Note: The review and comparson with
other software was done in 2004. It does not hold for the
newer versions of Hompath and its comparson with other software.
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Hompath has come of age as a repertorization software.
From the days of its DOS version, it has grown into a very powerful
Windows based repertorization software. The Hompath Classic version
8 is a real improvement from the previous version 7.
At a Glance
Hompath Classic 8 comes in 6 CD's. The first CD contains the main
repertorization module along with 4 other modules - Archives, Utilities,
Patient Management and Case Analysis. The other 5 Cd's contain Tresoire,
Links Tresoire, Materia Medica Live, Materia Medica Elite and Hompath
Assist. We will look into the details of each module one by one.
The software contains 29 repertories, 270 homeopathy books, 5000
articles, and over 100,000 pages on information.
One-by-One
Module 1 - Hompath Classic 8
This is the core repertorization module of this package. Any homeopathy
software is incomplete if it does not have a good repertorization
core. Fortunately Hompath's repertorization module is very powerful.
It comes with 29 repertories including Complete, Kent, Boericke,
Boger, Boenninghausen, Knerr, Phatak etc. The complete repertory,
which is one of the most complete modern repertories is the primary
repertory.
The first thing that strikes you on opening the Hompath Classic
is its neat layout and easy accessibility of various features. The
various features have been so arranged that they are all visible
on one screen without making it look cluttered.
On opening any chapter, the right of rubric selection screen has
a very useful toolbar with options to look at the complete rubric,
its remedies and grades. You can clcik on any remedy and read its
keynotes, drug picture, view its source, kingdom, photographs, drug
properties, relations etc. You can also check for the underlying
themes of various rubrics, cross references, synonyms, word meaning
etc. The rubric selection screen is a real powerful resource. The
richness of features is amply complimented by easy navigation and
ease of use.
Once you select all the symptoms (from various repertories), you
can repertorise using various methodologies. The repertorization
proper has a marked improvement in the version 8 of Hompath Classic.
You can group the selected symptoms on 6 clipboards. One is meant
for Mental Generals, another for Physical generals and there are
4 spare clipboards. Using these clipboards, you can do selective
repertorization of various symptoms for better understanding of
the case.
You can do a normal repertorization or you can apply drug filters
to find remedies from various groups like animal or plant kingdom;
you can also combine various rubrics, cross them or even use elimination
method. You can even filter your repertorization results to specific
authors, specific mineral group, plant or animal families! The selected
symptoms can be analyzed as per the methods of Kent, Boger or Boenninghausen.
The repertorization core of Hompath is really very powerful and
easy to use. Infact, its probably the most easy to use repertorization
software and even a beginner can use it comfortably without much
assistance or tutorials. We use the word 'Intuitive' frequently
for such software.
So once you have repertorized and analyzed your case, what else
to do? Well! there is lots more. You can edit your symptom list,
group various symptoms together, see your results as various graphs,
save your results, open Materia Medica to study various medicines,
convert repertory to Materia Medica, search various repertories
for specific words and rubrics, take printouts etc.
The search function is also very powerful. You can search a specific
repertory or all of them. You can even search the Tresoire, Materia
Medica or various books from the same console. The search options
are very powerful and easy to use and the search is also very fast.
So no problems in this section either.
There is an inbuilt expert system, called Similimum. You can use
it to narrow down your search for the similimum by providing various
details about the patient like age, gender, sensitivity, miasm,
occupation, symptom types, drug type etc.
Another useful option is that you can edit the existing Materia
Medica and repertories and save your own additions and deletions
to them. You can even create customized repertories for conditions
like Cancer, Schizophrenia, Diabetes or a repertory of combined
symptoms etc. This feature is really useful and lets you add your
own knowledge and experience to your software.
A very beautiful new feature that is now available with Hompath
is the 'Pack and Go' feature. Homeopaths often have to present their
cases to students in classes or in seminars. It is usually very
difficult to take your repertorized cases on software with you.
Hompath has now made this really easy. You can just select a case
and Hompath will pack it for you so that you can write it on CD
and take it with you. The case presentation will run even without
Hompath installation so you can run it on any system. Is a dream
come true for people like us!
There is lots more to this module which you can explore yourself.
Now its time to move to other modules all of which are very well
integrated and you can access any module from any other module.
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