Personally, I believe that PDAs allow many fields to have access to data without wires. Easy to hold in one’s hands and easy to read, this makes a lot of sense for a heck of a lot more than just the healthcare industry.

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) could change the way healthcare is delivered in the future by providing doctors with easy access to patient data and the latest information on treatment.

Palm pilots and other hand-held computers were originally designed as personal organizers but they are becoming increasingly popular with doctors, medical students and even patients to improve the quality of care and safety.

“The most commonly used clinical application is drug reference, so far. But it has gone beyond just looking up drugs and dosages and running interaction checks,” Dr Daniel Baumgart, of the Charite Medical School of the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, said in an interview.

PDAs with bar code scanners already exist which allow doctors to scan a patient’s barcode bracelet to access their record, current medications and medication history, according to Baumgart.

“You could improve or make sure the patient gets the right drug, at the right time and at the right dose,” said Baumgart who reviewed the role of the technology in medicine in a report in The Lancet medical journal. [Read the rest]