Citation
Katzarkov, R. (2001), "PDAs: A Health Sciences Libraries' Experience", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 18 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2001.23918hac.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited
PDAs: A Health Sciences Libraries' Experience
Roumiana Katzarkov
One general theme at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association was Personal Digital Assistants or PDAs. The increased visibility of these instruments has serious and interesting applications for organizations, publishing and for individuals. Coverage about PDAs as they are used in health sciences librarianship is the focus of this contribution.
The basics
Did you notice the gentleman sitting in the business class of American Airlines, flight 643, carrying a laptop, with a cell phone and a pager attached to his waistband, so deeply engaged in scribbling something into a sleek-looking electronic device? Hmm, how cool!
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are handheld devices that input data to and from desktop computers, thus making computing more flexible, portable, and efficient. Text can be entered in any of these ways:
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Writing by hand.
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Typing using a foldout portable keyboard.
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Typing using a desktop or laptop computer.
In the simplest way, PDAs can be used as electronic organizers, providing access to calendars, calculators, schedule and appointment tracking, phone and address books, etc. They can be a source of reference information and entertainment, offering:
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Access to and creation of databases.
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Games.
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Dictionaries, codes, and lab values.
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Patient data.
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e-Books.
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Drawing applications.
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Productivity applications.
The list goes on and on. Because these devices are small enough to fit in your palm or in your pocket they have some limitations. Among others, some issues relate to memory capacity, battery life, security, and the screen size. A variety of third-party applications are available to extend PDAs' capabilities and to overcome some of these limitations. Many companies are offering add-ons for PDAs, such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), wireless e-mail, modems, MP3 players, voice recorders, text scanners, digital imaging, television remotes, modules that allow PowerPoint presentation (Presenter-To-Go from Margi System), etc. These bells and whistles can turn your PDA into an indispensable device.
For most people the main issue is not whether to buy or use a personal digital assistant, but which brand and which operating system to choose. The most popular PDAs in the USA - Palm, Handspring, IBM, Symbol, HandEra, and Sony use the Palm operating system (PalmsOS). On the other side of the OS spectrum are the WinCE devices presented by Compaq, Casio, and Hewlett-Packard, which are not nearly as popular as their Palm and Palm-cloned competitors.
Palm (introduced in 1996) dominates the market. According to the NPD INTELECT Market Tracking report, in February 2001 Palm's market share was 64.4 percent. It was followed by Handspring, accountable for 19.6 per cent of the market (NPD INTELECT PDA, 2001). Depending on the brand and the model, the price can range from $150 to $600. Two Web sites offer a nice price and feature comparison to assist the buyer:
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Palm Computing, the "Ectopic Cortex", developed by Gary Greenberg http://gilligan.mc.duke.edu/oem/palm.htm
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The PDA in the hand of your physician
To understand the role and the significance of PDAs for the health science library, it is important to devote some attention to their use in medical schools and clinical practice. An increasing number of schools now require their students to utilize PDAs. One such initiative, begun at the Stanford Medical School in the Fall of 2000, provided pre-clinical students with Palm Vx handheld devices, applications, and support (Lane Library Update, 2000). Another is the Palm Medical Initiative at the University of Washington in Seattle. Some hospitals have undertaken similar programs for their residents.
As a result of a decrease in PDA prices and an increase in the number of applications available for free or at little cost and the hospital efforts to support and provide training, the PDA is becoming as common a tool for physicians as the cell phone.
If you are interested in what your physician is doing with the PDA, this list may help:
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Schedules, appointments, addresses, expenses, to-do lists.
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Abstracts from the New England Journal of Medicine; the front page of The New York Times or American Medical News; tables of contents from medical journals (using AvantGo, a free program that allows Web pages to be downloaded to the handheld). Many journal abstracts are available through Handheldmed mobile channels (http://www.handheldmed.com/mobilecontent.php).
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MEDLINE searches. The National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD is experimenting with making MEDLINE searches possible through Palm using AvantGo (http://cim.usuhs.mil/pubmed/).
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Relational HanDBases databases for coding, billing, and other medical applications.
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Document readers that allow the reading and editing of Microsoft Word, Excel, and other files (Quickoffice and Quicksheet from Cutting Edge Software Inc.; WordSmith from Blue Nomad; Documents To Go from Data Viz Inc.).
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Wireless Internet service (OmniSky Corp. and Palm Net from Palm Inc.) with a $40-$45 monthly fee for unlimited Internet access.
