Handheld computer use in a family medicine clerkship.
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Date
2004-10-26
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Abstract
PURPOSE The objectives of this study were to track students use of medical and nonmedical personal digital assistant PDA software and to obtain students ratings of the usefulness of PDAs in a family medicine clerkship METHOD During the academic year 2001 02 third year clerkship students at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine were loaned PDAs equipped with company installed software such as a date book and address book Additional software was installed Griffith s 5 Minute Clinical Consult ePocrates qRx ePocrates qID iSilo HanDBase MedCalc and Application Usage Pre and post orientation questionnaires and a post rotation evaluation measured students comfort level the perceived usefulness and ratings of programs on their PDA Application Usage tracked the number of minutes and times students used each software program RESULTS Eighty five students completed the study They rated ePocrates qRx and Griffith s 5 Minute Clinical Consult the most useful medical software programs PDAs were rated as almost always enhancing the clerkship experience Students reported the PDA altered the way they accessed clinical information and that every few days it helped them understand a clinical discussion Experience with computer technology was correlated with PDA use CONCLUSIONS This study objectively demonstrates clerkship students use of PDA resources Students use mirrors their assessment of the value of the software Although PDAs and software programs can be an expense it is a worthwhile educational resource as evaluated by the medical student