Need advice on PDA Purchase

[MLS]

To All My Fellow Students in Clinical Rotations:

Which PDA is everyone using on the clinical units?? Which software programs are best to purchase??
I would appreciate any advice.
Looking forward to beginning clinical rotations soon!:) :) :)

[ds_in_tx]

Indeed, good question. Is a PDA absolutely essential for clinicals? I've had a couple for personal use and I've always given up on them after a few months. Plus, I've always been more of a pocket book kinda guy...

[microphage]

it depends... I personally don't need to carry one as, well, I'm lazy. But some attendings pretty much expect you to. They ask you to look up stuff for them and if you don't have it, u'll feel really stupid.

I'd buy one just because. I like Palm but PocketPC is good too. U can't go wrong with either one really.

[sach]

I can probably inform you pretty well on this topic. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference, some people are techno nuts and love theirs, but the pocket books are just as good (faster to reference, but collectively weigh more). For a background, I purchased a Dell Axim x30i back in the day but ended up selling it with little use as I preferred the few essential pocket books instead. I'm old school.

The books I recommend to carry for IM: MGH Pocket Internal Medicine, Tarascon Pharmacopoeia, Maxwell's Reference, and Sanford Guide to Antibiotics. After that the marginal return on the weight diminishes.

If you go the techno route, the first decision is which OS you'll be favoring. Palm OS has pretty much ruled in the past, and has more free software available currently. Pocket Windows OS is according to many the way of the future, and has more potential but less free software (software can get VERY expensive for this medical stuff). I'd favor a Palm for the abundance of free software.

As far as which programs you should look into, Epocrates is pretty much the king of all medical software (epocrates.com). The limited version is free, and useful to look up drugs and dosages. The full version is costly, but many say it's worth it. It's available for either OS. As a medical student, I found Diagnosaurus a useful free program as it generates differentials for certain complaints. It's also available for either OS. In place of Sanford, there's a free Johns Hopkins ABX guide available online and it's an excellent program for selecting antibiotics, but it's only available for Palm OS and certain other PDAs (my Dell did not qualify).

My best advice is to decide what you'll use the most and get that. Don't spend a fortune on this stuff either, because when you're getting pimped you can't look things up. And drug reps may hook you up with the smaller books for free on your rotations (Pharmacopoeia, Sanford). Also, your days of buying pens are now officially over.

[microphage]

Also, your days of buying pens are now officially over.

unless you goto Stanford:

Stanford University Medical Center Expected To Announce Policy Banning Doctors From Receiving Drug Industry Gifts (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=51744&nfid=rssfeeds)

[MushieCookie]

necessary...absolutely not.
I don't carry mine anymore. I just carry a pharmacopeia, maxwells, a penlight (real small...it's sweet!), my ID badge, trauma sheers, and my 'EM guide'...that's it.

[swimguy23]

necessary...absolutely not.
I don't carry mine anymore. I just carry a pharmacopeia, maxwells, a penlight (real small...it's sweet!), my ID badge, trauma sheers, and my 'EM guide'...that's it.

I used to carry mine and realized i barely ever used it.....it was easier to look up drugs in scut monkey (which has 95% of everything you'll need) and harvards general medicine pocket book....i also like to write notes occasionally too so pda wasnt good

besides those things during bloody rotations or where i was going to be exposed to a lot of people with respiratory infections, i would carry the stethoscope diaphragm cover.....problem is it looks exactly like a condom.....you can see where this is going

[swimguy23]

unless you goto Stanford:

Stanford University Medical Center Expected To Announce Policy Banning Doctors From Receiving Drug Industry Gifts (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=51744&nfid=rssfeeds)

Wyckoff really doesnt allow drug reps either.....i think they have a drug rep day but other than that you dont see them in the hospitals

[mobilefrenzy]

I have heard PDA's are useful for Epocrates and ABX guide. Check PDA's finds use in medicine (EPOCRATES), Education (Mobile learning) and Sporting (flights) (http://www.explore-mobiles.com/newsdetails.php?newsid=154)
Anybody has used PDA's for this? How far are they user-friendly and what is the update frequency?
Thanks

[rocky_wayne]

Get a Treo from Cingular or any mobile service you use and get epocrates on it. This is all you need cause it is a palm, phone and internet browser all in one. What more could you want....everybody has them now so that is my next purchase.

