Integrating Palm Devices into
the SOM Curriculum
lTechnical Issues
•Selecting appropriate device
•Software licenses, negotiation and configuration
•Coordinating with IT staff
•Configure PDAs for first session
•Circulation of devices
•Student privacy; reset devices after each rotation
Our colleague John Bramble took the lead in resolving many of the technical issues related to this project. John worked diligently with the staff at the American Academy of Pediatrics to resolve the licensing issues related to the use of the Red Book, a fairly expensive program. They seemed very unsure how to deal with our need to reload the application at the beginning of each rotation.

John developed a checkout and loan agreement form and staff were trained to check out the devices on the circulation system. We needed to be careful to account for all the various pieces – like the stylus and the usb cable.

And at the end of each rotation, we needed to hard reset the devices to ensure that any private information the students added to the Palm was removed before the start of the next rotation.