Use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) for healthcare applications is growing rapidly Even healthcare organizations that do not intend to use them should become familiar with their capabilities and risks because physicians and medical students already may own one.

One reason for the growing popularity of PDAs is the expanded memory and new software products that are becoming available. Software applications that are particularly useful to physicians and hospitals include patient tracking, laboratory order entry and results checking, access to reference materials, medical calculation, prescription writing, and charge capture.

Patient tracking. Patient-tracking programs allow notes on patient care to be uploaded or downloaded, giving physicians the ability to view or add chart information from any location. Such software provides improved access to the patient’s medical record and scheduling, billing, and contact information. In addition, patient-tracking software may coordinate with charge-capture, laboratory management, and medication lists.

Laboratory order entry and results checking. Physicians using laboratory test-ordering systems can check test results and order new tests. These programs also may include features that offer reminders or negate orders found to be inconsistent with input data.

Access to reference materials. Reference programs provide access to a large variety of medical information and medical specialty reference books as well as vast amounts of drug information, One of these systems, ePocrates, can be downloaded at no charge. (a) It allows drugs to be searched by generic name, trade name, or class and provides access to information on cost, adult and pediatric dosing, drug interactions, and adverse reactions. A function labeled “other info” provides information such as DEA status, pregnancy and lactation cautions, route of excretion, and mechanism of degradation/excretion. A multicheck function alerts physicians to possible drug interactions among multiple prescriptions involving up to 30 drugs at a time.

Medical calculation. These programs help physicians perform calculations using a variety of medical measures. They may either contain preset calculations or permit users to customize their own.