Rock

[Ditch Doctor]

Back when I was a paramedic there was always an inverse relationship between the amount of crap a person carried and how much of a newbie they were... "rescue randys" would be decked out in so much crap that it would be funny... large and small trauma shears, 72 hemostats, 16 caribiners, 87 rolls of tape, IV caths, seatbelt cutter, window punch, spyderco knife, gerber multitool, maglight... jeez the list would go on... even though there was a jump box with all of this crap in it, they would carry their own... the guys that had been there 20 years maybe carried a pen. So even though I am the newbiest of newbies, I have forced myself to be a minimalist and carry next to nothing, trauma shears, pens, penlight and stethoscope... I have a PDA a dell Axim blah blah blah, and it's pretty sweet, but I honestly use it more for galaga when I have down time... I do use epocrates it for prescription doses and antibiotic choice and stuff like that...

[TopGunner]

How is that new Blackberry Pearl? Will it run epocrates, etc?

[StodeMD]

I am not even in Med1 yet, but my PocketPC (windows based) is inseperable. I've seen tons' of free medical stuff. Obviously opinions differ, but I bet the people who don't use pda's in clinicals don't because they haven't figure out how to be fast on them.

I guarantee I can look up a drug faster on my pda than you can flip to it in a pocket book. I timed it, 13 seconds from hitting the on switch. Diagnosaurs is free and fast and helpful.

Plus, if you get a keyboard, you type emails in "downtime" if that ever happens. The keyboards go in yrou back pocket. They are also mp3 players, can get 2 gig sd cards for them for 25$ now. They sinc with all your outlook programs on your pc, without a thought. They can connect wirelessly (almost all come with wifi inside now) with teh hospital's mainframe, and I've heard of med students and interns getting records and test results, and really impressing their residents, etc...I realize i may sound naieve on the medical stuff, because I am .

But I'd never be caught dead without one even if not in med school. Have my kids pictures on it, bible on it, lord of the rings on it, Movies on (like Matrix, Mad Max, any dvd can be converted to about a 128mg file with a 25$ converting program). Basically, they are like little laptops.

Blessings.

[microphage]

PDAs are great and all but in all honesty, its not all that useful. A small Pharmacopeia(sp) is enough, you'll see. I had my PDA with like every program known to man but again, it just wasn't that useful in the end. If I truly need to learn more about something, I'd look at UpToDate or Harrisons or whatever.

I know yall ain't believing me but oh well.

[StodeMD]

I am just hopelessly addicted to mine.

So, when I get into rotations, I'll probably learn the hard way.

I do appreciate this and previous postings. I am sure you've been there and seen how it works.

Blessings.

Ps. And, I see your post count is quite huge.

[yichafa]

For those who are into PDA's, which model do you recommend?
Thanks.

[kristingor]

i use the palm tx and have excellent luck with it. 2 other students on my current rotation are using the same model.

[StodeMD]

Palm used to have more medical software, but now POCKET PC has just as much, and definately all teh newer clinical software is on them.

PEOPLE ACTUALLY IN CLINICAL ROTATIONS...will mostly tell youthey don't use theirs there. It must be a style issue.

BUT YORU ACTUAL QUESTION...IF YOU JUST WANT OT KNOW A GOOD PDA?. I'd go Pocket Pc, and go Either Mid level HP Ipaq or (prefferably) Dell Axim, which gives all the bangs for very little buck.

Ultimately, you'll check it out for yourself and get something that looks nice too. Both the HP and Dell look really nice.

Take care.

[Scientific]

I got a Palm TX, and it works great. It has mp3/video capability so it can double as your personal entertainment system as well as your PDA. As for as programs, here are the ones I have:

Epocrates (free version)- Seriously, save yourself the money, the things you NEED are free, if you want to pay for the extras, that's up to you

Merck Manual- Excellent program...I use it pretty much daily. It has most of the stuff the paid version of Epocrates has (Diagnosis, Treatment, Etiology, Symptoms, etc). PLUS, it comes with a FREE Pocket Guide to Lab Tests program which comes in handy when your resident orders labs and doesn't tell you exactly what they are ;).

Diagnosaurus- Good program, but it only gives you the possible diagnosis, no treatements, etc. It helps to narrow things down when your patient comes in with certain symptoms though. Then you could switch to Merck to find out the rest.

Hopkins Antibiotics Guide- Has just about all the antibiotics in it...good program, but I haven't really had to use it yet.

Also, GET A MAXWELL QUICK MEDICAL REFERENCE!!!!!!!!!! It's a very thin pocket book and it only costs about $7, but it has a ton of info that you will need on a daily basis (how to write your SOAP note, Admit note, normal lab values, H&P, Neuro exam, etc etc. GET IT GET IT GET IT!!!


Also check this site: Medical Student | Medical School | Medicine - MedicalStudent.com: A digital library of authoritative medical information for all students of medicine (http://www.medicalstudent.com). It's a great site, has EKG stuff, lots of PDA programs, and info for just about every rotation you could think of. Enjoy