Since we’ve got a number of docs and med students, I wanted to ask for my own professional development:
How many of you use PDA resources (drug guides, manuals, 5-Minute Consults, etc.) in your practice or study?
Which ones do you use?
How do you get delivery (CD-ROM, download), and where do you go?
Do you actively follow news on medical PDA products?
Disclaimer: I work for one of the largest providers of medical textbooks and PDA products, but I’m finding it difficult to discover how widespread they are, how they’re used and obtained, etc.
My PDA ranks alongside my stethoscope as a thing I can’t imagine doing my job without.
We have a program called MDData that allows us to sync our Palms in several locations throughout the hospital and get all of our patients’ labs, meds, radiology reports, etc. I don’t think a lot of hospitals have this yet, but I can’t imagine they’ll hold off for long.
I use ePocrates at least hourly. In addition, I have lots of little freebie programs like MedCalc, MedRules, ABG Pro, and an automated Folstein MMSE that are very useful when I need them.
The only real reference I have is the Harrison’s Companion. Such references tend to be really expensive, so I haven’t bought any, especially when I already have the hard copy version. I’d like to have some more, and I have some book money to play with and I just added some memory, so I might add some stuff eventually.
If my practice were more office-based, as I gather QtheM’s is, I’d probably not find it nearly so useful. Since I’m moving around the hospital constantly, though, my PDA is like my right hand. I don’t know of a doctor in our hospital who doesn’t use one.
Dr. J, I think I emailed you our rep’s info for where you are. If not, I’ll do so again, but give him a call; we like to seed med students, residents, and interns with a few freebies now and then to get interest up. If he doesn’t already have someone spreading the word, you might get loaded with PDA programs.
Another disclaimer: I would see no personal profit from Dr. J doing so, nor am I trying to sell product. I’m merely pointing a fellow doper toward an opportunity. And why do I feel like Alex Chiu for doing so?
I don’t use PDAs as a dispensing pharmacist, but their use by physicians who do not know how to use them properly is a real pain. In east TN, we have several large group practices with these things “writing” scripts for them, and them transmitting them by fax. Not a problem, except they’ve been told, over and over and over again, that it is against the law to write controlled substance prescriptions with them. This causes major problems when you have a patient that’s been told that their rx “should be ready by now, we sent it to them over the fax hours ago” for hydrocodone again. Sigh.
As a patient, I’d love that. I’d particularly like to have some sort of program that screeches “DUMB DOC DUMB DOC” when the physician prescribes penicillin to someone who’s allergic to it. I’ve received a penicillin prescription several times, even though I MENTION that I’m allergic to it every time I go in for some sort of wound or infection, and I always make sure it’s on my chart, too.
Seriously, I think that this would be a major benefit to patients, too, especially those of us who have had a lot of tests run…a doctor (NP, PA) could look up past test results all on one screen, things like that.