President George Bush visit the Cleveland Clinic yesterday to speak about improving healthcare through the use of technology. (See article from Reuters).

He proposed increasing federal funds to promote computerized medical records, which he said would increase quality of care, save patients' lives, money, and help overhaul the health care industry.

Regardless of your politics this initiative should be interesting to librarians. Why? We don't deal with patient's medical records?
True, but what kind of computers will the doctors be using to deal with patient's medical records? Some hospitals are giving doctors PDAs to use at patients bedsides. These PDAs have the patient's medical record on them so the doctor can evaluate the patient, make notes, order prescriptions, and treat the patient.

So if doctors are carrying these things around, don't you think it would be wise to have some basic PDA services and programs for the doctors? For example what about the library getting an institutional subscription to something like ePocrates or another drug information program. That way the doctor can easily look up current drug information while he is meeting with the patient and before he actually orders the prescription.

There are other library related programs that are available on PDAs. MDConsult, StatRef, FirstConsult, Ovid, PubMed, etc. These are already established library programs/vendors who are familiar with library demands.

What better way to promote the library usefulness and ability to help health professionals treat patients, than to tie your services in with this initiative.