Epocrates announced for Canada - Are PDA applications still useful in the world of high-speed Internet access and EMR?

In 2000, PDA sales peaked at approximately 7 million units worldwide. Last year, that number dropped to just over 2 million units. I often visit technology stores such as Future Shop or Best Buy and I cannot remember the last time that I saw anyone looking at a PDA at the ever shrinking PDA display counters. The telephone and multi-function mobile device is taking over from the PDA with Blackberries and Palm/Pocket PC based phones taking up the lion's share of the market for mobile devices. The advantage for the physician user is obviously the ability carry your information and decision support on the telephone (1 device) rather than on a PDA and carry a cell phone at the same time.

However, are physicians still predominant users of PDAs? Are the cell phones taking over as the devices of choice? Do physicians now tend to use the desktop/laptop/tablet PC with high speed Internet access or directly through an EMR to get medication information or clinical decision support information?

My sense is that although applications such as a Canadian version of ePocrates are important, will they continue to be so as we move to more computers in the office and the exam room and towards EMR and high speed internet access at point of care?

Your thoughts and comments can be added by click on the 'Comments' link at the bottom of this posting.

"Epocrates Inc. announced its expansion into the global market with the introduction of local brand and generic drug names integrated into its clinical applications. The company’s mobile solutions, including the Epocrates Rx free drug reference and the Epocrates Essentials premium drug, disease and diagnostic guide, now include drug name indexes for four countries – Canada, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. “Epocrates products have become invaluable to me, with immediate access to current clinical information, such as drug dosing and interactions, on my personal digital assistant. The addition of the local drug content will help me provide even better care for my patients,” said Michael Golbey, family physician, Kelowna, BC. An Epocrates survey, conducted prior to the launch, found that nearly 90 percent of clinicians currently using Epocrates applications in the four countries believe that using Epocrates has helped them avoid medical errors, and more than 50 percent reported avoiding at least one medical error a week.

Link: Canadian Healthcare Technology - News Canadian Version of ePocrates announced.

 

Comments

[Allan Horii]

There is an intriguing device due for release in the first quarter on 2006, which debuted at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year, called the cPC from DualCor. It's an ultra-portable tablet PC that simultaneously runs Windows XP Tablet Edition and Windows Mobile 5.0. One could instantly switch from Windows XP mode to access Epocrates on the Windows Mobile side, and flip back again. No more juggling devices.

Link: DualCor.com.

[Alan Brookstone]

Al, thanks for pointing out this device. There is no limit to the ingenuity of hardware developers. It looks to me as if the paradigm is shifting. The line between pure PDA clinical decision support applications and desktop applications is becoming more indistinct. Now you can have desktop or PDA versions of many applications and similarly the devices upon which you would access these applications are beginning to cross over and operate as telephones or computers depending on the need, the time or the place.

The tools and applications are beginning to match the way that we work as clinicians, however greater choice also has disadvantages as it becomes difficult to select the right tool as well as the right application.

[Chris Paton]

Interesting thought. My personal feeling is that applications are slowly starting to move online - i.e. gmail, flikr, 30 boxes. Once online it really doesn't matter what device you use to access them. It'll be the same app in a browser window - the size of the window may be different depending on the device. If you are in a smallish office it probably makes sense to use a tablet but if you are more mobile, a junior hospital doc for example, it might make more sense to have a more portable PDA device. I think the days of downloading an app to your unconnected PDA are coming to an end. Software has moved from being distributed on CD-ROM to being downloaded. Soon you won't need to download, just log on.