It's been almost 20 years since I was in medical school so take with a
grain of salt...
1. wi-fi is nice as you wouldn't have to fiddle with cradles to sync
your PDA to a desktop. None of the hospitals that I work at allow
physicians to get onto the wireless network though the Operating
Suites in one or the hostpitals does have a wireless network.
2. processing speed isn't that important if all you are doing is
reading text and using the calendar, address book and calculator.
3. for me a keyboard would be overkill. I don't do a lot of input to
my PDAs except through the desktop computer. I use my Palm 505 in the
hospital for digital reference books, Epocrates, leisure reading,
calendar, phone numbers/addresses. I have a treo 300 phone but the
tiny keyboard is a pain for anything but short messages and it has no
memory slot so I just use it as a phone and occasional web-browser.
Carrying a large or even a folding keyboard into the OR would also be
a pain.
4. If you get a PDA that has a secure digital memory slot, you can
expand it. Palms have tiny memories otherwise. I haven't played with
Pocket PCs but the Palm 505's file manipulation on the secure digital
cards is SLLLLOOOOOWWWWW.
5. Like I say, I use the Palm 505 and for what I use it for, it works okay.
6. Epocrates (drug reference - great for identifying those weird trade
names or new medications. It also has some nice calculaters and other
clinically relevant info), TealDoc (multi-format document reader).
It's not easy to find anesthesia references that are digitized but I
usually do that sort of reading before cases anyway. I currently enjoy
having several non-medical books in the Palm that are waiting for me
if I have downtime between cases. If I was still in medical school or
residency I would have notes or med texts in there scrambling to
remember all the relevant details before vomiting them up for the next
exam.
I'd like to have a good database with CPt/ICD9/crosswalk codes on a
secure digital card but I haven't found one of those yet. I know other
physicians who use databases to keep a copy of relevant patient
information with them. I found stylus entry too time consuming for all
the patient info though I keep a record of my times in the Calendar.
Rob Lewis |
