Windows Phone Thoughts: An Improving Prognosis For PDAs In Healthcare

Until fairly recently, the use of PDAs within the healthcare industry has been very sporadic and entirely informal; it seems as though neither physicians nor hospitals were quite sure what do to with these increasingly powerful tools.

That's beginning to change, though, and an article on the eWeek Web site describes just how things are progressing. Healthcare organizations are recognizing the diverse ways they can use PDAs:

• Point of care assistance—drug information, clinical guidelines, decision aids, patient education
• Patient information—patient tracking, clinical results
• Administrative functions—electronic prescribing, coding, tracking schedules
• Research activities—data collection, participant education
• Medical education—lecture notes, presentations, photographs and diagrams

Be sure to read the whole eWeek article because it makes some good points about what it will take to get more doctors to use PDAs. I'm doing my part by helping my technophobic physician brother, who was given a new iPAQ 2215 by his hospital for downloading patient updates and test results. I just wish they made a white SCOTTeVEST for him to wear to work!