.KEYWORD heart
.FLYINGHEAD HEALTHCARE UNPLUGGED
.TITLE Heart health with your handheld
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY Many people from all over the world have to measure their blood pressure several times a day and log it in order to show the statistics to their physicians. A Palm handheld is the perfect tool to keep track of your blood pressure. There’s a wide choice of specialized applications that allow you to log, chart, print, and even email your blood pressure and pulse statistics to your physician or nurse. Dennis Crane digs into that software pile to find the best solutions available.
.AUTHOR Dennis Crane
Statistics show that high blood pressure affects about 50 million, or one in four, American adults. It’s a serious condition, which often has no symptoms. Once high blood pressure occurs, it usually lasts a lifetime. Physicians state that the only way to prevent high blood pressure is its permanent daily tracking. By analyzing the blood pressure trends, the doctor can prescript the cure. Thus, many people from all over the world have to measure their blood pressure several times a day and log it in order to show the statistics to their physicians. The majority of the hypertensive patients simply write down the readings in paper notebooks. Those who use personal computers log their readings in text files, spreadsheets, or databases.
All these methods are inconvenient in their own way. Several years ago, however, the handheld computer brought a simple yet powerful solution to the problem.
Nowadays, a PDA seems to be the perfect tool to keep track of your blood pressure. It’s handy and allows for fast reading input. A tiny device is always with you no matter where you are–at home, in he hospital, or in the gym. After you have measured your blood pressure or pulse, it takes just a second to get out your Palm handheld and to enter the reading with a couple of stylus taps. You and your doctor can easily browse and analyze your tracking history.
The various charts show the blood pressure trends from different points of view. The auxiliary modules help to handle the summarized and averaged statistics quickly. And all these features fit in a tiny device that fits in your hand!
There’s a pretty wide choice of specialized applications for Palm OS handheld computers that allow you to log, chart, print, and even email your blood pressure and pulse stats to your physician or nurse. Lets dig into that software pile to find the real pearls. The "blood pressure" searches on http://www.palmgear.com or http://www.handango.com return a dozen of titles. In this article, I’ll analyze what I find to be the top seven programs.
.BREAK_EMAIL Click to learn about the top seven heart healthy programs for Palm OS.
Before I go on, it’s time for a bit of disclosure: I work for UTrackSys.com; we produce one of the products listed below. Even though I’ve very proud of our software, there are quite a few excellent products out there and I think this is an important topic that needs to be covered. I’ll do my best to be as objective as possible.
.H1 Blood Pressure Manager 2.1
Blood Pressure Manager 2.1 by TIS Software (at http://www.tissoftware.net) allows you to enter your blood pressure and pulse readings and sort the records by entering time. It’s shown in Figure A.
.FIG A Blood Pressure Manager 2.1 records your blood pressure and pulse.
From the developer’s Web site you must download and install the special third-party utility to print out the records. Registered users can export their data onto a desktop PC in the .CSV (Coma Delimited Values) format. The program also includes a medication-tracking feature. In my humble opinion, it could be worth the eight bucks if it offers at least the basic charting capability.
Each company has its own point of view on the optimal price/quality balance. I believe the next program is more balanced. It costs the same, but it includes more features than the previous application.
.H1 BP Watcher 1.1
BP Watcher 1.1 by PDAsoftnet (at http://www.PDAsoftnet.com) offers another simple solution to track your blood pressure and pulse. The program supports sorting by date. When entering the reading figures, it displays the numeric pad. This helps enter the readings in seconds. The Statistic Summary screen shows minimum, maximum, and average values. BP Watcher also allows you to export data as plain text to the Memo Pad and to purge old records. The bar-style chart looks a bit confusing because it displays only systolic values and doesn’t have a scale on the axis.
I think the interface, pictured in Figure B, could be much more useful if the reading list area were not so small and displayed more records.
.FIG B The BP Watcher interface could be improved, but it gets the job done.
The program’s eight-dollar price tag is fair enough.
.H1 BP Watcher 1.1
Any software review would be incomplete if it omitted the freeware. Frankly speaking, the family of blood pressure trackers has only one freeware member worth our attention.
BloodPressMgr 2.7 developed by Rafael Andres Marin de la Cruz (at http://www.dialectica.com/bloodpressmgr) is the only blood pressure tracking freeware that beats some commercial competitors. The application has a clear interface, exporting capabilities, several types of charts, and statistical reports, which help to analyze your stats from different points. The high blood pressure readings are colored, as you can see in Figure C.
.FIG C BloodPressMgr 2.7’s color display is very useful to track your blood pressure leaps.
The data can be transferred to your desktop PC in .CSV format. Each screen of the program has an Info icon with detailed help. It’s a rare feature even for commercial products. Unfortunately, the program is fated like the majority of free projects; the author has ceased the support and the development. The Web site was put on sale, and the last update was released about two years ago. But you can still find it on many Palm OS software archives.
