Systematic review about PDA use by Health Care Providers

Again an interesting article in the Journal of Medical Internet Research . This time a systematic review about the PDa use by Health Care Providers.

Some Conclusions:

• Younger physicians and residents and those working in large and hospital-based practices are more likely to use a PDA.
• PDA adoption rates are already high and projections are for rapid growth in the short term.
• In general, it appears that professional PDA use in health care settings involves more administrative and organizational tasks than those related to patient care
• physicians are likely accustomed to using a PDA, and, therefore, technology expertise will probably not be a barrier to implementing PDA applications.
• there is an urgent need to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of specific tasks using handheld technology to inform those developing and those using PDA applications.

This really does not bring up shocking news, but it proves again that medical libraries could (and should) do more in this area. We should get more involved with the administrative and organizational processes in our hospitals if we want PDA to be use for patient care tasks (including our library resources)

Technical barriers to overcome -according to me- are the unavailability of wireless networks. If we could cover a large area of the hospital building with wireless access, the problem of personal licensing for relevant applications, like quick-reference work, and the necessity of downloading and installing stuff could be replaced by just accessing our web-based resources.