HOMPATH CLASSIC 8 Review - Homeopathic Software, Repertorization & Homeopathy Medical Software

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.

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.

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.