Palm Pilot Medical Applications

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(5/6/02) RNPalm: Global Physician Survey Reports Mobile Devices Help Doctors Provide Better Patient Care.

(12/10/01) Emergency Medicine Resident Patient Care Documentation Using a Hand-held Computerized Device

(10/24/01) MSBNC / Wall Street Journal: U.S. forces pack pocket computers When the USS McFaul lobbed Tomahawk missiles into Afghanistan recently, an unlikely new weapon was on board: the Palm Inc. hand-held computer. About half of the Navy destroyer’s 300 or so crew members carry the Palm V. Sailors can download e-mails and access the ship’s Plan of the Day by plugging the gadgets into one of the 32 infrared ports in the ship’s mess halls, passageways and berthing areas. The devices already hold software to conduct ship inspections and perform other tasks.

(10/23/01) Wireless NewsFactor: Palm Devices Give Public Safety a Hand "With public safety departments increasingly embracing wireless technology in their effort to protect citizens and find and punish bad guys, Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) has joined forces with police and fire departments to provide real-time information to officers in the field while streamlining their paperwork-intensive data filing processes."

(9/26/01) From the News Observer: Wiring doctors no simple task "As Dr. Lloyd Hey lay in a hospital 23 years ago recovering from an accident that nearly cost him his left leg, he had a revelation. Hey, now an orthopedic spine surgeon at Duke University Medical Center, envisioned developing a device to improve patient care and ease a doctor's administrative workload. That vision led Hey in 1995 to found MDeverywhere, a Durham-based maker of software that allows doctors to collect and process patient information on hand-held personal digital assistants. There are about 400 doctors using MDeverywhere's system at more than 30 hospitals, physician practices and clinics. Despite the sluggish economy, it expects to turn its first profit next year. "

(9/22/01) From RNPalm: Point-and-Click Software Enhances Ambulance Personnel's Efficiency "Point-and-click software developed at Penn State U for use with handheld computers is enhancing patient care by helping ambulance personnel collect data more efficiently and provide more information to hospital emergency departments."

(9/16/01) From PalmInfocenter: Handspring Donates to Red Cross "Handspring has donated 500 Visor Deluxes and VisorPhones to the Red Cross and New York Police and Fire Departments to help them coordinate their efforts to help the victims and find survivors in the WTC attacks, according to Visor Central. VoiceStream is donating GSM wireless service for the phones."

(9/10/01) Colleges Give Palm Handhelds to Students (similar article 5/3/01) "Earlier this week, more than 1,300 students at the University of South Dakota became the first in the United States to receive Palm handhelds authorized by a university for all first-year undergraduates, law, and medical students. The Palm m500 and m505 handhelds came with a dozen education, productivity, and communication applications."

(9/6/01) From AMedNews.com:http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_01/tesa0910.htm "So, you think you're pretty hip now that you've gone and bought yourself a handheld. Whoa! You could be way cooler! "

(8/31/01) UPDATE (CNET/Yahoo) on the stories that follow: FCC withdraws approval for handhelds "The Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites), which earlier this week approved new wireless handhelds from Palm and Handspring, has now set aside its ruling."

(8/29/01) From CNET / Yahoo Handspring to launch two PDA-cell phones "Handspring on Tuesday received regulatory approval for two handhelds that combine cell phone, Web browsing and traditional organizer functions, CNET News.com has learned." A similar article from PalmInfocenter Handspring Gets FCC Approval for Two Wireless Handhelds (includes pictures)

(8/21/01) (similar to the PalmInfocenter item on the 18th) Harris Interactive Physicians’ Use of Handheld Personal Computing Devices Increases From 15% in 1999 to 26% in 2001 "Many experts predict that within a few years most doctors will use handheld computing devices, such as the Palm handhelds or Pocket PC as an integral part of their everyday practice. It is expected that they will be used to track and update medical records for prescribing, and for billing and practice management. The trend is moving strongly in this direction, according to Harris Interactive Computing in Physician's Practice, but the pace of change suggests that a majority of doctors will not do this for several years. "

(8/19/01) Merginet Help in the Palm of your Hand "By now, many people are familiar with the Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's) that have flooded the market. If you don't already have a PalmPilot, it's extremely likely you know someone who does. But have you ever considered using a PDA in your work in EMS? "

(8/18/01) PalmInfocenter Handhelds Catch On with Doctors "Since 1999, the number of doctors in the U.S. using handhelds as an integral part of their everyday practice has almost doubled from 10% to 18% this year. That number jumps up to 33% among doctors under the age of 45. These figures come from a recent study carried out by Harris Interactive. They go on to predict that about half of all U.S. doctors will be using handheld devices by 2004 or 2005, though not necessarily for business-related purposes. "

(8/8/01) Medicine on the Net Tapping into wireless technology "Wireless and mobile devices have an enormous potential to make healthcare more efficient, systematic, and accurate. However, at present no one is tapping into its full potential."

(8/7/01) New York Times (free registration required) Hand-Held Monitor Compiles Heart Data "The Active Corporation, a two- year-old company in Castine, Me., has introduced a portable heart monitor planned for use with Palm hand- held devices. Called the Active ECG, the unit includes electrodes that attach to the patient, plus a cable that attaches to a Palm. "

(8/6/01) MSNBC / Wall Street Journal: Hand-held makers slash prices "There may be more surprises to come in what is now the hand-held-computer industry’s most ruthless selling season yet. In the past few months, as back-to-school sales have gotten under way, hand-held-device makers from Palm to Handspring Inc. to Hewlett-Packard Co. have been launching all-out pricing and promotional blitzes."

