Reproducing the Windows instructions here with some screen shots:

1. If you have not done so already, install the Classic Palm OS Emulator from MotionApps. You can find this by going to the App Catalog on your Palm Pre and searching on ‘MotionApps’. Follow the directions to download Classic to your device.
2. Once you have installed the emulator, exit Classic. Please note that if Classic is not closed on the Pre, the Epocrates install will not complete. To exit Classic, press the button below the screen, touch and hold the minimized Classic window, and drag it to the top of the Pre’s screen.
3. Download Epocrates to your computer.

1. Return to our website (www.epocrates.com).
2. Click the “My Account” link in the top right corner of the page.
3. Log in.
4. Click the “Download” link to the right of software you would like to install. (If you do not have a subscription, then choose Palm as your handheld operating system and then choose your Windows as your computer platform.)
5. Select the red “Begin download for Palm Pre” button at the very bottom of the screen.
6. Select the “Cable Install” option.
7. Choose to save the application, rather than running or opening it.

4. Connect your Palm Pre to your computer with the USB cable. Choose USB Drive on your Palm Pre.
5. From the Start menu, select My Computer. Your Palm Pre will appear as a removable disk drive. Open this drive and look for a folder called ‘Classic Apps’ with a sub folder called ‘Install’.
6. Copy and paste the Epocrates file ’setup.prc’ you downloaded to the ‘Install’ sub folder of ‘Classic Apps’.
7. Close the Classic Apps\Install window on your computer.
8. Disconnect device from your computer using the “Safely remove hardware” icon in system tray.
9. Launch Classic on the Pre. This should cause the Epocrates installer to launch immediately.
10. Enter your Epocrates user name and password, and tap on “Continue Installation.”
11. Your Palm Pre will then complete the Epocrates install process wirelessly.

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

Installing Epocrates in Classic - the Official Instructions

* Identify the specific ingredients in combination products responsible for a product’s contraindications, cautions, adverse reactions, and drug interactions
* Find an OTC product that contains everything the patient needs and nothing extraneous
* Uncover the drug interactions between OTC and Rx products your patients take

Here’s a product demo from Epocrates:

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

New OTC database from Epocrates

What do we know of PalmOS medical app compatibility with Classic so far? Here’s a summary of what I have come across:

What should work
- Epocrates PalmOS should work. Just place the setup.prc in the Install directory (mentioned here)
- Skyscape and Unbound support Classic now
- Medcalc
- Statcoder apps
- ABGPro
- Eponyms
- Shots 2008
- Haemoncrules

What does not work
- UpToDate (problem recognising the virtual SD?); you can access UpToDate wirelessly though using your Pre’s browser as mentioned here

What needs to be confirmed
- USBMIS apps
- Lexi com apps
- MD On Tap : I’d be particularly interested since this app requires an Internet connection
- other apps not listed above in this page of “Best Free PalmOS Medical apps”

If anyone else can add on to the list, I’d be grateful. Preferably please add on to this thread in the forums.

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

Medical apps on Classic update (IV)

Nevertheless, UpToDate users can still use the excellent Pre’s browser and access the Mobile UpToDate site: http://pda.uptodate.com
Unlike the Epocrate mobile site, there doesn’t seem to be any issues when testing it with the emulator’s browser.

After logging, you get a nice and simple Search screen

The search results seem to format nicely on the browser

I understand that this is not the solution for everyone with a mobile since it depends on a good signal, and adequate data speeds which may not be the case in all corners of your hospital. Nevertheless I think if you can, it’s a viable option, at least till the problem is fixed (hopefully soon UpToDate!)
The best thing is for a native WebOS version of UpToDate and this is what we all look forward to.

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

UpToDate on the Palm Pre

Unbound Medicine has announced the release of their Merck Manual family of products for download to iPhone and iPod touch which includes:

* The Merck Manual for Mobile and Web (Dx)
* The Merck Manual with Patient Symptoms Guide (Dx+Sx)
* The Merck Manual Suite + Davis’s Drug Guide (Dx+Sx+Rx)

Features of The Merck Manual on the iPhone:

* Interface optimized for iPhone and iPod touch
* Personalized favorites
* Cross-links for fast navigation between resources
* Frequent updates
* Superior navigation and graphics
* iPhone and web access

Animated GIF demo:

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

The Merck Manual now for iPhone

However, Don pointed out in this comment that “the epocrates website places a Welcome announcement on top of the webpage that makes it impossible to read the top or enter commands-”. I see what he means as when testing this out on the Emulator’s browser, this is what one sees:

There doesn’t seem to be a way to close the Welcome box and it renders the monograph page useless.

