Greg Hopkins, OD

Google Documents has been around for quite awhile, and perhaps you have uploaded a word document or PDF to the service in the past. Similar to the free file syncing service Dropbox, Google Docs is a useful resource for maintaining accessibility to documents from any location (“in the cloud,” as it were), but one great and often under-utilized feature is the ability to create forms and surveys to populate spreadsheets automatically. Trying to get feedback from your patients about your office? Trying to plan a meeting or office party? You can create a form for that and either link directly to it, embed it in a website, or even an email. I’ve used one before to fill-out convergence insufficiency symptom surveys (CISS) on the fly. Once the answers are in a spreadsheet, it’s relatively simple to score the responses automatically to provide instant feedback and a more efficient exam flow.

Links and References:

• Google Docs Help: http://bit.ly/JrHRkq

• View my CISS form: http://bit.ly/nboile

• And the companion spreadsheet: http://bit.ly/rrB4cA