THIS PAGE IS NO LONGER MAINTAINED - FOR HISTORICAL INTEREST ONLY
I have just ordered a Palm Tungsten T3 to replace my clie, since I dropped it one too many times. So watch this space to see what I think of it! I have also added more info about the PDA stuff available at my online file store. Since my clie wouldn't hotsync any more, I have been looking into other ways of syncing, particularly bluetooth, and other models, so I have added sections on these issues.
Welcome! This is basically a walk through everything I know about PDA use in medicine, so I hope it will be useful for all those new users who are struggling with information feast/famine.
Bias for this page is clearly towards paediatrics, Clies and Macs! Sorry! Suggestions and constructive criticism welcome.
If you are an experienced user, you will be aware of the desperate shortage of UK related sites. Please help! I think we should all support PDA Consult, which has discussion groups and file storage for shared resources.
Choosing your Personal Digital Assistant
I follow Mohammed's basic advice on this. If choose Palm rather than PocketPC type machines because you get more for your money with Palm, and although PocketPCs may be better for the "Power User" I prefer to have a machine that doesn't crash much.
My Clie T625C has been well used, and the comparable model today would be a TJ25. But I like the idea of a bigger screen, so I've been considering the Sony NX73C and the Tungsten T3. The Sony comes with a camera and a keyboard, neither of which is particularly fabulous, although most people seem to think typing is faster than Graffiti. If you want decent pictures you need to go for the NZ90, which is very expensive, and even then you don't get as good pictures as if you got yourself a decent small digital camera. The really nice thing with the Clie is the design and the integrated bluetooth (BEWARE! Only European NX73C come with bluetooth integrated!), the memory is tiny so you will definitely need an expansion card. The older NR70 runs Palm 4 and doesn't have bluetooth.
The Tungsten T3, by comparison, has no camera or keyboard, but is very compact and comes with a stonking 64Mb of memory. Bluetooth is integrated. There are lots available on ebay but most are being sent from the US so beware VAT being charged at customs. I got mine new for £250 incl postage.
The Most Useful Sites
The ideal site, in my opinion, would offer good reviews of different applications, discussion groups for getting help, would be searchable, and would let you know when it changed (by email ideally).
I have an online collection of palm files. You will find here:
- Abase, an excellent growth chart program
- Critical care journal (isilo format, see below)
- Children's Hospital Handbook (isilo format, see below)
- the BNF (isilo format, see below)
- APLS handbook (isilo format, see below)
- Weight converter and feed calculator (excel file, convert it with Documents to go, see below)
PDAMD.com for medical software, discussions. Handango and Palmgear for huge range of software, commercial and other. There are often special deals on, especially if you sign up for email newsletters. Check out the Synchronized magazine. UK based discussions at PDA Consult.
Pbrain for great reviews of palm medical software, including docs and isilo files. Version Tracker for palm (and PC/Mac) software, but specifically for the most recent updates. Journal to Go (free) specialty journal abstracts. Mac OS9 only. Memoware for ebooks, databases, assorted materials. Download.com for comprehensive software source, searchable and with reviews (also for PC/Mac). Clie and Mac site, if your French is up to it...
There are a number of medical textbooks available in PDA format, if you don't mind paying for them. Some of them allow you to print pages off. APLS guidelines are available, as is the Oxford Handbook of Clinical medicine.
Introductory Sites
Medical Apps
The classic free medical applications: Epocrates is a drug formulary. Potentially you could get your hospital formulary included. Medcalc is a medical calculator, you won't use all the formulas but you can create your own custom list, plus there is background information on all the formulas. Archimedes from Skyscape is in colour but is less convenient to use and not free. Patient tracker is a patient database, but it's very American and not very easy to use. You can buy an add-on desktop program to synchronise information. Wardwatch ($19) and patientkeeper personal ($34) have been suggested as alternatives. You could also make your own using a database program (see below).
Eponyms for a great list of all those eponymous syndromes and signs.
Kidnorms from calculates normal values for ecg/development etc ($17), Kidometer does more for the same price, and you get a 30 day trial period. There does not appear to be a UK version at present.
CogniQ is a subscriptions service where you can request journal abstracts, full text articles and do medline/Best evidence searches (not for Mac).
Skyscape's 5 min ped consult: good for general, but expensive ($69). Similarly Pocket Medicine's Treatment Strategy for peds: excellent. ($50)
General Apps
Date Books
There are a couple of excellent alternatives to the built in date book. I recommend Datebk5. Costs $25 (profits to Gorilla haven!), but you can use it with reduced functions for free. It allows you to add colours, fonts, icons and alarms to entries. You can have a split screen view with addresses at the top, combined to do items and appointments below. You can also create Entry templates for common events. The same basic databases are used so the normal conduits are used to back up and synchronize.
Agendus is another integrated date book, to do, and address application. It also costs $25. It lets you add icons, colours, alarms to entries, plus it lets you link direct to address information for a particular datebook entry. Addresses are tabbed, and can be viewed by email, phone or address. Create new item button lets you choose between new memo, address, to do etc. Uses basic palm databases so syncs as normal. You can even choose a background photo from memory stick.
Databases
J file ($24) and Handbase (handbase.com, $29), customisable, sync with Access. I've been using the trial version of J file, it works well and because I only have 1 database so far I don't have to pay anything for it. It's in colour, you can see and edit all patients on 1 screen or open all the details on one patient. You can sort patients by ward and customize popup lists. But you can't link Todo items. Pendragon database has been recommended,but costs $120! (free web browser).
