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
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