Blueprints Flash Facts for the Pda

Background:The personal digital assistant (PDA) provides a number of attributes that medical students find attractive. PDAs:Provide mass storage of and rapid access to valuable medically-related information.By nature, are conveniently small, lightweight, and pocket-sized resources.Possess "searchability" functions more convenient than the index of a physical book.Allow easy access to new programs (download content from website or access on a PC/Mac through CD-delivery).Research suggests that PDAs are more popular among US medical students and practitioners than in the rest of the world. A Harris poll in 2002, the most recent data available on PDA use in the UK, indicates that, currently, 18% of doctors in the UK are using PDAs[i]. By sharp contrast, according to a news article from the American Medical Association, it is estimated that approximately 40% of practicing physicians in the US owned a PDA, up from 19% in 2001.[ii] Furthermore, a report from the Forrester''s Consumer Technographics 2004 North American Benchmark Study, cited by PDAcortex.com, suggested that nearly two-thirds (62%) of "younger physicians" use some brand of PDA.[iii] Ownership of handheld computers among UK junior doctors is at 40%[iv]PDA use by medical students, residents, and practitioners was expedited in the US when medical schools began to require that each medical student own a PDA. The University of South Dakota School of Medicine, working in conjunction with Palm, Inc., became the first institution in the US to require each student to own a PDA in 2001, according to a press release appearing in Yahoo! Finance in May 2001.[v] Other medical schools followed suit as students and faculty began to observe the inherent information storing and sharing capacities of PDAs in the medical curriculum.Internal e-surveys collected for medical students in the US demonstrate the high number of PDA users on US medical campuses. In August 2003, an e-mail survey was sent out to 1097 medical students in the US and Canada. Approximately 30% of potential informants responded, resulting in 329 individual respondents from geographically diverse locations.From the August 2003 survey, 87% of respondents indicated that they owned a PDA. While only 28% of respondents indicated that they had, in the past, purchased a "medical e-book," for their PDA, over 87% of total respondents indicated that they would purchase a medical e-book for their PDA.These numbers were refined and confirmed in December 2004. In an e-survey to 487 second, third, and fourth year medical students and interns, 125 students responded (representing a 25.6% response rate), from institutions of varying prestige with a high degree of geographical diversity. Of these, 92% of medical students indicated that they currently owned a PDA. Of the 8% who did not currently own a PDA, 100% of them indicated that they intended to purchase a PDA at the start of clerkships/rotations in their third year. Of the students who did own a PDA, nearly 77% of respondents indicated that they "always" or "often" used their PDA as part of their medical education. Over 62% indicated that they would consider purchasing USMLE review material for their PDA, and nearly 54% have purchased a medical program for their handheld in the past twelve months.Competition in the medical student e-publishing market encompasses a wide range of offerings. From the daily information available to the PDA version of Up-To-Date and ePocrates to the less frequently updated Harrison''s On Hand and Griffin''s Five Minute Clinical Consult, from the medical divisional perspective, there exists strong, established competitors. However, in the medical student e-product market, as in the traditional print market, the needs of the primary audience diverge from those of practicing physicians.Medical e-products and handheld software specifically for medical student review are beginning to emerge. The handheld versions of the Platinum Vignettes series and Buzzwords fChen, Franklin is the author of 'Blueprints Flash Facts for the Pda ', published 2007 under ISBN 9781405105064 and ISBN 1405105062.