1. Handheld computers
for informationists
Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, MD

2. Handheld computers for
informationists
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Introductions
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Mobile computers
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Individual usage
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Team usage
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NIH issues
– NIH HUG resources
– Blackberry
– offline vs online
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Q&A

3. What is a mobile computer?
●
Ultramobile
– Handheld computer
– Smartphone
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Advantages
– portable
– battery life
– always on
– easy sharing
●
Recommend Palm or Pocket PC

4. Why it is here to stay
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Handheld computers become smartphones, and
every clinician is already carrying a phone
– Aziz et al (PMID 16109177) gave smartphones to
surgeons and improved responsiveness to nurses
●
No charge left behind
– Moulton et al (PMID 16385275) gave handheld
computers to trauma surgeons and increases
charge capture

5. Personal information
●
Simple organizer software can make a big
difference
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Teach the advantages of
– synchronization with secretary’s PC
– beaming to colleagues
– the more they write the more they retrieve

6. Evidence-based medicine
●
Most references are equivalent, so recommend
the NIH-HUG resources
– MD Consult:
●
create a personal account then a POCKETConsult account
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mainly news but also drug reference
– Facts and Comparisons
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AtoZ Drug Facts offline
– Natural Standard
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evidence-based information about complementary and
alternative therapies.
– MICROMEDEX

9. Local knowledge
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Using local reference information is a big and
important part of daily workflow
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Source: Word, PDF, HTML
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Read: RepliGo, Plucker
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Great teams beam great amounts

10. Blackberry devices
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HHS mandate but can get round this
●
Great for communication and / or bureaucracy
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Limited clinical usage including clinical
software, PDFs, web pages and beaming

11. Online vs offline
●
WiFi is desirable but
NIH CIT makes it too
difficult
●
Even when online,
webpages are often
ill-suited for small
screens
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So offline is default
workflow

12. Q&A
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Mohammad Al-Ubaydli me@mo.md
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Copies of the presentation are available at
www.handheldsfordoctors.com