Handheld Devices in the Clinical Setting: Using PDAs in Teaching Clinical Medicine

Andria Klioze MD, Karen Bradley DMD MBA, Richard Rathe MD, James, Pettigrew DMD, Cathy Schell MD, Scott Klioze MD
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

ABSTRACT:

Using Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) for Teaching Clinical Medicine Personal Digital Assistants (Palms) are being used in a wide variety of settings as a quick and efficient tool for recording, storing, and transferring information. Their application to clinical medicine is becoming more apparent. The goal of this half-day workshop is to demonstrate and teach the utilization of effective clinical software in order to enhance patient care and student education in the clinical setting.

In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills in:

1. Basic features and operation of the Palm

2. Selected effective clinical software: "Patient Keeper", "QID", "Medmath", "Epocrates" and "5 Minute Clinical Consult".

Using a computer classroom, the Palm emulator, with preloaded clinical software, will be used to facilitate this interactive workshop. In addition, five Palms will be shared to enhance the demonstration of selected skills. Teaching methods will include description, demonstration,and practice. There will be approximately 3-4 workshop assistants in addition to the primary presenter. Due to the intensive interactive nature of this workshop, 15-20 participants are the ideal numbers for this learning environment.

The workshop will begin with a brief review of basic operating features including graffiti, editing, creating a business card, beaming, and downloading software, and other basic skills according to needs of the participants. The main portion of the workshop will focus on teaching the participants how to use the selected clinical software. Using "Patient Keeper"(a patient database application program), the participants will create a patient record and a SOAP note, demonstrate beaming a patient record, and transferring a formal patient record from the Palm to a patient data base or hard copy format. Participants will also learn to use "Epocrates" (a pharmaceutical database), "QID" (an infectious disease), "Medmath" (a medical calculations program) and "5 Minute Clinical Consult" (a clinical reference database). Clinical uses for these software programs will be integrated within the context of creating/editing the patient record.The final learning activity will be a discussion about the experiences, both positive and negative, of using PDAs and related software in the clinical setting

BENEFIT TO PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING SESSION:

Personal Digital Assistants have become increasingly popular to enhance personal organization and provide quick and efficient access to educational and clinical reference materials. Learning this technology and mastering the effective clinical software can be time-consuming,frustrating, and sometimes costly. The participants at this workshop will gain knowledge in basic PDA skills (using Palms). They will also be exposed to and learn skills of specific clinical software.

Andria Klioze, MD
Office of CME and Faculty Development
Box 100233
Gainesville, FL 32610-0233
Phone: 352-265-8081
Fax: 352-265-8082
Email: aklioze@ufl.edu

CO-AUTHORS:

Karen Bradley DMD MBA
Office of CME and Faculty Development
Box 100233
Gainesville, FL 32610-0233
Phone: 352-265-8081
Fax: 352-265-8082
Email: kbradley@ufl.edu