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by Harry R. Gibbs, MD
s we baby boomers become older, we are concerned more and more with health
issues. As a result, numerous health and medicine related educational
products have appeared on the market. Two new entries in this field come
from The Learning Company: Mosby’s
Medical Encyclopedia and The Home Medical
Advisor .
Mosby’s Medical Encyclopedia is a multimedia program on CD, which is advertised as “ the complete home medical reference”. It requires at least a 486DX2/66 MHz machine, two speed CD, and a sound card. Installation on my Pentium machine through Windows 95 was a breeze. Since I rarely follow instructions anyway, I immediately started exploring the Encyclopedia once it was i nstalled. The icons are fairly self-explanatory, although there is a tutorial available for those who need it. One can search for a particular disease, or medical term in the Encyclopedia, and receive a fairly brief explanation. For those multi-syllable medical words which physicians love to use, there is an icon which one can click to hear the correct pronunciation. The Drug Guide allows you to look up the generic or trade name of a particular drug and read a brief description. A Handbook of Diseases lets you review a description of a large number of disease entities. In addition, there is an illustrated human atlas, a list of medical resources, and an icon which will connect you to Compton’s medical web page via your Internet browser. There is also a “journal” icon, which is basically a small word processing program for note taking. If you are unfamiliar with a pa rticular term, and do not know if it is a disease, drug, or body part, a search engine allows you to search all of the components of the program. The Encyclopedia is not very detailed, and you had better know your medical terms. While the search engine e asily found myocardial infarction, it could not find the same description when using “heart attack”, even though both terms are used in the body of the description. The Drug Guide is not very comprehensive. In addition, the descriptions are usually limited to only one indication. Diltia zem is a heart medication used to treat high blood pressure, heart rhythm disturbances, and certain types of chest pain. Only the last use is listed. Someone who is taking Diltiazem for high blood pressure is going to be confused when he or she reads the indication in the Guide. The topics represented in the Multimedia section range from good to useless. Some topics, such as how to take a blood pressure, or how to walk with a cane, may be useful to nurses and individuals involved in the care of their lo ved ones. Others have little value. For example, ventricular fibrillation, a life threatening heart rhythm disturbance which causes sudden death, is whimsically described as “ a fast, uneven heart beat”. Mosby’s Medical Encyclopedia is an impressive, wel l-functioning program that may be of some use to beginning nursing and medical students, and those who are interested in learning a bit more about that disease that was mentioned on television or in the newspaper.
The Home Medical Advisor is a diagnostic guide to symptoms and disease. The program comes on three CDs and requires a multimedia capable machine. Installed easily, it guides the user through a series of questions about his or her symptoms, and gives a reasonable differential di agnosis. The opening screen lists a series of symptoms. After scrolling through the list, and clicking upon “ what ails you”, you are given a general description of the symptom which you chose. You then can look at possible causes of these symptoms. Following this, after clicking on a “Diagnose” icon, you are presented with a picture image of a “doctor” (who looks like the l ead character in a low budget movie thriller called “Megaforce”), who proceeds to ask you a series of Yes or No questions about your condition. Following this, a possible diagnosis is given, along with instructions as to what to do next. Individuals with potentially dangerous conditions, such as a heart attack, are advised to call “911” immediately. The questions are accompanied by a series of pictures designed to help you answer the questions. There is a censor feature (default is on) that restricts th e viewing of more graphic illustrations. The program worked fairly well, although the “talking doctor” becomes a little annoying after a while. The medical advice is sound, and the illustrations are of help if you are trying to figure out what that rash is on your child…if you are Caucasian. The pictures may not help if you are African American. In addition to the diagnostic function, there is also a nifty library of video clips showing some of the more common medical procedures which are performed.
This would certainly be of value as a patient education tool, especially if you have been scheduled for one of these procedures by your physician.
Other topics covered include a reasonably complete list of treatments for various types of poisons and toxins, as well as a section on injuries.
The Home Medical advisor could be put to good use in the home, or in an emergency room. While not a substitute for a physician, it does provide good advice on how to take the next few steps when confronted with a medical problem.
This one is a keeper.
Harry R. Gibbs, MD, a HAL-PC guest reviewer.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.
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Last modified: 1997:08:31