Decided to start a thread and share the tools I use on a daily basis to get my EMR related work done. I'd love feedback on anything you have found invaluable
VFE - goes without saying
Notepad++ - Can't live without this. Have a custom MEL language set up to color code and make code collapsable. Has a great file compare function Use it to look at all sorts of files, including CCC, HL7 and others. Lots of nice add-ins and supports a lot of different languages. Notepad++userDefineLang
Files Comparer - A great freeware tool that I have had for years. Can compare directories, show you which files are different, and then open then up and show you a file comparison. I use this for comparing CCC releases, Test and Production Client directories, Worksta\source directories with client folders, etc. Version 2.6.0.0. I see it on Softonic for download. Make sure you get the name correct - lots similar.
Oracle SQL Developer - I run queries against our Oracle databases all the time. Great tool from Oracle and can connect to SQL Server also. But I use Microsoft's SQL Management Studio if I have to do SQL queries. In SQL Developer I have a sheet where I keep all my queries, organized in sections headed with comment lines like Observations, Documents, Users. This sheet is up to about 4,000 lines.
EMR Help file - Contents Tab, Using Data Symbols/Symbols listed by Category. While the documentation isn't the best, it is still pretty good and I don't have all the functions and parameters memorized.
EMR 9.8 Data Dictionary - downloaded from GE - basically a web site you expand to a folder. I have it on a shared drive with a shortcut to the start page. Invaluable for helping with queries and figuring out MLDEF files.
Subversion / Tortoise - We have set up a Subversion server so we can do version control with .dlg files, CCC files, Crystal Reports, etc. The Tortoise client comes with a nice file compare tool, TortoiseMerge that I use sometimes. It does a better job of highlighting subtle differences in files than Notepad++ (say where one character in a long line is different).
CHUG - Wouldn't know half the tricks I know without you guys contributing!
Can't fine the File Comparer on Softronic - link?
Thanks!
Would you be willing to share your queries?
Let me see if I can get a version cleaned up. I might have some PHI in some of the queries and want to make sure I don't share that too 🙂
SQL Profiler is a useful tool to see what stored procedures and/or tables are used.
Start the trace in SQL Profiler, perform some task in the Centricity client, stop the trace in SQL Profiler, then examine the trace data.
Warning: a trace can bring a SQL Server to a crawl, so it's best do run a trace on the SQL Server after hours, and filter the trace as much as possible.
I'm in SQL Developer almost daily. Great for troubleshooting and queries.
Don't forget SnagIT! SnagIT rocks my world. 🙂 This I use SEVERAL times each day.
Jill
I second Jill's sentiment - I use SnagIT basically every day also. Best $50 (or less in volume or Education or Government discount) you can spend.
Second the Oracle Dev. Does anyone use Crystal Reports with the hope of putting new RPT's into cEMR? I've been using SQL to run a number of queries for our specialty clinic which will translate over to Crystal, is there documentation on how to import an rpt for use in the EMR? I understand there's a class for it.
I'm new to EHR in general and Centricity in particular, but here are some tools from my past life I still use.
In addition to SQL Developer and SQL Management studio listed by others I also like DBVisualizer from here: https://www.dbvis.com It comes in free and paid versions. It works with any database that has a jdbc driver and one thing I like is you can open a table and go to the references tab and it will display a relational diagram or list without having to do an explicit import.
I use Git instead of subversion, but version control is a must.
I like Notepad++ too, but have switched to Sublime Text for an editor (and Emacs, but it has a huge learning curve). Thank you David for the user defined language file for Notepad++!
I use WinMerge, but I am looking at files-comparer too.
Thank you all for the tips!
I wrote a little tool a couple years ago called CPS Admin Tools (now called CPS Essentials) to help me with some things that CPS just doesn't do well. It is free on my website. http://triadt.com/downloads.php. I use it mostly for clearing chart locks when users get kicked out. It does the following:
- See a list of all users currently logged in
- See a list of all charts that are locked, and clear the lock
- Shortcuts to linklogic and MIK folders and services
- Reboot SQL Server, App Server, DTS Server, with the click of a button
- Set EMR Printer Mappings on individual clients without having to go to each workstation
Steve Peterson
Circle of Life Women's Center
Here is my .02 but I am not a developer. These are more for admin/helpdesk but useful for devs too maybe
Shadow copies or previous versions on your server. Keeps a snapshot of files so you can revert back pretty quickly in case you pushed some bad content with jobs.txt. Actually shadow copies are enabled on all of my data volumes where user data is kept. It is self-service if you have smart users (we have a few).
bginfo-part of sysinternals. I put this on every server and every workstation so as I work on a server remotely I always know which one I am on. It just stamps the wallpaper with specific information. I put computer name, IP address, boot time, IE Version, logon server, DNS servers, OS version, username, free disk space on all volumes. I have various reasons for wanting this information on workstations but I color code things like workstation name so when I am on the phone with a user and they don't know the name of their computer, I can tell them "Look for RED".
I have many bat and vb scripts to use daily or whenever I want. If it can be automated, I do it.
nagios-tells me the uptime of all of my IP devices. If it has an IP address on it I can tell if it is up right now and how long it has been up. Worth the time and effort to set this up
iperf- great small tool to test bandwidth (Windows, linux, OSX version available)
Malware Bytes-Helps with your CSI investigations of malware
putty-used for SSH to my linux boxes and consoling to my routers and switches
belarc-useful as it has saved me trips to remote sites or opening computers to see how teh RAM is installed for upgrad purposes.
VNC-better than RDP to assist users remotely so you both can look at their screen and interact
Wordpress blog-My knowledge base to refer to.
ScreenPass- http://screenpass.net/ I had to pay for this one but it is very userful. Mainly to unlock user workstations when they are not there so you can troubleshoot their issue with them logged in.
Password Policy Enforcer for Active Directory- http://anixis.com/products/ppe/. Among other things this allows you to have a dictionary of common passwords to compare to so your users can't use their kid's names or whatever.
Mike Zavolas
Tallahassee Neurological Clinic
Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention.
Baretail download.cnet.com/BareTail/3000-10254_4-75793306.html
This is to watch the end of a text based log file as it is appended with entries. Basically it is a windows version of the linux tail -f /var/log/logfile
Great for c:\program files\Centricity Practice Solution\jboss\server\default\log\server.log so you REALLY know when it is fully started and ready to serve clients
Someone else here on the forums recommended it a while back. I don't know how I got by without it
Mike Zavolas
Tallahassee Neurological Clinic
Used file comparer for ccc9.1 update. very useful tool.