Healthcare
Hand-held devices and portable digital assistants (PDAs) are being integrated into the health care setting in the United States. It is important to understand which devices are being used, how they are being used, what they are being used for, and why. Understanding the role that hand-held devices and other portable electronics play in health care can help to inform organizational policy, and help health care administrators better implement electronic medical records.
History of use
The first documented PDA was the Newton MessagePad, issued by Apple in 1993. It was described as being "revolutionary" (Wiggins, 2004, p. 5). Palm, Inc. developed the next big handheld device: the Palm Pilot, in 1996. By the late 1990s, PDAs were equipped for Internet access, and memory capacity and other features improved with each product release. Microsoft also entered the portable electronic devices marketplace in the 1990s. The devices were not yet being integrated into the healthcare system.
Since the new millennium, smartphones and other handheld devices have become standard items in both personal and professional settings. The increased power and expansion of PDA features have made them particularly effective and useful in the healthcare setting. The evolution of PDA use in healthcare shows the remarkable potential for full integration with every aspect of care management and delivery. Trends in the consumer market parallel trends in health care, as PDAs, tablets, and smartphones are set to surpass personal computers in terms of overall sales (Wiggins, 2004, p. 5). Therefore, portable devices are the future of medical computing. Physicians have for many years relied on portable electronic devices like pagers to ensure timely and quality delivery of care. Now, paging is only one of many functions that a handheld computer can offer the practitioner. Radiology was one of the first practicing medical fields to document a need for integrating handheld technology with health care, although medical students have been using them for years (Wiggins, 2004). Survey results by Garrity & El Emam (2006) reveal that the majority of doctors, medical residents, and advance practice nurses in hospitals are using portable electronic devices. Prevalence has become high, and is growing exponentially because of the myriad of uses that PDAs have in the healthcare system.
Why PDAs?
The reasons why PDAs and other portable devices have become fully integrated into health care are extensive. For one, the amount of information needed to run an effective health care organization and then to deliver quality of care to patients is simply "staggering" (Wiggins, 2004, p. 5). From patient personal information to patient medical history; from results from tests to patient satisfaction surveys, data is continually being collected, collated, and stored electronically in hospitals and other health care centers. PDAs are aiding all health care workers by providing a quick, easy way of collecting and distributing data. PDAs have the ability to store a lot, even if temporarily. Their storage capacities are growing, and they can also be synced to computers for backing up and properly cataloging patient information. In this manner, the extensive amount of information being shared in the health care setting is facilitated by the use of PDAs. Portable devices "allow for a great deal of knowledge in a small package," (Wiggins, 2004, p. 5).
As electronic medical records become more commonplace and standardized, the use of PDAs will become even more apparent in health care institutions. Patient data needs to be accessed quickly and accurately. Portable devices serve as "walking libraries," according to Wiggins (2004, p. 5). Not only do health care workers need to continually refer to individual patient records; they might also need to access medical databases for critical information on the fly. Information about contraindications for specific medications, or for evidence-based practice for acute procedures can be accessed via PDAs linked to databases and networks.
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