Devices powered by the Pocket PC operating system continue their march to the
enterprise. Many vertical markets have benefited from the power of such devices,
including sales, customer service, and inventory control. One of the most
interesting markets is health care. This one seems custom designed to benefit
from handheld computers, and their adoption is well underway. What follows is a
broad review of why handhelds are so well suited to health care, how personal
digital assistants are currently being used in medicine, how the Pocket PC
operating system stacks up against the Palm OS, and remaining obstacles to PDA
acceptance. It continues with security issues surrounding patient data, and ends
with factors that will stimulate even faster adoption of Pocket PC devices by
health professionals.
Health care information needs
When the information needs of health care are examined, it becomes apparent
why handheld computers are destined to play an important role.
Data drives the practice of medicine. "Doctors and nurses spend a quarter of
their time searching for, sorting, and using information. Hospitals spend 15% of
their budgets on information management. Health care professionals need
information every time they encounter a patient, and that information must be
accurate, up-to-date, and easily obtained" (Sarah Blanton, "Securing PDAs in the
Health Care Environment,
www.sans.org/rr/pdas/health_care.php).
Medical information needs can be classified as data needed by patients, by
health care professionals, and by large health care organizations.
From the patients' point of view, there are two significant needs. One is
information at the "point of care." If health care professionals have the
information they need, when they need it and where they need it, presumably
their patients' care benefits. Handheld computers are ideally suited to
accompany physicians to the patient's bedside. The other need is patient
education. Patients who possess palm-sized computers can have diagnostic,
treatment, and educational data beamed directly to them. Patients thus informed
become partners in their own health care.
From the health care professionals' point of view, the acquisition and
manipulation of information is crucial. Doctors, nurses, and therapists must be
constantly updated on the condition of their patients, developments in their
fields, and insurance reimbursement information. Such diverse data are located
in various places, and getting them assembled and distributed is no easy feat.
Mobile professionals can easily carry PDAs to the sites where data are generated
and use them to transfer information to or from larger networked computers.
From the hospital and insurance organizations' point of view, information on
what procedures have been provided must be continually captured and accurate
billing completed. If such operations are inefficiently performed,
administrative costs rise and ultimately affect the cost of health care to
individuals and their employers. Handhelds can significantly reduce the number
of steps to capture charge data and increase accuracy.
Though handhelds are making significant inroads to the health care industry,
many professionals have not yet adopted them. The National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST), a government agency, contends that pervasive
computing could do much to improve the efficiency of the health care industry.
As reported in Bio-IT World on October 2, 2002, Arden Bement, the Director of
NIST has said that "health care facilities rely heavily on paper to manage care
but would benefit greatly from broad use of electronic records, personal digital
assistants, wireless networking and mobile management middleware" (www.bio-itworld.com/news/100202_report1276.html).
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