The solution is to surf over to the main Epocrates webpage first, http://epocrates.com, then login with your Epocrates account (the basic account is free, so you should create one if you haven’t). After that when you go back to the Eopcrates mobile site you won’t see the Welcome box anymore.

Update: this may not work for all users, and Ken from Epocrates has this explanation:

The “welcome” box is the End-User-License-Agreement (EULA) and Epocrates Online prevents full access until it is accepted. It seems the display and/or controls on the Pre are not currently compatible with the EULA. By logging in first on your Pre, if you have already accepted the EULA elsewhere, you will bypass the EULA since it remembers that you have already accepted the EULA previously. If you have never accepted that EULA, you will still get it that first time after logging in, please try going to a desktop machine first, log into Epocrates Online and accept the EULA there. Then you should bypass the EULA on the Pre when you try it again.

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

Epocrates mobile on the Palm Pre - how to get rid of the annoying Welcome box

Your recent blog post about your exchange with MotionApps got me thinking about the recent Palm Pre update so I tried the Statcoder app again and it still didn’t work. But I also wondered if the .prc you emailed me might have been damaged in some way. So I went directly to the Statcoder website and downloaded their cholesterol app at http://www.statcoder.com/cholesterol.htm (this is the application you wanted me to test right?) and installed it in Classic’s Install folder. (Interestingly enough, the other Install folder under the PALM/Launcher folder no longer does anything and can be deleted.)
Anyway, I’m happy to report that this application worked perfectly and have attached some screenshots of it. I hope this helps….

Bob, you made my day. I don’t think I could do without Stat Cholesterol and I am sure glad I can run this in Classic once I get my hands on a GSM Palm Pre

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

Medical apps on Classic update (III)

We came across the article at http://palmdoc.net/?p=2443, and we wanted not only to respond to it, but to provide you with relevant info that you can use to correct the given assumptions.
The fact regarding 1.0.3 update is that Palm has omitted to include a file critical for Classic in the ROM update, which caused the issues for some users when running Classic (and after the 1.0.3 update is released).
You can learn more about this on our blog. Also, feel free to check other posts regarding this issue, as we tried to stay on the top and provide a workaround.
Back to the article: posting a user’s feedback, without trying it yourself and without contacting us (developer of Classic) has been not only irresponsible, but you allowed for language such as: “Well, I found the solution! And, MotionApp caused their own problem!” and malicious statements (again from an individual user) like: “It seems stable for now. Guess you can start answering the phones again MotionApps!”.
We do answer our phones, and currently we only do not provide telephone support to individual customers. Please always feel free to contact me to the number given below.
If you would have contacted us to check the “facts” given to you by an individual user, you would not only have the whole truth, but would also offer your readers with a professional answer to the issue.
Please check our blog, FAQ and feel free to contact us directly in the future to avoid such omissions, because it is this approach exactly where someone guessed something (without checking it with us, developer of Classic) that caused the “1.0.3 issue” in the first place.
Finally, after checking our blog and relevant FAQ, you can update your readers regarding the fact that Palm (again) has now released the 1.0.4 fixing the issues 1.0.3 caused for Classic.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions in the future and provide us with your contact info so that we can address not only issues but positive feedback as well, timely and professionally.

Regards,

Danijela

Hello Danijela.
Thanks for writing in and informing us. I appreciate developers who engage users and are open to criticism and I feel it is warranted criticism as clearly a lot of users were frustrated when the Palm 1.03 update broke Classic. Responsible developers (and I see quite a few in the forums) will engage the community outside their own website/blog and I hope to see Motionapps actively participate in the PreCentral/TreoCentral forums. I think your participation there will go a long way to allay such frustrations now and in the future. Believe me there was even stronger language in the forums which is why it is important to engage customers there.
The user community is resourceful and in fact a user responded with a quick fix before Motionapps did in their website.
Frequent BSODs are not what I would call a “good experience”. However I, and I am sure many other Palm users appreciate Motionapps’ efforts in getting the Classic app together so that our legacy apps can live on in our future WebOS devices. We users of pioneering apps do not also think that everything will work well 100% from the word go. There will be problems now and in the future, such is the nature of software and bugs. I think the onus is also on developers to monitor the forums and independent blogs - I suspect you’ll get much earlier feedback there as that’s the place many run too, apart from support from the developer. Indeed when I have faced problems with other apps I like to share it with other users in the forums (apart from opening support tickets with Motionapps). Strange as that may be but it seems the feeling of being in a “community” is a compelling factor for many.

