Good questions! I will try to answer them.
1) I will start by saying who would NOT need this: anyone who does not have an iPhone (there is no Android app at present); providers who already have some form of electronic PCR; folks who are unwilling to use a smart phone to record patient data.
2) Why would you need this? I don't know, because I don't know if you fall in one of the above groups.
3) Why would anyone need this? people who work for a service that only has paper PCRs but would like to move gradually toward a full ePCR system at a very low cost; not just in the U.S. but in other countries that may not have electronic PCR systems. The app is set up to screen vital sign entries to make sure they are not out of some reasonable range (like 101 for pulse ox, or 350 for systolic bp). However, if you don't want or need to record vitals or biographic info or medical history, then you can get by with my earlier app, EMS Timers Plus. If you DO want to record patient data, the data is secured by Apple's Keychain password system, which, as I understand it, is extremely difficult to hack (assuming you enter a passcode for the phone). Paper PCRs can get lost or stolen. If an error is made on a line in a paper PCR, then you need to line it out, enter the correct data, and initial it. This app prevents the entry of incorrect data to begin with, and if it is still incorrect, you can go back and change it. Sometimes under the pressure of a patient encounter, one forgets to record vital signs. The app can set a timer to remind the provider every 5 or 15 minutes to do that. The Central Administration feature lets a service standardize on the terminology used to record medical history.
4) How many more problems does it create? I don't know. There are a few dozen users out there of one of my three apps and so far I have not had any complaints emailed to me.
Hope this answers your questions.
