M-CHAT: Phreesia Digital Checklist for Autism With Touchscreen Interface

Phreesia is a leader in patient check-in, with a network of thousands of clinicians nationwide. Phreesia’s touchscreen interface makes clinicians to do what they do best.

As part of its digital check-in process, Phreesia offers an electronic version of the nationally recognized Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT), a screening tool to assess risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in toddlers aged 16 to 30 months old. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that all children receive autism-specific screening at 18 and 24 months of age, in addition to broad developmental screening at 9, 18 and 24 months.

With diminishing reimbursements and rising practice costs, it is increasingly difficult for clinicians to administer clinical risk assessments to patients.  Phreesia’s comprehensive check-in solution eliminates the time-consuming administrative work from the screening process, allowing clinicians to screen more patients and effortlessly identify those who require further diagnostic evaluation. 

Since November 2010, Phreesia has screened thousands of children for ASD and has identified over 26 percent who required further evaluation.  By administering the M-CHAT electronically with Phreesia, medical practices save hours of staff time previously spent managing paper forms and scoring results, enabling them to spend more time focusing on patient care and engaging with patients in the exam room.

Says Rondie Ervin, MD, of Victory Pediatrics in Covington, Ga., “Phreesia has made the standardized developmental screening process incredibly easy for us.  We had been administering the M-CHAT on paper, which is a very cumbersome process.  With Phreesia, we’ve been able to go paperless and it automatically scores the results, which we can then upload into our system.  This saves us about 20 minutes of work per patient, and I feel confident that we are screening our patients appropriately and giving them the level of care that they need.”

Used by thousands of medical practices nationwide, Phreesia is the leader in patient check-in.  Phreesia digitizes the check-in process with an electronic, touchscreen PhreesiaPad, which patients use to enter their demographic, insurance and clinical information, as well as to pay their copayments and balances.  In addition to streamlining the check-in process, Phreesia also enhances clinical care, in part through offering a wide array of health risk assessments and other quality of care initiatives.

Says Phreesia CEO Chaim Indig, “Phreesia is proud to support pediatricians in screening their patients for ASD.  We recognize that with growing costs, it is difficult for many clinicians to administer the M-CHAT to their patients, and our technology makes it easy for them to screen all of their patients properly, while minimizing administrative costs.  Together, we can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of patient care, and help growing numbers of children get the appropriate early intervention services they need.”

Source: http://www.phreesia.com/

Zytronic's touch sensors and Omnitapps for touch digital signage and kiosks

Touch-sensor specialist Zytronic partners with Omnivision, that it is working to further the widespread uptake of its Projected Capacitive Technology touch sensor portfolio with  software supplier Omnivision. As a result, the Omnitapps platform from Omnivision is now fully compatible with Zytronic's dual-touch capable range of PCT touch sensors.

Working in conjunction with Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, Omnitapps is a customizable application software package that has the capacity to support multi-touch operation on large-form-factor displays. It consists of an array of different professional applications that, when combined with Zytronic's touch sensors and ZXY100 touch controllers, make it highly suited to user interface implementations in a variety of different sectors, according to the announcement.

Omnitapps can distinguish between intuitive gestures, including slide, zoom, swipe and rotate, as well as supporting English, German, Spanish and French keyboard options. Through this platform's multitouch functionality, deployers can impart valuable information to prospective customers or members of the public, as well as deliver interactive vending and advanced multiplayer gaming functions.

Its MediaWall function allows users to access social media sites such as Facebook and Linkedin, as well as viewing Flash-based websites, like YouTube. It also offers the provision for placing markers onto Google Maps (for adding useful information), or drawing onto displayed PDFs, videos, pictures and website content. In addition, it can show multiple websites simultaneously through a split-screen feature.

Zytronic's PCT-based touch sensors employ a proprietary sensing technology that consists of a matrix of micro-fine capacitive elements embedded within a laminated substrate, which can be located behind a protective overlay (more than 10 cm thick). Touchscreens based on this technology are resistant to the various forms of mechanical damage that can potentially shorten the lifespan of resistive or surface capacitive touch solutions — such as vibration, heavy impacts, scratches, build up of dirt, extreme temperatures, exposure to potent chemicals, high humidity levels, or liquid ingress — according to Zytronic. Furthermore, unlike infrared and surface acoustic wave touch sensor options, PCT can enable all glass, bezel-free designs, resulting in smooth-fronted user interfaces.

"Omnitapps can distinguish between each single touch placed on the screen and enhance the touch functionality offered by Windows 7 so that more sophisticated user manipulation is possible," Alexander Aelberts, CEO and founder of Omnivision, said in the announcement. "Support for PCT sensing brings a whole new dimension to this solution, expanding its scope of application."

A variety of different sectors are searching for a mature, commercially viable solution for implementing public information kiosks, interactive digital signage systems and point-of-sales units, Zytronic Sales and Marketing Director Ian Crosby said in the announcement.

Touch-screen manufacturers offer products that compete more interesting and certainly cheaper.

