Personal Digital Assistant - Medical and Scientific Uses

Medical and Scientific Uses

Many companies have developed PDA products aimed at the medical profession's unique needs, such as drug databases, treatment information, and medical news. Services such as AvantGo translate medical journals into PDA-readable formats. WardWatch organizes medical records, providing reminders of information such as the treatment regimens of patients to doctors making ward rounds. Pendragon and Syware provide tools for conducting research with, allowing the user to enter data into a centralized database using their PDA. Microsoft Visual Studio and Sun Java also provide programming tools for developing survey instruments on the handheld. These development tools allow for integration with SQL databases that are stored on the handheld and can be synchronized with a desktop- or server-based database.

PDAs have been shown to aid diagnosis and drug selection and some studies have concluded that when patients use PDAs to record their symptoms, they communicate more effectively with hospitals during follow-up visits.

The development of Sensor Web technology may lead to wearable bodily sensors to monitor ongoing conditions, like diabetes or epilepsy, which would alert patients and doctors when treatment is required using wireless communication and PDAs.

PDAs are used in hospitals, hospices and care homes to record audit and surveillance data, and then sync with a remote data server for immediate access to management data and trend analysis. Kairos Systems (KAMPDA) is a complete audit and surveillance solution (EDCRS — Electronic Data Capture and Reporting Solution) allowing the user to record observations and rapidly disemminate feedback to nominated recipients, using the SoMo 650 PDA from Socket Mobile.