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Chip LevinsonFlag for United States of America

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Best Input Technology for People who have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Hello,

A year ago my wife's office adopted a electronic medical records system.  This system requires that everything be entered in the computer.  She literally spends 3+ hours a day using a mouse to click in and out of different screens.  Before this system she rarely used a computer.

She has been diagnosed with severe Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.  Some nights she comes home and her hands and wrists are numb with pain.  I am looking for suggestions on something she can use instead of a mouse to navigate the EMR system.  She has tried using a trackball, but did not like that.  Is there some form of laser pointer, or other device, that is proven effective for people with severe CTS?  Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!

P.S. In terms of cost, we would be willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a solution  if it truly solved this problem.
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Thank you both for replying.  You both make great suggestions - I just don't think they will work for my wife.  Let me explain why.   Changing careers is not really an option - she is a physician and this is the new way that doctors work.  They already have Dragon installed for Health Care Professionals so she dictates most of her charts (sorry should have mentioned this).  She has also seen a number of specialists and is 99% sure it has to do with moving and clicking the mouse.  Her clinic uses a custom designed software app to manage medical records - I am not sure if it has any keyboard shortcuts (I will look into this though).  The system was designed so for every patient you need to use the mouse to drill down a number of levels for each individual malady.  So if an elderly patient comes in for a physical and has a history of heart problems, weight management, and something else - you have separate parts of the program to enter information for each issue.  For most people she spends a ton of time getting everything into his/her chart.  Oh, I should mention she has had several ergonomic specialists come in her office to select a custom chair and keyboard setup designed for her stature.

For now, I want to focus on something to replace the mouse.  After I posted the question I did some more research.  What do you think of foot pedals or touchpads?

Here is a link to a footpad.  Have you heard if these are any good?

http://www.askergoworks.com/products/1547/Foot-Mouse-with-Programmable-Pedal-FT07-02FT07-01-.aspx

What about a touchpad?  I found the following as one option:

http://www.askergoworks.com/products/476/Cirque-Smart-Cat-Touchpad-PD019SMC.aspx

I think if we could find a high quality wireless touchpad that let he stand up and enter the information, that would be ideal.  My Google searches keep pointing me to links for the HP TouchPad.  Thanks for your continued help. :)
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dbrunton,

The touchscreen overlay sounds very interesting.  Have you ever actually used one?  I wonder how the overlays compare to an actual touchscreen.
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DaFranker,

Thanks for the new idea.  I have not heard of it either - but it sounds like something to keep my eyes peeled for (no pun intended).

Do you have any experience with touchscreen monitors vs, overlays?  It looks like I can buy a 21" Touchscreen Monitor for $350 or so, and an overlay would cost about half that.  I wonder if a true touchscreen monitor would be noticeably better?
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