DocBookMD: Smart Phone App...A New Member Benefit

SMCMA is pleased to introduce DocBookMD, a HIPAA-compliant multimedia communication tool for our members.  This app is a smartphone platform created by physicians to help enable physician-to-physician communication using technology that more physicians are using every day.  The application is available for iPhone; iPad; iPod Touch, and Android platform users.

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of NORCAL Mutual Insurance Company, SMCMA is offering all members this free service with DocBookMD for 2012.  This app is available for free whether or not you are a NORCAL-insured policyholder.  

With this application, you carry a directory of all active medical association members on your smartphone, including photos, specialty, and contact information, allowing you to exchange messages with other users.  You can also look up a physician by specialty as well as by name.  This new secure physicians-only app allows you to:

• Send HIPAA-compliant text messages (if recipient’s cellphone is provided), including photos of wounds, x-rays, or other diagnostics
• Assign a priority setting to outgoing text messages so thee recipient knows how quickly you need a response
• Search a complete listing of all pharmacies in the county
• Search the SMCMA directory online, which includes the phone numbers, addresses, photos, and so forth.  We purposefully did not include your e-mail addresses as we believe you may prefer making the decision with whom you want to share your e-mail address.  However, you can easily add this information to a physician’s profile, or add comments to a particular profile that will only be reflected on your smartphone.

The app will allow you to look up another doctor at the point of care, and either call or send a text message with room number, medical record number, even pictures of wounds and x-rays.  The messaging priority system allows you to assign each message with a five-minute, 15-minutes, or normal 30-minute response time.  If your message is not answered within the time frame specified, then you will receive a message back stating that the original message was not opened.

To register, use your device to download DocBookMD from the iTunes App Store or Android Market.  Next complete the DocBookMD registration on your device.  This app can be downloaded on up to two devices per member.  To sign up you will need your SMCMA ID number, which can be obtained by calling SMCMA, 650-312-1663. By the way, you will be asked to sign a HIPAA compliance agreement before you start using DocBookMD.

This app is only available to SMCMA-member physicians and it is not available for your nurse or PA.

We hope you find this new benefit useful in your practice.  In the January Bulletin we listed a compilation of benefits available to physicians who are SMCMA members, DocBookMD is just the latest in the panoply of benefits available to you.