.

Blackman, a family physician with Providence Medical Group, dreamed up his new handheld invention while getting his master’s degree in medical informatics at Oregon Health & Science University in 1999. “It’s an outgrowth of my master’s thesis, ‘The Usefulness of Handheld Computers,’” explained Blackman, who has practiced in Portland for two decades. “It grew from an interest in that and a perceived need that hasn’t been met.”

Blackman’s software packages (he is selling two different versions), which he formally introduced to the market this month, employ the Palm Operating System. “This is designed for a computer user of any level,” said Blackman. “The main target is the individual practitioner or those in small groups who want to automate their record keeping when they’re not in the office.”

A practitioner could be in the middle of Africa, Blackman said, and travel around seeing patients from all over; he or she could have all the records needed on the spot merely by using Pocket Practitioner.

The device records patient data such as diagnoses, medications and procedures, and allows the doctor to jot notes at the bedside when doing rounds at a hospital or nursing home. Second, it is designed to help doctors with billing by instantly allowing them to record diagnoses and procedures, a tactic Blackman -- who majored in mathematics in college -- contends can save a six-person group $100,000 in estimated savings. He noted that procedures and consults don’t get paid for if they aren’t recorded properly.

Blackman thinks “very few” physicians currently are using handhelds to track patient billings. Of the about 10 competing products available on the market, Blackman’s invention is the “only one that gives a complete PC application with the handheld. A lot say, ‘It synchronizes with the computer,’ but we’re actually integrating with it.

“Because the software is written by a physician, it comes from the physician perspective,” he said. “Essentially, it thinks like a doctor thinks. I think it’s competitive advantage is, it really works the way physicians work, for our needs. I’m able to keep better track of my patients and provide them with better care, whether I’m in the office or not.”

The Pocket Practitioner Web site is at www.pocketinformatics.com, although Blackman soon is changing the name to PocketMedTools.com. Blackman said the point of Pocket Practitioner is its utility, not its profit potential: “Marketing wasn’t even thought of for about two years. We designed the product to be useful.”

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