Overview
TMB World – trip consultation advisor – is a new software with the aim of ensuring that practitioners have detailed information to assist them during their travel medicine consultations and which also provides them with a simple and easy-to-use means of capturing the details of what has been discussed so that the information is easily available for integration into any specialised GP/clinic software.
Log-in
Initially you will need to log in to the software and you will then be presented with the Welcome Page where you will see a summary of all the latest global news reports. There is also a section to allow TMB World management contact you with information on the latest software updates and other relevant news items. You can also change or cancel your subscription on this screen depending on your needs. Remember there is no long-term contract for the software so if you wish to cancel at any time that is easy to achieve. You can of course reactivate your subscription with the press of a button if and when the need should arise.
We have also included an easy to use facility for you to send feed-back to our management team with suggestions as to how we can improve the software functionality. Unfortunately we are not in a position to provide any direct clinical support through this service so please bear that in mind.
Trip Consultant
Ok, so now we are into the business end of the software. This is where TMB World is really able to assist you in your care of the international traveller whether you see many patients each year or perhaps just the occasional ones on a sporadic basis.
Initial screen
The world map fills up most of this screen with the tool/presentation bars on the left and some administration issues which are accessible through the icons in the top right section.
Selecting countries
The most important part of any travel consultation is knowing the planned itinerary for your patient. The main way to identify the countries is through selection via the map interface. You can zoom in and out to make this easier and this is especially important to help identify some of the smaller countries!
However there is also a very powerful search facility accessible through the upper left side of the screen. Here you can search for countries but you can also search for specific regions or a tourist destination. This is particularly useful when the patient just reveals their itinerary by mentioning capital cities (eg ‘I’m going to Caracas’) or specific recognised tourist hot-spots such as the “Annapurna Region” or perhaps the “Garden Route”. Even the smaller countries (eg Easter Island, Singapore, Seychelles, Mauritius, ABC islands etc) are more easily selected through the powerful search facility.
By using this facility to select a region this will add the country and that region/city to the itinerary.
To deselect a country or a region/city use the purple button on the left of the screen. It will turn blue when deselected.
Selecting regions
The real power of TMB World is to allow you select countries but also, and more importantly, you can select regions within a country (towns, cities, tourist hot spots etc) so that the information available to advise the traveller is far more detailed and specific than what would usually be available through most other software packages.
Through the world map, as you select countries a number of blue icons appear when you click on the country name . These are related to particular points of interest and covering many of the more important destinations for travellers. You can select any of the icons (in doing so you are adding them to the itinerary) by left clicking with the mouse. As you hover over the icon on the map a pop-up shows some of the information relating to that specific location. On moving the mouse away from the icon the pop-up disappears to allow other regions to be selected.
However if you right-click on the icon the pop-up remains available and at that stage you have other tab options available. These include information on the country, some basic country climate information, the news reports relating to the country and also the vaccines allocated against that country. [Please note this is country specific information at this time. In the future we plan to provide region specific data].
Itinerary specific Information
In the left tool / presentation bar region you can look at news stories relating to the chosen itinerary (as well as global news reports) and also you can look at the vaccines recommended for the chosen trip.
The “Traveller Info” button is one of the most useful ones for both you the practitioner and also the patient. Activating this button provides a report showing information on the selected countries but also on the regions allocated to this itinerary. This report also shows if malaria prophylaxis needs to be considered but also relevant information regarding the need to consider yellow fever and also the altitude of the regions to be visited. This report can be printed and given to the traveller for their own records.
Presentations
In the lower section of the left side of the screen are a number of very useful presentations relating to travel health and safety issues relevant to the international traveller. These include information on food and water borne diseases, how to avoid sun burn, being aware of altitude issues, contraindications for yellow fever vaccines and many others.
As each button of the software is activated it turns purple and that indicates that this button has been selected during the consultation and that means it is added to the report functions. [any selected button can be unselected (reverts to blue) so that needs to be borne in mind as the consultation progresses].
Recording the issues discussed
There are two options available for you so that you can maintain a record of the information which you have shared with your patient.
The “Trip Report” button opens up a summary record showing the chosen itinerary (countries and regions) and also the information which has been discussed with your patient. This report is date/time stamped and can be signed by both the practitioner and the patient so that a written signed record is maintained confirming that the relevant issues have been covered.
Many users of TMB World have a dedicated GP software package which they use for their day to day work and they do not want to have to run two separate systems. We deal with this issue in a very simple but powerful way by using the same information that is created for the ‘Trip Report’ and copying it into the clipboard.
After using TMB World to run through the travel medicine consultation with their patient, the user then just needs press the ‘Copy to Clipboard’ and then return their GP software and, in the notes field, just paste the relevant information and therefore have a saved copy of the information discussed during the travel consultation.
Suggested ‘work flow’ for those with dedicated GP software
- The patient is registered as usual within the GP software package and the practitioner follows their normal processes for recording that patient’s attendance.
- At the time to cover issues relating issues involved in ‘travel medicine’ the practitioner opens the TCA software and proceeds to enter countries / regions etc.
- The practitioner uses whatever facilities of TCA are considered appropriate for the planned itinerary (including the use of the presentations on various issues eg altitude, DVT etc.
- Once completed the practitioner uses the ‘copy to clipboard’ facility within TMB World which will record all ‘active buttons’ (ones which are currently purple).
- If the practitioner notices that one or more buttons have reverted to ‘blue’ they can easily reopen that feature and then press the ‘copy to clipboard’ again.
- On reopening the dedicated GP software the practitioner goes to the ‘note field’ function, relating to this patient, and ‘pastes’ the information against the patient’s records.
Future plans
There are a number of additions we are planning for the next release of Trip Consultation Advisor and these will be released in the months ahead at no extra cost to the user. However this is where we really need your assistance as it is very likely you, our users, will have ideas and thoughts on how to improve the software. This might be through the addition of new icons in various countries or perhaps even give your thoughts on the allocation of the medical advice which is currently showing.