All I have heard has been how the number of PDAs (Palm or PocketPC) are growing and how doctors and other medical professionals are using them to provide more effective and efficient medical care. For example yesterday's article (9/29/2005) on CNNMoney PDAs prove major aid in health care touts that PDAs now commonly used for clinical drug information could one day evolve into true expert systems. They could "access information from many sources simultaneously, match it with the patient's current medical record and past medical history, apply prediction rules, calculate clinical equations and integrate it into an overall information package to help the doctor make a sound, evidence-based decision."

I honestly thought it is just a matter time before PDAs will be in the pockets of every patient care giver. The only question would be whether it would be a Palm or PocketPC. So naturally I was little confused when I hear our IT person talking about Tablet PCs.

What is a Tablet PC? A Tablet PC is basically a laptop computer with a screen that can swivel and fold onto the keyboard to create the tablet which you can write on using a stylus.

There are some hospitals that are adopting the use of Tablet PC to improve access to patient information. For example, Wisconsin-based Marshfield Clinic evaluated PDAs, desktop PCs and Tablet PCs as potential tools for improving patient services at the point of care. "While PDAs are highly portable, the screens were deemed too small to properly view most medical information. A desktop PC solution was not cost effective because it would require a PC in each patient room and doctor's office. The clinic also predicted that most patients would prefer the unobtrusive note-taking enabled by the Tablet PC as opposed to providers turning away from patients to key data into a desktop computer. "

There are many reasons for using Tablet PCs in health care as illustrated in The Case for the Tablet PC in Health Care, based on a Microsoft White Paper.

However, there are drawbacks to the Tablet PC as the article Not quite ready for prime time, (scroll midway down) indicates. "They're too heavy, too expensive, too limited in healthcare applications and too hard on battery power." Additionally the handwriting software recognition is still too inaccurate and doctors find it can be time consuming making corrections flipping between modes.

No system, PDAs or Tablet PC seem to be perfect for the health care world yet. Personally, I think the winner will actually be who has the most software.