Website Viewers
I haven't tried actual browsing via modem, so instead I've been looking at the different apps you can use to transfer web content from a desktop to a PDA. The great advantage is that you can have a document with clickable links, which is compatible with desktops, palms and pocket PCs. As a Clie user, I need one which can use the high resolution capabilities of my screen.
Avantgo - can find, show images, different fonts. But can't do Frames, not Mac OSX unless downgrade, and the only editing is copy whole page to memo.
iSilo - can find, show images, different fonts, colours, plus tables, stylesheets. Frames are loaded as separate pages, unless you select the individual frame URL. Mac OSX compatible. $17, after a long free trial period, which I have splashed. Lots of isilo resources out there eg neonatal cochrane reviews (see above).
J-pluck works for MacOSX, and can read RSS news feeds. It's free, but you need Jaguar.
Document Viewers
Documents to Go came free with my Clie, and is a way of working with Word and Excel type files then sending them back to your desktop computer. You have to upgrade to use Mac OSX. The newest version (v6) actually edits Word/Excel files on the palm, whereas the old version converted to and from a special palm format. With the full version you can use excel charts and view powerpoint and PDF files (no graphics though).
Document viewers are essentially useful if you need to edit Word documents on your PDA. But some can also convert websites, although not usually as well as the website viewers described above. I use one instead of Memo, because I can add bookmarks.
Handstory - basic (free) is text only, so not great for viewing webpages. tealdoc is a document reader but also converts html $16. Qvadis express reader($26, converts html to palm doc). Wordsmith syncs with microsoft Word. iambic.com - fastwriter edits word docs, html ($30).
Quick mention of Acrobat reader for palm: it's free,does full sizable graphics, font styles, find, bookmarks. But there's no editing, only copying. REALLY slow page loading, which goes along with the memory sapping size of PDF files.
Others
Shadowplan is a deceptively simple database program, where you create nested lists, but can then link them to your Todo or Memo program, set target dates, checkboxes, filter. With a bit of practice you can organize things much better because you don't have to jump backwards and forwards between different applications. Costs £10 for the handheld version only, or £15 for an extra desktop (PC) version.
Hackmaster (X-master better?) allows for customisation of PDA functions, or hacks, eg Easylaunch where you can program particular graffiti strokes to open different applications, Switchhack which with certain graffiti strokes either takes you straight back to the last application you were working with or else brings up a list of your most recent applications, and Tealecho which creates an image of your graffiti strokes on screen (excellent for working out why you keep making the same mistakes!). Fonthack allows you to import different fonts for use in different applications. These are really excellent, and usually shareware. DAs are a similar idea, eg tealmaster. Don't think these will work with Palm OS5.
I use Penpencol for doing diagrams,because you can draw a picture bigger than the screen, plus it's hi-res and free! Also recommended are tealnote, guineabrain.
You can get Palm OS emulator, eg for demonstrating PDA uses on a desktop.
Certain files cannot be beamed, but Beambox program may allow.
For transferring images from a Mac you need the Missing Sync or Splashphoto. Not sure if AcidImage works on a Mac. Documents to Go (see above) has a picture viewer but quality is very poor.
Presenter-to-go enables you to do powerpoint presentations using just your PDA! Expensive though. QuickOfficePro can let you view Powerpoint ($49), as can Documents to Go.
Clever Stuff
Memory sticks and cards
Noone seems to explain this very well. You can quickly run out of memory on a 16 MB device, so once you've deleted all the applications and files you don't actually use, you'll have to get an expansion card. Not all applications can read direct from the stick, so you may have to move files back and forth according to need. For really big files, you may have to install them directly on to the stick; this can be done quite fast by plugging your memory stick into a card reader, otherwise you choose Hotsync then Install on your Palm Desktop, click on details and choose Memory stick as destination.
On the Clie, you will find a couple of applications which you use with the memory stick. Card Info lets you give your card a name. Don't choose "format" unless you want to wipe the whole card. MS gate is the main application for moving files around, but is a really ugly program. You choose the tab for either the device or the memory stick (just symbols towards the bottom of the screen), then you will be able to browse through the folders by clicking on the folder symbols to open them, or clicking on the arrow at the top left to go up a level. Once you have selected your file, you can copy or move it from the device to the memory stick or vice versa. MS backup lets you back up everthing to the stick; this can take up to 5 minutes. You can save a number of backups depending on space available, each is dated. MS import doesn't work with Macs, I suppose it mounts the stick on your PC desktop like an extra drive when in the cradle. No idea what MS Autorun does!
iSync
Having finally installed Jaguar on my Mac, I can now use Isync. Took me a while to get it to work, but basically, you need to install both isync plus the isync conduit for palm destop (from Apple). You start up Isync, select your device, choose Sync now then immediately press the hotsync button on the cradle while isync is running. After the first sync, Isync will work automatically during a normal sync.
Bluetooth
I considered getting the bluetooth memorystick for my Clie. The normal price is over £100, but I found it cheaper on ebay and at Expansys. You can then hotsync without using the cradle (no big deal I suppose, you have to charge it at some time anyhow). More excitingly, you can then use a bluetooth mobile phone to connect to the internet. You can also exchange files with other bluetooth PDAs faster than by infrared. The PDAs that come with Bluetooth integrated are the Sony TJ50, NX73C (in Europe only) and the UX50, and the Tungsten T3 and T2.
Getting help
Use one of the links that has a discussion forum if it's a medical related issue. For general PDA stuff, there's ClieSource, ClieWorld (UK based), and PDAConsult. Doctors.net has a forum too.