The next two applications demonstrate a vicious practice that is widespread among amateur programmers. I think these "masterpieces" were developed in one night and weren’t properly tested. Nevertheless, they also turn up on software archives, so I’ve had to test them too.
.H1 Blood Pressure Log 1.1
Visually, Blood Pressure Log 1.1 by CBK Software doesn’t look like serious software for personal healthcare, as you can see in Figure D.
.FIG D Blood Pressure Log 1.1 has a rather bland look.
Instead of bug fixing and implementing the necessary features, such as sorting, charting, and printing, developers included the irrelevant Body Mass Index calculator. The three dollar price is fair for a program that can do almost nothing.
.H1 Pocket Pressure 1.0
The second "jewel" is Pocket Pressure 1.0 by Blackboard Software dba Lingle Tech (at http://www.lingletech.com). Pocket Pressure 1.0 is not the best child of the company. The first release, two years ago, became the last. The program is a plain record list without any sorting, filters, or charting, as you can see in Figure E.
.FIG E Pocket Pressure 1.0 is short on bells and whistles.
Entering a new reading is extremely difficult. I spent two minutes on typing the date manually rather than choosing it from a standard dialog box. To export and print your data you need a special third-party utility, which seems to require special programming skills to use. I don’t think Pocket Pressure is worth a dollar, but it costs ten. This is the most expensive program in the category. Horror!
.H1 UTS Blood Pressure 1.4
My own company’s UTS Blook Pressure program is also not free, but it is also quite inexpensive at under $10.
The smooth and colorful interface of UTS Blood Pressure 1.4 by UTrackSys.com LLC (at http://www.utracksys.com) makes a nice first impression, as you can see in Figure F.
.FIG F UTS Blood Pressure 1.4 has a smooth, colorful interface.
To justify the close to $10 price, we stuffed the program with lots of features. The features include an unusual and easy way to enter the readings without Graffiti, colored and marked records, statistical reports, several types of charts, and list filtering. All the features allowed me to view my blood pressure stats from various points.
UTS Blood Pressure still doesn’t save the data to Memo Pad. Nevertheless, the program includes the conduit to export the data straight to Microsoft Excel and to automatically build a chart there. The flexible "Email Report" feature allows you to send the blood pressure statistics to your physician straight from Palm handheld. I suppose UTS Blood Pressure is a reasonable choice if you are ready to spend an extra dollar to use the stable, featured and stylish software.
.H1 MiniBloodPress 4.3
Here’s one more veteran of the personal cardiology software squad. The author of the next program is an individual developer from Germany.
This blood-pressure tracking solution, MiniBloodPress 4.3, was designed by Sylvia Zedewitz (at http://www.s-ze.de). It’s pictured in Figure G.
.FIG G MiniBloodPress 4.3 can chart statistics and saves records into Memo Pad.
The readings can be grouped by two series: home and doctor. Unfortunately, before spending the five dollars to purchase the software, you don’t get a chance to test all the features announced, as many of them are not in the demo. The reading input is a bit complicated and allows empty values. Perhaps the standard value checking is also not in the demo.
This brief review of blood pressure trackers for Palm OS actually reflects the common situation on the retail software market. The majority of the programs are poor, some software is semi-functional, and only few applications are the must-have jewels. I hope that the comparison table in Figure H will help you make the right decision when choosing the blood pressure tracking program for your personal use.
.FIGPAIR H Software comparison table.
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Unfortunately, none of the software samples supports direct acquiring of values from a blood pressure monitor machine via Bluetooth, infrared, or another specialized interface. That would be the real killer application. I hope the dreams come true soon. Meanwhile, we have to choose from the existing programs. As you see, the decision isn’t so easy. If you’re ready to spend several dollars to get really handy and professional written software with lots of features, with responsive support, and with regular improvement updates, you should definitely choose from commercial titles. Your heart is worth it. I hope that the next time you visit your doctor, you’ll be able to impress him with how clear your readings look on your Palm handheld.
Your health!
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.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on TIS Software, visit http://www.tissoftware.net
For more information on BP Watcher 1.1 by PDAsoftnet, visit http://www.PDAsoftnet.com.
For more information on BloodPressMgr 2.7 developed by Rafael Andres Marin de la Cruz, visit http://www.dialectica.com/bloodpressmgr.
For more information on Pocket Pressure 1.0 by Blackboard Software dba Lingle Tech, visit http://www.lingletech.com.
For more information on Blood Pressure 1.4 by UTrackSys.com LLC, visit http://www.utracksys.com.
For more information on MiniBloodPress 4.3, was designed by Sylvia Zedewitz, visit http://www.s-ze.de.
For more information on Palm handhelds, visit http://www.palm.com.
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.BIO Dennis Crane is CRM Department Manager at UTrackSys.com, LLC at http://www.utracksys.com.
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