Personal Digital Assistants

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Personal Digital Assistants

• PDAs -
• Information at Your Fingertips,
• or a Handful of Trouble?

Peter Morgan Cambridge University Medical Library
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Outline

• PDA technology
• healthcare applications
• library and information services
• barriers
• whats next?

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PDAs

• PDA Personal Digital Assistant
• also known as
• palm-top/palm-held/palm-based computer
• handheld computer
• pocket computer
• personal organizer
• MeSH computers, handheld

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PDAs
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PDA technology- history

• 1984 Psion 1 personal organiser released
• 1992 Apples John Sculley coins term Personal
  Digital Assistant
• 1993 First PDA, called Penpad, released by
  Amstrad
• 1993 Apple introduces Newton MessagePad
• 1996 Palm releases Palm Pilot, using Palm OS
• 1996 Microsoft releases Windows CE OS
• 2000 Microsoft releases Pocket PC OS replacing
  Windows CE

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PDA technology- operating systems

• Two major players
• Palm OS
• Microsoft Pocket PC

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PDA technology- operating systems

• Palm
• cheaper
• lighter, slimmer
• easier to use
• simpler OS requires less processor power
• faster
• longer battery life (especially mono display)
• aimed at individual consumer
• dominates PDA world market
• big choice of software

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PDA technology- operating systems

• Pocket PC
• Windows-type applications
• more powerful
• more memory
• more functionality
• better security
• full-colour display
• aimed at corporate users
• increasing market share (especially in Europe)

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PDA technology- extras

• synchronization cradles
• beaming
• folding keyboards
• memory cards
• wireless

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PDA technology- basic uses

• personal organizer
• appointments, addresses, memos, alerts, etc.
• internet access
• email, WWW, databases, etc.
• office software
• multimedia
• data capture and transmission
• phone

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Healthcare applications

• education
• medical, nursing, allied health professionals
• clinical practice research
• physicians
• nurses
• allied health professionals
• patients
• administrators

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Healthcare applications- education

• PDAs compulsory in some medical schools
• synchronised timetable information
• optimal time management
• assessment of students experience
• capture of lecture notes
• exchange of information

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Healthcare applications- clinical practice
research

• point-of-care information
• patient records patient tracking
• clinical practice guidelines
• drug information
• literature retrieval
• clinical librarian
• data capture transfer
• fieldwork support (GPS etc.)
• patients use

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PDAs and the library

• training users
• ongoing user support
• advice on what to buy
• provision of content
• co-ordination advocacy
• library uses

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PDAs and the library- training users

• workshops
• emulators
• instructions (documents web pages)
• help desk
• technical advice
• security advice

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PDAs and the library- ongoing user support

• user groups
• subject-based, experience-based
• discussion lists
• in-house, open
• library help-desk
• web pages

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PDAs and the library - advice on what to buy

• hardware software samples
• links to computer journals
• links to PDA websites
• vendors fairs
• exchange of experience among users

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PDAs and the library- provision of content

• commercial
• e-books (textbooks, reference books)
• e-journals
• databases
• drug pharmacopoeias
• locally-produced
• whats new? - products services
• current awareness bibliographies
• PDA instructional material
• library orientation guidelines

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PDAs and the library- co-ordination advocacy

• demonstrations
• testbed
• institutional infrastructure
• shared buying advice purchase
• clearinghouse
• being a PDA champion

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PDAs and the library- library uses

• personal organizers for library staff
• library staff management
• duty rotas, priority tasks, news,
• reference work
• email access
• data capture of library statistics

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Barriers

• technophobia
• safety in numbers
• error-prone text/data entry
• handwriting recognition not reliable
• stylus/keyboard awkward to use
• security of equipment data
• lack of evidence-based PDA evaluation

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Whats next?

• falling sales, but
• Pocket PC catching up - more programs
• student use of PDAs extends into career
• increased wireless network connectivity
• shift from personal to corporate
• new phone/PDA generation

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Further help . . .

• library websites
• Alberta http//www.library.ualberta.ca/pdazone/in
  dex.cfm
• Arizona http//educ.ahsl.arizona.edu/pda/index.ht
  m
• Illinois libraries http//pdagrant.osfsaintfranci
  s.org/
• Leicester http//www.le.ac.uk/li/lgh/library.htm
• Oulu http//kirjasto.oulu.fi/english/palvelut/mob
  ileservices/
• M. Al-Ubaydli Handheld Computers for Doctors
• (Chichester Wiley, 2003. ISBN 0 470 85899 0)
• plus related website - http//www.handheldsfordoc
  tors.com/

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Contact

• Peter Morgan
• Librarian
• Cambridge University Medical Library
• Addenbrookes Hospital, Hills Road,
• Cambridge CB2 2SP, England
• 44 (0)1223 336757
• pbm2_at_cam.ac.uk