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SmartDraw 2007 Healthcare

by Geetesh Bajaj, December 22nd 2006

Introduction
SmartDraw 2007 Healthcare
Case Studies
Pricing and Support
Conclusion

Introduction

Sometime ago, I did a review on SmartDraw 2007 -- this review is on SmartDraw 2007's Healthcare edition. This is a separate version of the same product that's aimed at healthcare professionals like doctors, pharmacists, hospital staff, laboratories, etc.

The product is a treasure for medical professionals since it includes an impressive amount of templates and clip art that are healthcare oriented -- it also allows users to create research papers, plans, diagnoses,etc. easily. You can download a trial version here...

My contact at SmartDraw.com for this review was Todd Savitt -- thank you, Todd.

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SmartDraw 2007 Healthcare

There is not much difference in SmartDraw 2007 and the Healthcare Edition. If you have used the flagship product, then the biggest change is the inclusion of around a thousand professionally designed healthcare templates, and nearly 3000 medical illustrations from Lippincott. In addition, this edition includes thousands of cliparts, symbols and Netter images from Elsevier -- all useful for the healthcare sector.

Here is a quick walkthrough of creating a new drawing in SmartDraw Healthcare Edition:

1. When you launch the program, you'll notice that SmartDraw Healthcare's Create New Document pane has two tabs -- Standard and Healthcare, as shown in Figure 1.
   
   
   Figure 1: Create New Document
   
   The Standard tab includes all the content in SmartDraw 2007 -- in addition, the Healthcare tab provides specialized templates related to healthcare. SmartDraw calls them SmartTemplates.
   
   
2. Choose any topic from the category to see the drawings in SmartTemplate, as shown in Figure 2 and click it. I selected the Heart and Ascending Aorta option. SmartDraw might download extra libraries the first time you select any particular SmartTemplate. This may not happen if you installed the CD version as opposed to the download version.
   
   
   Figure 2: Smart Templates
   
   
3. Once you select your SmartTemplate, the SmartDraw 2007 Healthcare interface (see Figure 3) with the selected template opens, containing all the elements you need. These elements mainly comprise clip art libraries that allow you to add more related content to your active drawing.
   
   
   Figure 4: The interface
   
   
4. If you need still more content, then click the More Symbols button -- this opens a new dialog box as shown in Figure 4. This provides even more visual content. Choose and drag any of these to the drawing area as required. You can also search for symbols using keywords.
   
   
   Figure 4: More Symbols
   
   
5. Once your drawing is in place, you can save it, print it, or export to another program using the convenient options found in the Export tab of the ribbon that you can see in Figure 5 . The PowerPoint Export function works remarkably well -- and you can even ungroup the drawing in PowerPoint and format it as a native PowerPoint object that can for instance be animated in sequence!
   
   
   Figure 5: Export
   
   Below are some sample drawings created using the SmartDraw Healthcare Edition:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

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Case Studies

I asked Todd about some usage stories for SmartDraw Healthcare Edition, and he provided two very interesting case studies.

• One was about a dermatologist who used SmartDraw templates of the human anatomy, and then type in medical notes -- this saved him from medical dictation costs of up to $2500 a month.
  
  
• Another case study was about a medical instructor who wanted good clip art for her classes that included an extensive range of medicine oriented designs. SmartDraw Healthcare edition fitted the requirement -- and she could export these as PowerPoint presentations and handouts.

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Pricing and Support

SmartDraw Healthcare edition costs $297 for a single-user license.

Support options include manuals, knowledge base, e-mail and phone support, and an online FAQ. The SmartDraw.com web site provides extensive tutorial content and case studies.

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Conclusion

If you are involved with any of the areas that are part of the healthcare gamut -- be it hospitals, pharmacy, research, clinics, education, or anything remotely connected, you cannot do anything better than getting yourself a copy of the SmartDraw Healthcare edition. And it does have an amazing price:performance ratio.

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