(7/22/01) Medscape (free registration required) Personal Digital Assistants in Clinical Practice: The Wave of the Future? The use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) in medical care was discussed in an instructional course at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons 68th Annual Meeting. Dr. Jay Mabrey of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas, outlined the growth of PDA devices and the downturn in PC-based machines. As medicine has embraced this technology, several academic centers have incorporated its use into their daily regimens. For example, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, relies on the use of PDA devices for email and communication within the hospital. Wake Forest Medical School, has incorporated PDAs into the curriculum, eliminating the need for paper-based ward reporting. (Includes a link to Dr. Mabrey's PowerPoint presentation)

(7/12/01) Hospital Network.com High tech and high touch: Wireless technology for physicians. "A growing number of physicians at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center are consulting their Palm Pilots these days -- for much more than their next patient's appointment. One doc uses the handy device to check a patient's lab test results on his way to grand rounds, while another uses hers to check a patient's surgery results at the airport. In either scenario, the doctors at Cedars-Sinai can now access a patient's medical information from anywhere -- 24 hours a day. What they learn enables them to make time-sensitive medical decisions affecting their patients' care."

(6/27/01) Houston Chronicle: Companies push to have doctors abandon pen for PDA. "A handful of companies now offer digital prescription systems for harried doctors, hoping to modernize a process that hasn't changed much since Hippocrates. Their marketing efforts -- in many cases backed by pharmaceutical companies -- have made small inroads into changing prescribing habits."

(6/21/01) Hospital Network.com: New point-and-click software enhances ambulance personnel's efficiency. "Point-and-click software developed at Penn State for use with handheld computers is enhancing patient care by helping ambulance personnel collect data more efficiently and provide more information to hospital emergency departments."

(6/8/01) The Standard: Handspring Will Take Hand-Ins. Owners of almost any handheld computer can trade in their old devices and receive $100 toward the purchase of Handspring's Visor Edge, as long as they buy the machine from Handspring's Web site. A similar article on Newsfactor.

(6/8/01) AP/Yahoo: Palm Unveils Card for Wireless Links. Palm Inc. unveiled an insertable card that would enable Bluetooth wireless connections between its popular handheld computers and other nearby devices equipped with the short-range technology. A similar article on Newsfactor.

(6/7/01) IMICH - International Mobile Informatics Conference in Healthcare RNpalm.com is pleased to sponsor the world's first interdisciplinary conference addressing the issues necessary to harness the potential of mobile informatics technology and leverage the mobile computing platform at the point of care. The ongoing evolution of wireless technology, and mobile device capabilities is changing the way healthcare practitioners interact with information technologies.

(5/25/01) Iterum, the company that makes PalmEMS, is preparing to release a new Palm-based program named PalmEKG. PalmEKG is a field guide designed to help you interpret basic heart arrhythmias. We thought you might be interested in receiving a free copy of PalmEKG. To get your free pre-release version of PalmEKG, please visit PalmEKG.com.

(5/14/01) In a follow up to the USD story below, "It turns out the University of South Dakota program to provide Palm handhelds to all first-year undergraduate students as well as first-year law and medical school students is far from alone. Harvard Medical School is setting up a handheld-related program for its students and so is Consolidated High School District 230 of Orland Park, Ill and East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. A high school in Seattle is running a test program, too. "

(5/3/01) In a move that puts it at the forefront of mobile technology use on campuses, The University of South Dakota of Vermillion today announces it will provide Palm handheld computers to all first-year undergraduate students as well as first-year law and medical school students. The initiative, the first in the United States to mandate the use of handheld computers by undergraduate students, takes place beginning with the 2001-2002 academic year and affects approximately 1,300 students.

(4/26/01) We've added links to additional reporting on the HandEra from PalmInfocenter and a review from Dr. Jim Thompson to our Palm Hardware page.

(4/21/01) From CNET.com: A Palm from the Plains: If you build it, will they come? That's the question for Palm's smallest licensee, a 40-person Iowa company called HandEra. The company, which until recently was known as TRG Products, plans to announce Monday a Palm OS-based handheld for businesses that has two expansion slots and a screen with a higher resolution than most competitors.

(4/21/01) From PalmInfocenter.com: Full HandEra 330 Information Available: The long awaited information on the new HandEra 330 is finally available. In some ways it is similar to current models from other licensees. For example, it has 8MB of RAM, 2 MB Flash memory, and runs the 33 MHz Motorola Dragonball VZ. It uses a version of OS 3.5 that has been tweaked for it, though HandEra is promising to offer OS 4.0 when it becomes available.

(4/11/01) From CNET.com: Acrobat Reader Tweaked for Palms: "Adobe announced Tuesday a free beta, or test, version of its Acrobat Reader for the Palm operating system, allowing handhelds to read and search files created using the PDF (Portable Document Format). PDF preserves the appearance of a document, even if the person opening the file doesn't have the same fonts or programs as the person who created it."