Hand-held device advice

Hi all. I’m new to this forum and site. I found it through SDN.

So, here’s my question. This is both situationally specific, and general. You’ll see how in a moment.

I attend med school in Poland. One of the odd things about this place is that you can’t take any bags into the libraries. It’s sort of a communist holdover of the make-work sort. If you can’t take your bag, you need someplace to put it. Hence, a bag check. And hence people to staff it. So, bag check + coat check = quite a few somewhat extraneous jobs.

Now this is fine. But it’s a bit of a hassle in terms of what you wind up taking into the library with you. You have to load and unload completely every time you go in. And, heaven forbid you forget your pen. You’ve got to go back down. Minor hassles, yes, but…

So, being 31, I’m rather set in my bachelor ways. I like to study with lots of books and resources around me. Stedman’s, Merck, Latin dict. Crazy, I know. But hey.

So, I’m looking for a small, hand-held device which could contain such books.

My dad, a non-computer-type GP, has this thing called a Franklin which has the PDR on it. But, it seems to be a bit antiquated.

So, what is out there, what have you all used, that would fit the bill?

Something for which I could download, purchase, etc. “modules,” or something of the sort, of various medical, and other references. Or even whole texts.

Obviously the applicability would extend beyond just the pure references. Something like Barron’s Medical Microbiology is awful heavy! But handy to have in class, or in the library.

Hope this makes sense. Any tips would be appreciated!

Thanks!

there are lots of choices and many on this board use a PDA, but until someone with direct experience can answer your post here is one website with basic info: http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/lhsp/temp/pda.shtml

and

you can go to http://www.google.com and enter a search for PDA Medical and you’ll get pages of hits. Happy shopping.

Lisa

There are 2 primary operating systems used on PDAs. Windows-based or Palm-based. Most of the medical applications that I have seen are on the Palm-based formats. You might want to ask around and see what is most popular in your area.

Here are a couple of good websites with this type of information.

www.handheldmed.com (I am not sure that his is the right address, if not you can use google to find “Handheldmed”).

www.pdamd.com

I also received an e-mail with other websites. I don’t have access to that info right no, but it came from the medical students section of www.medscape.com

Hope this helps!

Trey Wood