Ok now it is time for PDAs in Medical Libraries.

Disclaimer:
Since I am a medical librarian I am a little more familiar as to how PDAs are being used in the medical profession. Please know that the hospital that I work for has NO PDA initiative and that is really sad. We are a vary large and well respected hospital that is constantly listed as one of the top hospitals by US News and World Report. Unfortunately we are seriously behind the times when comes to using PDAs in a clinical setting and hospital support. So, while I am more familiar with PDAs in medicine, I am by no means an expert, and unfortunately I can not give you many examples as to how our hospital and library work PDAs.

That being said, lets get on to the blogging.

Just to a simple Google search PDAs and medicine. Doctors everywhere are grabbing PDAs and practicing medicine. JSOnline has an article entitled "Doctors take PDAs on rounds" which profiles doctors who take their PDAs on rounds as a quick reference tool to help in the diagnosis and management of patient care.

PDAs are loaded up with medical software that make diagnosing patients easier, provide drug information, lab test values, and medical reference texts. Instead of flipping through multiple pocket handbooks stuffed into their lab coats, doctors can easily look up the name of drug they might prescribe to find out its contraindications, dosage levels, adverse effects, price, and reactions with other drugs (including herbal).

Depending on where the doctor practices can determine how much their PDA can do. For example some hospitals have instituted a wireless system that allows doctors to have the patient's medical record on their pda. These doctors can easily look at their record make notes and write prescriptions and have it all uPDAted with the hospital as soon as their PDA syncs. Glens Falls Hospital is one such hospital that does this.

So what are medical libraries doing? Again this varies from library to library.

Currently, our library provides a list of medical software products that were/are suggested for people in the medical profession. We list these products by subject (pediatrics, drug info, emergency medicine, etc.) so that our users have a list of recommended products. We do not buy any products for them nor do we do any site licensing of such products.

Other libraries (it seems to be mainly medical school libraries ) offer medical software and software packages via site licenses. Users then can download these products on to their PDA and use them in their hospital. Some libraries also provide sync stations and printing to users.

Ovid, MDConsult, UpToDate, eMedicine, as well as other vendors provide database access to their products (for a fee of course). Users can query databases and get information when they sync.

So there you have it. I very briefly explored the use of PDAs in public, academic and medical libraries. Monday I will list a bunch of links that are good resources or reading on the use of PDAs in libraries. Until then, have a good weekend.