Over the course of a patient’s medical history, you may have scribbled enough notes and makeshift diagrams to fill a 12-volume encyclopedia. But, often times, your diagrams don’t reflect a true depiction of your patients’ problems and are difficult for you and/or referring physicians to decipher. There’s a software program that may help you with this. Since 1994, an Internet-based company has been creating software that allows you to draw accurate pictorials of medical conditions, quickly and easily. SmartDraw.com is a business software graphics company that caters to business and medical professionals with ready-to-use images and templates that allows you to enhance note–taking. According to company literature, SmartDraw.com attracts 1.6 million visitors each month. This figure places the company within the top 0.1% of the most visited Web sites on the Internet. The company’s mission is basic — to provide easy-to-use graphic software at an affordable price — and the company was recognized by Inc Magazine as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America in 2002. The company offers its software in French, German and Japanese. A Smart Choice SmartDraw.com provides three types of software. The Standard version features charts and diagrams while the Professional offers MS Office support and allows the user to create his or her own shapes. The Professional Plus includes medical graphics suitable for dermatology offices and combines the features of the Standard and the Professional software. With the recent addition of SmartDraw.com Photo, users can upload and manage digital files to share with other doctors and/or patients. With the new photo program, bitmapped images can be maintained in a compressed state and allows users to edit, crop, filter and rotate their images as needed by double-clicking on them. The photo software can be fully integrated with Microsoft Office software, such as Word and PowerPoint. Customers have free access to the company’s technical support team. A free, downloadable file viewer is available from the company. The viewer allows people outside and inside your organization to see or print your drawings in SmartDraw, and quickly downloads in a few minutes. One-click Web publishing with private Web space is also available through the company. User’s diagrams are available for anyone to view with the software’s Web publishing that includes working hyperlinks. A Dermatologist’s Perspective Matthew Miller, M.D., a dermatologist with a private practice in Greenville, SC, has been using the SmartDraw software for more than a year, and says he’s had impressive results. Using the Professional Plus line, Dr. Miller has been able to produce anatomical drawings to indicate where certain lesions were instead of spending time dictating detailed notes that need to be transcribed. He says incorporating this software has enabled him to save up to $36,000 in dictation costs and has led to an increase in patient referrals because referring physicians have been so pleased with his results. Dr. Miller says he set up a ‘male template, a female template and a cosmetic template for continuous use. Because he created these templates, Dr. Miller can now draw lines pointing to the location of the problem area and type in a description of the problem directly into the diagram. Dr. Miller says he’s expanded SmartDraw’s capabilities by using it to create patient education pamphlets and to design his own logos. Using the Software in the Classroom Other medical professionals are finding the addition of the SmartDraw.com software to be a valuable teaching tool. Virginia Rogers, a medical technologist, began using the technology less than a year ago and praises its graphic capabilities. As an instructor in a hospital program for college seniors, incorporating the medical clip art from the software has allowed her to enhance classroom lectures. Recently, during a lecture on body fluid she says she used pictures from SmartDraw.com to depict the relationship between kidney structure, blood supply and the formation of urine and why it’s so important that the physician has as much information as possible to help in diagnosing the patient. The company says even ‘artistically–challenged’ users can create professional looking medical diagrams. Ms. Rogers agrees. She describes it as the “best clipart,” and says she can’t draw that well so the graphics have been effective. Ms. Rogers is currently preparing to incorporate the clip art graphics into her handouts for an upcoming state meeting of medical technologists, and into a PowerPoint presentation lecture for her students. The Cost of SmartDraw The Professional Plus software costs $198 while the Professional software runs around $129. If you opt for the Standard software, the price is $69. All three software options come with free trial offers. SmartDraw’s software programs allow you to choose whether to deploy it on an application server or on each user’s PC. The company says the user’s license is perpetual and upgraded pricing is assured for future releases. Versus its competitors, SmartDraw’s literature says its software is less expensive with a more flexible licensing plan and offers lower (or non-existent) training costs. Looking Ahead Dr. Miller and Ms. Rogers applaud the graphics of this software but have suggestions for future enhancements. Ms. Rogers would like to see a separate program from the company that teaches you how to draw. Dr. Miller suggests a voice-recognition program or enabling macros, where hitting one key would instantly bring up a pre-typed section of text, as effective enhancements of the software. He also notes it’s difficult to save the large image files, adding that it’s “impractical” for an electronic medical records system to save such files. Current users claim the benefits of incorporating SmartDraw.com into their practices has enhanced patient medical history charts and has helped to clarify a patient’s medical history.
