From: <abstracts@gsm

SPECIAL DEMONSTRATION

 

Portable Digital Assistants (PDAs) in Undergraduate Clinical Education.

 

Mark Platt and Lee Bairnsfather

Louisiana State University Health Science Center, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA

 

ABSTRACT:

 

While many institutions, including ours, have made deliberate plans for the introduction of PDA’s into the educational framework there is often a student led “de facto” introduction of PDA devices (both Palm and PocketPC operating systems) into the clinical education years. Although this may often be a decision made by individual students, institutions should take advantage of the situation and make a plan for their incorporation into clinical education. There are two main uses for the devices in the curriculum: information portals and patient tracking. This discussion will share our experiences at both “organized” and student driven introduction of handheld devices by medical students and examples of the software and their common uses.

 

Topics to be covered will include:

Implementation, Distribution and Support

A: Implementing a purchase program or “laissiez faire” introduction

B: Support personnel and management

Software purchase and decisions..

Should or can the institution provide, recommend or dictate what is installed?

A: Digital Textbook Programs, maintenance and updates.

B: Patient Tracking Patient tracking on the device, what is available in stand alone and what with a synchronized server solution. How can this be used in education.

Privacy/ HIPPA issues:  What are the security and privacy implications of having patient data on a handheld device.

Wireless:  What are the possibilities of a wireless solution in the clinical context including hardware issues.

 

BENEFIT TO PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING SESSION:

 

This session will cover both the implementation and day-to-day support of the use of PDA devices in the clinical years. We will use our own institution as an example of what to do and what not to do. We will also cover other models in use as illustrations of good and not so good PDA projects.

 

Mark W Platt Ph.D.

Department of Medical Informatics, LSUHSC-S 1501 Kings Highway, Shreveport LA 71130 USA

Phone: 318 675 4452

Fax: 318 675 7757

mailto:mplatt@lsuhsc.edu

 

CO-AUTHORS:

Lee Bairnsfather Ph.D.

Department of Medical Informatics, LSUHSC-S 1501 Kings Highway, Shreveport LA 71130 USA

Phone: 318 675 6536

Fax: 318 675 7757

mailto:lbairn@lsuhsc.edu