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Medical textbooks: The 2000 Physician's Desk Reference, The Five Minute Pediatric Consult, Griffith's Five Minute Clinical Consult 2000, The American Psychiatric Association's Guidelines, DSM-IV Revised Text, The Merck Manual, The Advanced Cardiac Life Support Pocket Survival Guide, etc.
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Drug information through ePocrates' drug reference database (http://www.epocrates.com) or through LexiDrugs (http://www.lexistore.com/lexforpalpil.html). Prescriptions can be wirelessly transmitted to pharmacies.
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Prescription writing and printing using a program from iScribe Inc. (http://www.iscribe.com).
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Patient data recording.
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Data capturing in the exam room.
Helpful hand for the handhelds: the librarian's role
Traditionally the health sciences libraries in academia and teaching hospitals have played a vital role in advancing and presenting technological innovations to their primary clientele: physicians, residents, medical students, and staff. Academic medical libraries are looked upon as being on the frontier of information technology and expectations are high. It is no surprise that medical librarians are concerned about living up to these expectations and the challenges this brings. There is also the obligation of fulfilling the primary mission of health sciences libraries timely delivery of accurate information that enhances the quality of patient care, consumer health, education, and research.
It is clear that PDAs offer a new platform for providing traditional library services. The challenges are associated with methods of delivering these services and the extent of such services. PDAs and their applications in medical libraries are increasingly discussed at forums and meetings of various medical library groups. Several contributed papers on this topic were presented at the May 2001 Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association (MLA) in Orlando, Florida, and prior to that at the Northern California and Nevada Medical Library Group (NCNMLG) and the Medical Library Group of Southern California and Arizona (MLGSCA) February 2001 Joint Meeting in San Francisco, California. The MLGSCA Spring Program in April 2001 was videoconferenced in Irvine, CA, San Diego, CA, Phoenix, AZ, and Tucson, AZ under the title "Life in the Palm of Your Hand." The main presenters were Pamela Corley, an information specialist from USC Norris Medical Library, and Mari J. Stoddard, Head of Educational Services at Arizona Health Sciences Library.
Mari J. Stoddard had also previously presented on this topic in February 2001 at the MLGSCA/NCNMLG Joint Meeting where she discussed the various ways (Stoddard, 2001) the Arizona Health Sciences Library is examining the delivery of information via PDAs:
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Creating a Web-based bibliography about PDAs, their applications, available software, and support.
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Providing hardware support by installing PC to PDA connections in the library (Stoddard, n.d.).
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Evaluating and recommending Web sites.
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Evaluating and recommending reference resources.
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Providing training through a series of two-hour workshops and curriculum integrated classes
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Supporting self-directed learning via current awareness and Continuing Medical Education (CME).
Stoddard entertained the idea that while some of these methods will prove to be less effective, the rest will point the libraries in the right direction. The need for developing the right assessment tools for evaluating these methods was emphasized. The ones currently employed at the Arizona Health Sciences Library included: counting users of the PC-to-PDA cradles; counting the hits on Web pages; classroom evaluations and follow-up interviews for training; and surveying the needs of PDAs self-directed learning.
Mari Stoddard also presented a paper entitled "Library Support of Personal Digital Assistants" at the Medical Library Association (MLA) Annual Meeting in May 2001 in Orlando, Florida (Stoddard, 2001). She gave background information on PDA initiatives at Arizona Health Sciences Center pointing out that the support for handheld devices started as early as 1993. The library and the Learning Resource Center supported this initiative not only by the methods described above, but also by providing both alerting services and purchase coordination. M. Stoddard also talked about another Arizona Health Sciences Library's project, currently in a beta test mode: developing a Web service offering PDA handouts (including library hours), table of contents (TOC) service and links (http://www.ahsl.arizona.edu/services/pda/ ). She also suggested some directions for future PDA related initiatives:
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More effective coordination of purchases.
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Sponsoring support groups.
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Grants to sponsor and fund expanded use of PDAs for educational purposes.
The author concluded her presentation with the statement that while PDAs will become increasingly complex to use they have a great potential and provide many opportunities for the delivery of library services.
The second paper on PDAs, presented at the MLA 2001 Annual Meeting was given by Clair Kuykendall from the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF). Titled "PDAs: Potential Applications in Academic Health Sciences Libraries", it provided a brief overview of existing PDA technologies and their possible applications for libraries. The author noted that UCSF was currently investigating the PDAs' use by creating focus groups, conducting surveys and personal interviews. The initial stage of implementing PDA related services consisted of:
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Creating Web sites.
