I love books and I love beautiful paper. I like writing on paper, especially with a fountain pen. I like to draw with a pencil or pen, and I like creating artist's books with handmade paper. And yes, I like making handmade paper. As a young person I kept copious journals of my life, and over the years I have always kept notebooks to detail areas of both my professional and personal life. The problem, of course, is keeping track of all my notebooks of important information, a problem compounded by living in the small space of a motorhome for almost half the year. For me, using a tablet computer device has been a life saver, and using my iPhone and iPad in tandem makes it even easier.
Last week I detailed how I use Keeper to keep track of passwords, usernames, and other pertinent information. Capzule PHR is another app I use for record keeping.
The app stores health data in separate charts for each member of the family. While its features are too numerous to cover here, the app includes sections for vitals and medical conditions, family history, current and past medications, doctor's visits, lab results, and medical procedures. Scanned lab reports and medical records can be imported, and when you enter an upcoming appointment the app will ask if you want to add the it to your Calendar app.
I began using Capzule PHR on my iPhone before I had an iPad, and I found it very useful when filling out the paperwork that invariably comes with a visit to a doctor. I no longer had to remember dates of procedures or the strength of medication I had once taken. Now that the app is also on my iPad, it is a simple process to copy the data from one device to the other. The larger size of the iPad makes it more convenient for entering information, and the small size of the iPhone makes it easier to bring to doctor's appointments. Information on the app is available for Apple devices ($2.99) at http://capzule.com.
While both Keeper and Capzule PHR are record keeping apps, I also use both my iPhone and iPad for note taking. Since I almost always have my iPhone with me, rather than jotting information down on scattered pieces of paper, I keep my notes in one place using Apple's built-in Notes app.
I have also begun keeping a series of virtual notebooks on my iPad. There are many notebook apps available, and after copious research I settled on Noteshelf ($5.99, iPad only). Noteshelf is a feature rich app that let's you write directly on the iPad with your finger or a stylus. You can also enter text from the keyboard and images from photo albums. The virtual notebooks, which I keep on a variety of topics, can be organized into groups that are attractively placed on virtual shelves. Among the topics for my notebooks are notes on how-to instructions for Photoshop, settings for fine art printing, and copies of receipts (imported scanned images) pertaining to my business expenses. For more information on Noteshelf visit www.fluidtouch.biz/noteshelf.
The last app I am going to mention is Bento, a database creation app (only for Apple). I use it to create database files for maintaining records such as my most used recipes, a home inventory, an exercise log, my fine art photographic prints, camping reservations, and computer hardware and software. I could, of course, find apps that will keep track of all of these things, but I prefer to design my own records. Bento, one of the more expensive apps I use, costs $4.99 for iPhone and $9.99 for iPad. The app is also available in a computer version, and when connected to a wireless network, up to two devices can be synced with the computer. Read more at www.filemaker.com/products/bento.
For Android devices, a Google search for medical record keeping and database creation apps will produce a variety of choices.
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