I do not know if there are lingering issues with other PalmOS apps with the latest 1.04 update. It would be highly unusual if there weren’t any, WebOS being so new! Believe me despite these hurdles, I would get a Palm Pre NOW if a GSM version were available. For the record, I would also be off the blocks to register Classic on my Palm Pre if I had one. However I would not be so naive to think there won’t be any future issues or problems so I think the best way is to work with each other and solve the problems as they arise.

As a medical user, I would be very interested to hear how UpToDate for PalmOS fares with latest versions of Classic and WebOS as I am not aware that there is any success to date. I would be interested also to know if Statcoder apps can install onto Classic as there have also been problems. We reported earlier on problematic issues with these apps (see this and this post).

One thing I wonder if Motionapps will consider is to independently certify freeware apps. There are many useful freeware PalmOS apps, and I doubt if the original author will want to pay $99 to certify apps which he or she is giving out for free anyway. I for one will not be forking out $99 just to certify Haemoncrules!

Cheers

Palmdoc

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

Motionapps responds to criticism

Well, I found the solution! And, MotionApp caused their own problem!

As part of the different fixes, MotionApps created two Readme.txt files. These files are causing the Blue Screen!

If you are having a Blue Screen issue, I would recommend the following:

* Start Classic and after the Blue Screen appears, select from the top menu: Options > Hard Reset. It will warn you about deleting all of your data, but it is the best way to get a stable program. Classic will automatically close and bring you back to the Pre’s Launch window.

* Hold down the orange key and click Classic. You are going to delete this version of classic and all of its remaining files. Next, connect the Pre to your computer through sync cable using the USB Sync and delete the entire ClassicApps folder. Disconnect the Pre from your computer.

* Go Back to the Launch window and select the App Store. Download and install Classic again. This gives you a clean install. Launch Classic to be sure that it opens and is stable (no Blue Screen).

* Now, from your computer, download the latest ClassicROMUpdater.prc from MotionApps. Connect the Pre with the sync cable again using the USB Sync. Copy the ClassicRomUpdater.prc to the Pre’s ClassicApps/PALM/Launcher folder. Disconnect the Pre and launch Classic. In Classic, switch to the Internal category and double click on the ROM Updater icon. When it has finished, click the OK button. Now, minimize Classic and toss the card away.

* Connect the Pre to your computer again through the USB Sync. You have to find those readme.txt files. They are two in these locations:

* ClassicApps\Install\readme.txt
* ClassicApps\PALM\Launcher\Install\readme.txt

* DELETE both readme.txt files!!

* Now you can install your PalmOS apps. Just copy them to the ClassicApps\PALM\Launcher\Install\ folder. Once you launch Classic again, you will need to click the Importer icon to import them into the Classic PalmOS emulation. You can also now use the HotSync ID to add your old hot sync name.

At this point, I would limit installing programs one at a time. The environment is still a little buggy. I did manage to install Bejewelled 2, Chuzzle and Hammerheads. Although, when I installed Chuzzle, I did get a Blue Screen again. This time, I selected Safe Mode from the menu and relaunched Classic. It worked in Safe Mode and openned Classic without a problem. I imported Chuzzle and it worked properly! The game’s sound even works now.

It seems stable for now. Guess you can start answering the phones again MotionApps!

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

Fix for Classic’s Blue Screen of Death on the Palm Pre

The good news for all is that the great freebile, Medcalc for PalmOS will run in Classic. You have to place it in the ClassicApps/PALM/Launcher folder and not the ClassicApps/PALM/Launcher/Install folder as Bob says it does not appear there.

Here are some screen shots

The Splash screen

The Main screen showing the formulae

Next I passed Bob Statcoder’s Cholesterol application. This is another freebie I use fairly often. Unfortunately there are problems with the latest version of Classic:

Statcoder does not appear at all when it is placed in either folder. I even tried using the ClassicApps/Install folder but that causes Classic to crash every time (this is because of the same bug that showed up when Palm pushed out its 1.03 update).

There are clearly some bugs in Classic which need to be fixed. Nevertheless, Classic has given physicians the opportunity to run many of their tried and tested PalmOS applications on their Palm Pre. Imagine when Apple first launched the iPhone, there were no medical applications. Joe Kim has a post on Medical apps for the iPhone - how far have we come? and yes I must say the iPhone has attracted lots of developers who are naturally attracted to a large marketplace there being so many iPhones and iPod Touch devices out there now.
On the other hand Palm and Sprint have already shipped 150,000 Palm Pre’s in the early days and there are already 1 million downloads from the Palm Appstore/Catalog . Palm has not yet officially publicly released their WebOS SDK and that is hindering a lot of developers who I suspect are itching to get their hands on it. However I suspect also that some might have already got their hands on the WebOS SDK which was recently leaked.

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

Medical apps on Classic update (II)