Utilization of personal digital assistants (PDAS) by pediatric and emergency medicine residents

The objective of the present study was to investigate the current personal digital assistant (PDA) usage patterns of the residents and their interest in future PDA-based applications. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among the Pediatrics (Peds) and Emergency Medicine (EM) residents in an urban teaching hospital. Data points included level of training, specialty of training, experience of use of different PDA devices, use of current software applications, and interest in future applications. A total of 60/74 (81%) eligible residents participated in the study. Palm (Palm Inc., Sunnyvale, CA) was the most commonly used operating system (82%). Among the PDA users, 82% reported using the device several times a day, and 16% used them a few times a week. The most commonly used applications included the simple calculator (81%), drug references (80%), medical calculators (75%), electronic textbooks (66%), and schedule and contact information (42%). In addition, residents showed interest in using PDA applications for procedure logs, patient tracking, and prescription writing. No significant differences were noted in the frequency and expertise of using PDAs between the Peds and EM residents (p = 0.29). Our data show current trends of use of PDAs by Peds and EM residents and their interest for future applications.