Personal Digital Assistant (PDA): a new tool for health care professionals and medical students in Palestine

Rapid development in information technology has made Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s), also called handheld devices or handheld computers, a practical tool for health care professionals. PDAs, with a wide range of evidence sources installed, may be used as support tools for clinical decision-making at the point of care, for evidence-based learning and practicing, and for physician performance improvement.
PDA’s are perfect companions in medicine because they allow providers to input and review information directly at the bedside. A physician can open a clinical drug reference, review dosing guidelines, and then write a prescription, all at the point of care. They are attractive devices because they offer easy access to reference resources. They also may be used to store protected health information (PHI).
This presentation will introduce the PDA as a new tool for health care professionals and medical students in Palestine. It will also discuss and recommend PDA services, applications, software, hardware, advantages and disadvantages, using PDA for Medline and PubMed searches, Electronic Health Records, recommendations to purchase PDAs, use of PDAs in a clinical rotation and more. It will also suggest ways to secure data stored on PDAs including protecting the PDA from lost and theft.
The role of the medical librarian in offering PDA services will also be discussed to benefit and support Faculty of Medicine community at Al Najah National University.