The Role of Wireless Pocket PCs in Medical Curriculum

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/link/mar2002/tech1.htm">http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/link/mar2002/tech1.htm</a><br /><br />Pocket PCs have a bright future in many industries, among them the medical industry.<br /><br />"The use of hand-held Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) for scheduling, email, note taking and storing addresses and phone numbers, has become increasingly popular in recent years. In May 2001, Harvard Medical School announced that it would be the first educational institution in the US to adopt PDAs as the information standard, in effect entering a post-PC era1. PDAs have the potential to play an important role in curriculum delivery and daily clinical activities of medical students and staff. Their compact size is convenient for clinical students who have to move from location to location to see patients. The PDA can keep them on track and help reduce some of their anxieties so they can focus on learning." Source: Paul R.

[Chad]

Unfortunately, Pocket PC has still not taken hold in medicine. At my medical school, residents are beginning to be issued handhelds, but most are Clie's, Visors or Palms. I guess there are several reasons for this. The expense is a main factor, but more importantly is the relative lack of medical software available for the Pocket PC OS. There has been an increase in the amount of pocket pc medical programs recently, but it has been slow growth. Also, there are very few free pocket pc programs, whereas palm os users can get literally hundreds of free medical database, drug calculating, patient tracking, and other programs. I believe that more and more medical students are purchasing some sort of handheld device when they enter their clinical years to help cope with the massive amount of information out there.

For me, the Pocket PC is the ultimate. Synching my schedule with outlook, wireless internet access which allows me to look up papers and information at the bedside, entire drug databases, patient tracking information, plus it serves as a gaming device, audio/video player, etc. To take advantage of the rich media and intense graphics (MRI's and CAT scans) in a portable format, the future belongs to the Pocket PC devices.