In the past, diagnosing skin disease, a potential health hazard that comes in many different forms, has been an enormous challenge for a number of physicians and dermatologists. Prior to the advent of the computer age, doctors were forced to make their diagnoses based on the pictures in a book. This meant a tedious process that involved viewing the blemish or lesion in question, flipping through the book until a match was made, and then making a diagnosis based on that match. This process took time, and it was severely flawed to boot: Most medical books are organized in such a way that the physician has to know what kind of disease he or she is dealing with before they can even attempt to find a picture of it. Coupled with the fact that each disease is only illustrated by one or two pictures, it’s no surprise that many serious skin disease are misdiagnosed, or go undiagnosed altogether.

Now, however, thanks to advances like the diagnostic program developed by physicians at the University of Rochester Medical Center, there is software available that allows doctors to browse through a vast database of thousands of images, increasing the likelihood that they’ll find a match for the skin disease they’re investigating. Furthermore, the program allows users to narrow the search by entering specific descriptive terms. This solves the old problem of having to know what the disease is before it could be properly diagnosed – a potentially fatal Catch-22. According to findings presented by the American Medical Informatics Association, the program has the ability to greatly increase the rate of accurate diagnosis by health care professionals. Since skin disease is so widespread and often very serious, this is excellent news indeed. From rashes and irritations to cancers, faster and more specific diagnosis is the key to more thorough and effective treatment.

Doctors are notorious for their messy handwriting, as any who has ever received a handwritten prescription from his or her doctor can certainly attest! Unfortunately, that so-called “chicken scratch” can be more than a mere annoyance to your pharmacist; it can lead to prescriptions that are filled incorrectly – and that can have serious health ramifications. Some pharmacists have given patients the wrong medication or incorrect dosage instructions, all because the doctor’s handwriting on the original prescription was impossible to decipher. Fortunately, new prescription writing software programs are helping to change all that. These software programs not only make it safer and easier for patients to fill their prescriptions, they also save doctors the time and headache of having to write prescriptions again and again throughout the day.

Everything from medications to prescriptions for glasses and contact lenses can be prescribed using this type of medical software. Of course, as with any type of medical software, any legitimate prescription writing program will be HIPAA compliant in order to protect patients’ sensitive medical information. This type of program tends to vary in price, with several of them falling on the extremely affordable end of the cost spectrum. Many doctors love saving themselves the bother of writing out the same data year after year or even on a day-to-day basis, and his kind of software is an excellent shortcut. After the necessary information has been entered, office staff members can access and print the prescriptions as needed. Some programs even feature a bonus database feature that allows users to track their patient data with no additional work required!

When it comes to prescription writing software, everyone benefits: The doctor who saves him or herself time and effort that can be of better use elsewhere, the pharmacist who no longer has to struggle to read indecipherable handwriting, and the patient who won’t have to worry about receiving the wrong medications or dosage instructions.