Mobile Devices in Health Care: Smartphones and PDAs

Getting Started

The 1990s saw the birth of the handheld computing device. These were generally known as PDAs or Personal Digital Assistants. They began primarily as organizers for appointments, telephone numbers and short notes. More recently Smartphones have begun to support many of the functions of PDAs with the addition of telephone service, email, and web browsing. There are Blackberry operating system-based Smartphones, Palm operating system-based (Palm OS) PDAs and Smartphones, the iPhone and Microsoft-based Pocket PCs (Windows Mobile) made by HP, Dell and others.

The result is a much wider variety of devices to choose from requiring more research on the part of the consumer. Smartphones with PDA functions tend to be more expensive than PDAs. See the Reviews and Comparisons page for information on selecting hardware and software.

Many websites offer overviews of the world of handheld computing and tutorials on getting started with your machine : [snip]

• Guide to Handheld and Palmtop Computing Resources for Health Care Professionals
• pdaMD.com
• Pediatrics on Hand
• [snip]

Downloads at MUSC

The materials on this page are freely available for download to handheld computing devices. [snip]

• AIDSinfo's PDA Tools
• [snip]
• CHORUS on Your PDA (Collaborative Hypertext of Radiology)
• [snip]
• DoctorCalc: Medical Apps for the iPhone and iPod touch
• Electronic Preventive Services Selector (ePSS)
• ePOCRATES Rx
• FreewarePalm
• [snip]
• Handheld Computer Resources in the NCBI Bookshelf
• Medical Calculators for the Blackberry and iphone (QxMD)
• Mobile MerckMedicus
• PubMed for Handhelds (National Library of Medicine)
  [snip]

[snip]

Educational Sites

Medical libraries, medical schools, as well as groups and individuals, are sharing information on how they are using PDAs in health care: [snip]

• [snip]
• Guide to Smart Phones and PDAs (Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine)
• Palm/Internet and Miscellany for Baylor College of Medicine Residents
• PDA Resources (Lyman Maynard Stowe Library at the University of Connecticut Health Center)
• PDA Resources in Medicine (University of California's Grunigen Medical Library at Irvine)
• Pda4peds.com
• PDAs in Family Medicine Practice (University of Rochester Medical Center, Department of Family Medicine)
• Pediatrics on Hand
• PDA Resources Available through the VCU Libraries (Virginia Commonwealth University
• Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) (College of Nursing University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center)
• Recommendations for Handheld Hardware and Software (Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine)
• WU Medical Palm Initiative (Washington University)

Last Modified: July 20, 2009

Source

[http://www.library.musc.edu/page.php?id=888]