I wanted to get everyone’s opinion, especially those of you have been through the wards. I am getting a PDA for next year. There are some 3rd and 4th years at my school who do all of their reading on their PDA. However, I’m not that extreme; I still like paper for some things. But I would like one to have drug info and some other handy reference info readily available without carrying around multiple books and reference charts. Though, I’m sure my pockets will still managed to bulge with other necessary items 
My question is, is there more/better medical software available for Pocket PC or Palm? Any insight you can provide about either software (i.e. user friendliness, quality, etc) would also be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Tara
For value, a Palm Tungsten E is hard to beat. They’re going for around $175 on the street right now, I added a 256 MB SD card to mine for about $40 more.
On my palm, I have the following medical software: Steadmans Dictionary, Epocrates (free), Bates Physical Exam (came with the book), Harrisons Internal Med, 5 Min Clinical Consult, 5 Min Emerg Consult, LDL Cholesteral (free), Johns Hopkins Antibiotics (free, and really good - enter a pathogen and it tells you the prefered ABx’s and doses, Epocrates requires you to look up the drug first) Stat Cardiac Clearance (free), Med Calc (free) Med Math (free) Medical Mnemonics (free) Med Rules (free), EBM Calc (free, and good for doing the math for EBM), Grace ACS Risk model (free), and Growth (peds growth charts) (free). There are a number of different medical references available depending on what you need. Some hospitals are using specific kinds of charting applications as well.
While most medical apps were first developed for the Palm OS, most (but not all) are available for both Palm and CE. Some of the free ones are still available only on Palm.
There is (right now) 9.3 MB of memory available on my PDA itself, and 210.1 MB of available memory on the card. I also have a number of other applications (non medical), including a number of acrobat documents for search and rescue, search and rescue and flying applications, sailing applications including celestial navigation calculators, a Jewish calendar app, and a number of others. Most all are free. An application called Avant-Go is also free, and lets you download news, directions from Mapquest, etc.
Along with the PDA, I recommend a few accessories (besides the card). I strongly recommend getting the screen protector sheets, one mistake with a pen can ruin the screen. A case of some sort is good, although the cover that comes with the PDA is OK. I really have trouble with the supplied stylus so I only use it for emergencies, I have a pen/pencil/stylus combo that is more like a regular pencil in diameter. I have tried a much larger diameter pen/pencil/stylus combo and didn’t like it as much as the medium sized one. Depending on your situs, you might want a second charger, and a second sync cable if you’re not around your primary a lot. This palm doesn’t use a “cradle” to charge/sync, just a wall-wart transformer and a standard sync cable (USB-A and mini USB-B) (the same as my digital cameras) to sync, so thats convenient. Batteries charge in 30 or so minutes from a deeply discharged state, and my PDA lasts a couple of days of more or less heavy use before needing recharge.
The Tungsten E has a bright, color display. I’m able to read it in direct sunlight and in the dark.
I purchased this palm in September, after completely overloading my previous PDA, a Visor Edge. I’ve also had 2 other palms. I looked at the Palm W (with the landscape/portrait screen), nice but not worth the $ to me, nor did I need the built-in wireless capability. Also, losing an $800 dollar PDA (Palm Tungsten W) would be really annoying, losing a $175 PDA would merely be upsetting. Other devices using Win CE didn’t really appeal to me, a number of the apps I want to use aren’t available for other than Palm OS.
I’ve been using PDA’s since about 1997, when I replaced a 4 lb Franklin Planner with a 4 Oz Palm III, and I’ve never looked back. I wore out the first palm I had after a couple of years, and sold my second one after I bought the Visor. The visor is still going strong, I gave it to my GF.
Hope this helps!
I’d recommend visiting some of the Web sites and online forums devoted to PDAs in medicine. You’ll likely find the answers to most of your questions there.
http://www.pdamd.com
http://pbrain.hypermart.net
http://www.medicalpocketpc.com
Palm OS remains the dominant platform by a large margin (Palm still has 70-80% of the market, depending on who you read or believe), and there is still quite a bit more software available for the Palm OS compared to Pocket PC, although many general medical applications (e.g., Skyscape books, ePocrates, etc.) exist for both platforms. Most users find the Palm OS easier to use than Pocket PC, even those of us who are not computer novices.
Of concern to Pocket PC users is Microsoft’s recent de-emphasis of Pocket PC in favor of Tablet PCs and SmartPhones. Many users who switched to Pocket PC a couple of years ago are now switching back to the Palm OS platform, as the Palm OS now meets or exceeds the Pocket PC in terms of features and functionality in most respects.
Hope this helps,
Okay, my class has decided on a handful of options (one of my classmates has organized a bulk buy). While I liked the T3, it isn’t the best because our hospital is wireless and students get access to charts as well as other info online. My two finalists are the Sony Clie TH-55 and the Tungsten C. Has anyone had experience with either of these? How has your experience been?
Thanks,
Tara
Hello, I just bought a Sony TH-55 a few weeks ago and I like it a lot. The color screen is awesome and big. It has wireless capability and infrared. The battery lasts a really long time and it can even play video files. It has a camera, voice recorder, and the software that comes with it is pretty good for scheduling. It has too many things to list.