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Offering formal training (classes).
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Synching stations in the library.
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Developing PDA-compatible content either by licensing or by creating own.
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Using PDAs to interact with the library.
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Dedicated AvantGo server to support PDA applications.
Attending a conference in Orlando can be fun by itself, but the opportunity presented at the MLA 2001 Annual Meeting to talk with colleagues and share ideas gathered together many medical librarians. The traditional Chapter Sharing Roundtables luncheon was extremely popular. No, Minnie Mouse and friends did not attend and it was not the food that attracted more than 300 participants. The entire discussion session was divided into 19 topics (nearly twice as many as at last year's event) ranging from computer security, distance education, eJournals, fundraising, to PDAs and virtual reference services. The significance of this event was marked by explosion of interest in PDAs. From 308 total participants, 53 joined the PDAs discussion, forming a section grouped around six tables. The next most popular topic was "Electronic Journals in Hospitals" with 28 participants. The librarians that sat around the six tables labeled with the "PDAs" sign could have been divided into three categories based on their intentions and expectations:
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Librarians with PDA devices that came to show and tell.
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Librarians, empty-handed, but with a lot of ideas and experience to share.
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Librarians with neither PDAs nor experience, but eager to listen, to learn, and to implement.
The librarians expressed concerns, suggested solutions, but mainly shared experience. The discussion touched many issues:
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Traditional use of PDAs (calendar, e-mail, address book, to-do lists).
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Challenges in supporting different brands, operating systems, and models; inefficient battery power, losing data; security problems.
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Creating Web pages and training materials.
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Instruction addressing the individual needs of physicians.
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Developing classes that include the basics of Palm technology, knowledge-based tools, ePocrates, and other medical applications.
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On-line tutorials.
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Providing opportunity for PDA users to discuss issues and tips through library hosted forums and focus groups.
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Document delivery options to Palm devices.
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PDA resources and software.
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Purchasing Palm applications (individual versus site licensing).
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Supporting cradles (Pilot Install and HotSync).
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Levels of support that the library provides or the basic question: To support or not to support?
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Decision making process for purchasing PDA devices, software, and hardware. Who decides?
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Usability and reliability.
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PDAs' and printing: Do libraries have to consider purchasing printers with infrared ports?
With pride and satisfaction it was shared that in some locations clinicians were regarding the librarians as experts in PDA technology and were seeking their advice and assistance. This resulted in increased visibility and the creation of new opportunities for the library staff to participate in collaborative research projects.
These and many other issues were presented. For some of them the shared experience provided solutions, for others the reassurance came from the realization that other librarians are facing the same dilemmas. The eternal question was asked: What will the future bring?
How long will it be before we put our PDAs in the closet, waiting there to be found as a relic by our grandkids? Nobody knew. But everybody was excited by the present tense of the PDA reality, the possibilities, the flexibility, and the challenges it brought. There was a hint somewhere in the air that "wireless" would be the next thing to challenge our minds.
I, personally, would love to get rid of all these cables. It would be very nice to have a Personal Digital Assistant. I do not have one yet. Maybe I can purchase my first Palm at the vendors' exhibit during the MLA 2002 Annual Meeting in Dallas, TX.
If I can wait that long...
Roumiana Katzarkov (roumiana@uci.edu) is a Science Reference Librarian at the University of California, Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California, USA.
References
NPD INTELECT PDA (2001), Press update March 30. Top Two PDA Brand Shares October 2000-February 2001. [Web document] URL: http://intelectmt.com/corp/int...mt/press/press-it/press_010330.htm
Lane Library Update (2000), Issue No. 72, September.
Stoddard, M.J. (2001), "Handhelds in the health science Library'', paper presented at the Northern California and Nevada Medical Library Group (NCNMLG) and the Medical Library Group of Southern California and Arizona (MLGSCA) Joint Meeting, February 9, San Francisco, CA. URL: http://educ.ahsl.arizona.edu/pda (follow the link to February 9, 2001 presentation).
Stoddard, M.J. (n.d.), "Providing Palmtop hardware support in the library", Latitudes, Vol. 10 No. 3, URL: http://nnlm.gov/psr/lat/v10n3/printversion.html
Stoddard, M.J. (2001), "Library support of personal digital assistants", paper presented at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, May 30, Orlando, Florida. URL: http://educ.ahsl.arizona.edu/pda (follow the link to May 30, 2001 presentation).