PDAs or Tablet PCs? – The debate continues…

• Last week Dr Andrew Harrison wrote about his experience of using a Tablet PC on the wards – The Tablet PC on Test .


• In response Steve Garrington, CEO of Torex Health, argued the case in favour of PDAs as the best mobile devices for clinicians – Open Source – Tablet PCs wrong for Doctors 


• Now Consultant Anaethaestist Dr Ian Paterson joins the debate arguing that mobile technology on the wards holds much promise but must first mature…

We’re clearly still at a very early stage in using this mobile technology on the wards. The key issues are going to be secure wireless access to the trust intranet, screen size, ease of data entry, portability and battery life. The hardware also needs to be ruggedised for use in the clinical environment.

We should of course be mindful that the standard wireless encryption for 802.11b, WEP, is easily compromised and is probably inappropriate where confidential patient information is being transmitted.

As Dr. Andrew Harrison succinctly points out, the current crop of Tablet PCs hold a great deal of promise but need several further development iterations before we can consider their widespread use.

PDAs score highly with their portability. The ruggedised versions with built in wireless networking (e.g. Symbol 8800) are still fairly expensive. Portability also comes at the price of a small screen with limited ability to enter data. Handwriting recognition on a PDA is just about adequate for entering a few words or numbers, but not for trying to enter a full case history.

So what sort of clinical roles will PDAs be useful for? Probably for ordering investigations and accessing results at the bedside. Possibly electronic prescribing but frankly the screens will need to be bigger (a conventional drug chart covers four A4 sheets). A combination unit with voice over IP might be a good use of technology to replace the conventional ‘bleep’, as long as the batteries don’t run out!

I imagine we’ll see a convergence of PDA and Tablet PC technology over the next few years in any case.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Ian Paterson, Consultant Anaesthetist, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Where do stand in the mobile debate? Good old-fashioned clipboard, PDA or Tablet PC? Let us know what your experiences are of using mobile technology to support care and how you think it should be used in delivering 21st century IT for the NHS. Email pdaortablet@e-health-media.com.