What Can a Personal Digital Assistant Do for You?

Florida Family Physician
January 1996 / Volume 46 / Number 1

On July 22, 1993, Apple Computer first announced the birth of the MessagePad--a handheld computer and communications device based on the company's Newton technology. The more powerful MessagePad 120, was released in January of 1995. This third generation Newton has come a long way from its predicessor. The MessagePad has evolved from a consumer electronics oddity to a specialized tool. Its applicability to medicine has grown increasingly apparent over the past year. Modern medicine, by definition, requires organization and management of vast amounts of information. Developers are exploiting the unique Newton user interface to create robust medical references and patient management tools.

Educational research Laboratories, Inc. (ERLI) was the first to release several reference texts from the Current Clinical Strategies series. The seven available titles include Diagnostic History and Physical Exam in Medicine, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Outpatient Medicine, Pediatrics, and Surgery. ERLI has also released an electronic version of the Little Black Book of Primary Care. The The 5 Minute Clinical Consult, the DSM-IV, and the Lexicomp Drug Information Handbook (boasting complete information on over 900 drugs), are the three most recent books developed by ERLI. Iverson Software has released several medically related hypertext books including The Patient's Guide to Cancer and the Brain HypertextBook. The cancer guide is very complete. Although targeted for patients, much of the information would be useful to students and physicians alike. BDR, Inc., has recently entered the Newton world with its UpToDate in Medicine series. It contains the majority of the text found in the CD-ROM version of UpToDate and provides current answers to common clinical questions in nephrology, endocrinology, cardiology, and over the next year, all the other areas of internal medicine. All of these programs utilize Newton's built-in search functions, making it easy to find what you are looking for, even across multiple sources.

Patient management programs are coming up to speed as well. The elegant Pocket Doc developed by Physix, Inc., goes a long way toward automating the clinical encounter. Pocket Doc allows information to be handwritten or "tapped" directy into a powerful patient database. By tapping on a series of prompts, a complete progress note or history and physical can be entered in minutes. This information can then be printed, faxed, "beamed," emailed, or archived as needed. Beaming allows two MessagePad users to transfer information by way of an infared light beam. Cross-covering providers can "hand off" patient data in a matter of seconds. Other features of this excellent program include patient-specific problem and to-do lists, ICD and CPT coding, and a malleable drug formulary.

Apple is preparing to ship a new Newton operating system, Newton OS 2.0, in December. The new OS officially boasts a fourfold increase in speed, but one review recently stated that gains of up to 15-fold were noted in some situations. This is very good news since performance had been a major problem for Newton users in the past. The built-in handwriting recognition has been improved and users will also be able to more easily access their desktop computer, allowing easy transfer of information to and from the Newton. As the Newton is an independent operating system, it works equally well with Macintosh or Windows-based systems.

The Newton isn't as revolutionary as PET scanning or privatizing Medicare. It does, however, automate some important medical tasks and allows the physician more time to practice the art of medicine. To find out more, visit the University of Florida Medical Newton Users Group on the World Wide Web at http://www.med.ufl.edu/medinfo/newton/.