Combining a great innovation that eliminates the need for the front panel of the traditional design of a resistive touch screen. The new Elo TouchSystems AccuTouch resistive zero-bezel touch screens offers an attractive alternative to more costly touch screens using glass or capacitive technologies and allows for complete design flexibility.

The new AccuTouch resistive screens bring to life elegant touch solutions designed with style and affordability in mind. These new screens are based on field-proven and mature AccuTouch 5-wire resistive touch screen technology and come in multiple sizes as standard products or they can be customised.

According to Elo TouchSystems the product was developed for more design flexibility and to make integration into retail, hospitality, industrial and medical touch systems easier and more cost-effective. By eliminating the need for a front bezel, unique product designs are now possible, especially for human-machine interface (HMI) applications where a modern, elegant smartphone-like look and feel is desired. In addition, without a front bezel, it is now possible to achieve reduced costs and complexities in supply chain and integration processes.

Cost savings are possible as lamination of a decorative front foil is no longer needed, and with a scratch-resistant 4H hardness rating that surpasses most other resistive touch screens, the AccuTouch touch screens provide durable, reliable use over long periods of time. Standard Elo controller and chip solutions with Elo drivers are compatible with a wide variety of operating systems and work with the new AccuTouch touch screens to facilitate worry-free touch performance.

Ellen Liang, product manager for the AccuTouch product line said “The new zero-bezel AccuTouch family illustrates TE’s ongoing commitment to deliver innovative touch screen products.

As one of the first companies who introduced resistive touch screen technology, it remains one of our core products which we are continuously improving and refining to meet customer needs.”

NEC Touchscreen Tactile Feedback Prototype

The touch screen on the surface looks the same, flat, big, but don’t really offer much of a “touch” experience right now. Apart from tiny vibration motors that generate rudimentary haptic feedback, we’re still just poking and prodding thin slabs of glass.

NEC offers a new take on touchscreen tactile feedback and how to change that: a panel that actually moves.

The prototype they’ve built in conjunction with the Tokyo Institute of Technology is a tad on the bulky side right now, but it’s functional. Using a set of small motors and pulleys, the screen jitters back and forth in response to on-screen events — effectively pushing and pulling your finger while it remains in contact.

Clearly this type of setup isn’t as ideal for adding tactile feedback to a tablet or smartphone as something like Senseg Tixel, which creates friction feedback using an electrostatic field. It’s much less cumbersome and doesn’t introduce moving parts — parts which would no doubt add to a portable device’s battery woes.

Still, in certain settings the NEC prototype may actually work just fine. Kiosk computers or in-dash systems in vehicles, for example, might be a good fit. A touchscreen control panel that actually feels like you’re sliding a lever or spinning a knob with your finger sounds pretty useful.

One thing’s for certain: the day of high-latency touchscreens that offer no feedback whatsoever are numbered. With companies like Microsoft, Senseg, and NEC all plugging away at technologies that will improve touch interaction, the next couple of years should yield some very cool (and useful) new developments.

Scratch The Touch Screen: How To Fix

Everyone now has a touch-screen devices like Tablets and Smartphones, and may experience the same events that I experienced. My Smartphone out of their grasp and fell to the concrete floor. Everything still works, but now the screen's got a bunch of scratches. Is there any way to fix this?

We test a few methods of fixing the scratches to find out if anything will get rid of them.

I wasn't able to find a commercial product that claims to fix scratches on a glass touchscreen, but a Google search turned up a variety of improvised remedies. These run the gamut from fishy to believable, but have one thing in common: a near-total lack of substantiation. I decided to sacrifice a disused iPhone 3G for testing, a process that started with a pair of keys and ended, painfully, with a screwdriver.

One standout claim is that a coat of Turtle Wax will minimize scratches; in my testing, it did nothing of the sort, and left behind a thin film of wax, which attracted fingerprints. Others point to 3M scratch remover for cars as a possibility; three rigorous applications did nothing for the iPhone. Displex, a polish for plastic screens and another favorite among online DIYers, left the screen immaculately shiny and seemed to darken the appearance of scratches, but this was a temporary effect of lingering residue. I even scrubbed the screen with toothpaste until my arm was sore, which had no lasting effect.

There is, of course, an extreme option: glass buffing. With a small drill attachment and a tub of cerium oxide compound (and for deep scratches, some sandpaper), it is possible to grind scratches out of a screen, the same way you would buff scratches out of auto glass. My testing indicates that this is a very bad idea. Glass grinding requires the steady application of wet-mixed cerium oxide, which is quite messy, and sprayed water, a natural enemy of all things electronic. I attempted to seal the phone with tape, but the sticky cerium slop found its way into almost every opening, drying like a fine cement.

As for the scratches, I was just starting to see improvement when I noticed a new type of blemish. My inconsistent water application had resulted in overheating, which destroyed an area of the underlying LCD. For a touchscreen device, glass grinding is, in other words, overkill, with an emphasis on "kill."

The best solution, short of screen replacement, is a screen-protector film. It won't just shield from future scratches—it will make some shallow ones invisible.

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