A ‘Smart’ Option in Medical Diagrams
Over the course of a patient’s medical history, you may have scribbled enough notes and makeshift diagrams to fill a 12-volume encyclopedia. But, often times, your diagrams don’t reflect a true depiction of your patients’ problems and are difficult for you and/or referring physicians to decipher. There’s a software program that may help you with this. Since 1994, an Internet-based company has been creating software that allows you to draw accurate pictorials of medical conditions, quickly and easily. SmartDraw.com is a business software graphics company that caters to business and medical professionals with ready-to-use images and templates that allows you to enhance note–taking. According to company literature, SmartDraw.com attracts 1.6 million visitors each month. This figure places the company within the top 0.1% of the most visited Web sites on the Internet. The company’s mission is basic — to provide easy-to-use graphic software at an affordable price — and the company was recognized by Inc Magazine as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America in 2002. The company offers its software in French, German and Japanese. A Smart Choice SmartDraw.com provides three types of software. The Standard version features charts and diagrams while the Professional offers MS Office support and allows the user to create his or her own shapes. The Professional Plus includes medical graphics suitable for dermatology offices and combines the features of the Standard and the Professional software. With the recent addition of SmartDraw.com Photo, users can upload and manage digital files to share with other doctors and/or patients. With the new photo program, bitmapped images can be maintained in a compressed state and allows users to edit, crop, filter and rotate their images as needed by double-clicking on them. The photo software can be fully integrated with Microsoft Office software, such as Word and PowerPoint. Customers have free access to the company’s technical support team. A free, downloadable file viewer is available from the company. The viewer allows people outside and inside your organization to see or print your drawings in SmartDraw, and quickly downloads in a few minutes. One-click Web publishing with private Web space is also available through the company. User’s diagrams are available for anyone to view with the software’s Web publishing that includes working hyperlinks. A Dermatologist’s Perspective Matthew Miller, M.D., a dermatologist with a private practice in Greenville, SC, has been using the SmartDraw software for more than a year, and says he’s had impressive results. Using the Professional Plus line, Dr. Miller has been able to produce anatomical drawings to indicate where certain lesions were instead of spending time dictating detailed notes that need to be transcribed. He says incorporating this software has enabled him to save up to $36,000 in dictation costs and has led to an increase in patient referrals because referring physicians have been so pleased with his results. Dr. Miller says he set up a ‘male template, a female template and a cosmetic template for continuous use. Because he created these templates, Dr. Miller can now draw lines pointing to the location of the problem area and type in a description of the problem directly into the diagram. Dr. Miller says he’s expanded SmartDraw’s capabilities by using it to create patient education pamphlets and to design his own logos. Using the Software in the Classroom Other medical professionals are finding the addition of the SmartDraw.com software to be a valuable teaching tool. Virginia Rogers, a medical technologist, began using the technology less than a year ago and praises its graphic capabilities. As an instructor in a hospital program for college seniors, incorporating the medical clip art from the software has allowed her to enhance classroom lectures. Recently, during a lecture on body fluid she says she used pictures from SmartDraw.com to depict the relationship between kidney structure, blood supply and the formation of urine and why it’s so important that the physician has as much information as possible to help in diagnosing the patient. The company says even ‘artistically–challenged’ users can create professional looking medical diagrams. Ms. Rogers agrees. She describes it as the “best clipart,” and says she can’t draw that well so the graphics have been effective. Ms. Rogers is currently preparing to incorporate the clip art graphics into her handouts for an upcoming state meeting of medical technologists, and into a PowerPoint presentation lecture for her students. The Cost of SmartDraw The Professional Plus software costs $198 while the Professional software runs around $129. If you opt for the Standard software, the price is $69. All three software options come with free trial offers. SmartDraw’s software programs allow you to choose whether to deploy it on an application server or on each user’s PC. The company says the user’s license is perpetual and upgraded pricing is assured for future releases. Versus its competitors, SmartDraw’s literature says its software is less expensive with a more flexible licensing plan and offers lower (or non-existent) training costs. Looking Ahead Dr. Miller and Ms. Rogers applaud the graphics of this software but have suggestions for future enhancements. Ms. Rogers would like to see a separate program from the company that teaches you how to draw. Dr. Miller suggests a voice-recognition program or enabling macros, where hitting one key would instantly bring up a pre-typed section of text, as effective enhancements of the software. He also notes it’s difficult to save the large image files, adding that it’s “impractical” for an electronic medical records system to save such files. Current users claim the benefits of incorporating SmartDraw.com into their practices has enhanced patient medical history charts and has helped to clarify a patient’s medical history.
