Cindy Weisfloch, a doctor with the family practice, started using her Handspring Visor, another brand of personal digital assistant, a couple of months ago. I need to have a visual trigger. Before the PDA, Weisfloch carried five notebooks with her, as well as a box of text books for reference. Recently, she had a question about iron deficiency. It took her hours to find the information she needed, then she put it in her Visor for safekeeping.
Users can download textbooks to their PDAs.
Jarvis' Palm Pilot already includes one textbook with more than 2,000 topics and treatments. The technology comes in especially handy with geriatric patients, a specialty of the practice. Often older patients take several medications for preventive care, as well as ailments, providing more opportunities for interactions, Vogel said. In addition, side effects of drugs often cause harsher reactions in older patients. Recently, Weisfloch needed to prescribe medication to a patient who already took a long list of drugs.