Over the course of a patient’s medical history, you may have scribbled enough notes and makeshift diagrams to fill a 12-volume encyclopedia. But, often times, your diagrams don’t reflect a true depiction of your patients’ problems and are difficult for you and/or referring physicians to decipher. There’s a software program that may help you with this. Since 1994, an Internet-based company has been creating software that allows you to draw accurate pictorials of medical conditions, quickly and easily. SmartDraw.com is a business software graphics company that caters to business and medical professionals with ready-to-use images and templates that allows you to enhance note–taking. According to company literature, SmartDraw.com attracts 1.6 million visitors each month. This figure places the company within the top 0.1% of the most visited Web sites on the Internet. The company’s mission is basic — to provide easy-to-use graphic software at an affordable price — and the company was recognized by Inc Magazine as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America in 2002. The company offers its software in French, German and Japanese. A Smart Choice SmartDraw.com provides three types of software. The Standard version features charts and diagrams while the Professional offers MS Office support and allows the user to create his or her own shapes. The Professional Plus includes medical graphics suitable for dermatology offices and combines the features of the Standard and the Professional software. With the recent addition of SmartDraw.com Photo, users can upload and manage digital files to share with other doctors and/or patients. With the new photo program, bitmapped images can be maintained in a compressed state and allows users to edit, crop, filter and rotate their images as needed by double-clicking on them. The photo software can be fully integrated with Microsoft Office software, such as Word and PowerPoint. Customers have free access to the company’s technical support team. A free, downloadable file viewer is available from the company. The viewer allows people outside and inside your organization to see or print your drawings in SmartDraw, and quickly downloads in a few minutes. One-click Web publishing with private Web space is also available through the company. User’s diagrams are available for anyone to view with the software’s Web publishing that includes working hyperlinks. A Dermatologist’s Perspective Matthew Miller, M.D., a dermatologist with a private practice in Greenville, SC, has been using the SmartDraw software for more than a year, and says he’s had impressive results. Using the Professional Plus line, Dr. Miller has been able to produce anatomical drawings to indicate where certain lesions were instead of spending time dictating detailed notes that need to be transcribed. He says incorporating this software has enabled him to save up to $36,000 in dictation costs and has led to an increase in patient referrals because referring physicians have been so pleased with his results. Dr. Miller says he set up a ‘male template, a female template and a cosmetic template for continuous use. Because he created these templates, Dr. Miller can now draw lines pointing to the location of the problem area and type in a description of the problem directly into the diagram. Dr. Miller says he’s expanded SmartDraw’s capabilities by using it to create patient education pamphlets and to design his own logos. Using the Software in the Classroom Other medical professionals are finding the addition of the SmartDraw.com software to be a valuable teaching tool. Virginia Rogers, a medical technologist, began using the technology less than a year ago and praises its graphic capabilities. As an instructor in a hospital program for college seniors, incorporating the medical clip art from the software has allowed her to enhance classroom lectures. Recently, during a lecture on body fluid she says she used pictures from SmartDraw.com to depict the relationship between kidney structure, blood supply and the formation of urine and why it’s so important that the physician has as much information as possible to help in diagnosing the patient. The company says even ‘artistically–challenged’ users can create professional looking medical diagrams. Ms. Rogers agrees. She describes it as the “best clipart,” and says she can’t draw that well so the graphics have been effective. Ms. Rogers is currently preparing to incorporate the clip art graphics into her handouts for an upcoming state meeting of medical technologists, and into a PowerPoint presentation lecture for her students. The Cost of SmartDraw The Professional Plus software costs $198 while the Professional software runs around $129. If you opt for the Standard software, the price is $69. All three software options come with free trial offers. SmartDraw’s software programs allow you to choose whether to deploy it on an application server or on each user’s PC. The company says the user’s license is perpetual and upgraded pricing is assured for future releases. Versus its competitors, SmartDraw’s literature says its software is less expensive with a more flexible licensing plan and offers lower (or non-existent) training costs. Looking Ahead Dr. Miller and Ms. Rogers applaud the graphics of this software but have suggestions for future enhancements. Ms. Rogers would like to see a separate program from the company that teaches you how to draw. Dr. Miller suggests a voice-recognition program or enabling macros, where hitting one key would instantly bring up a pre-typed section of text, as effective enhancements of the software. He also notes it’s difficult to save the large image files, adding that it’s “impractical” for an electronic medical records system to save such files. Current users claim the benefits of incorporating SmartDraw.com into their practices has enhanced patient medical history charts and has helped to clarify a patient’s medical history.
