How Personal Digital Assistants will revolutionize American Healthcare

Personal Digital Assistants, or PDAs, will revolutionize American healthcare. These small, computerized, handheld devices have been popular for personal use for a while, but now are becoming more prominent in the medical field. They are designed to be portable and easily accessed and can capture, store, and manipulate a variety of information. They are hand-held computers small enough to fit in the palm of your hand or the pocket of your shirt. Besides giving information on appointments and drug interactions, they are starting to explore using them for coding, billing and other activities.

“These devices have been available for approximately 10 years, but widespread use has skyrocketed in the last few years. Hardware improvements and more diverse software applications led to a 169 percent increase in sales from 1999 to 2000.”

Currently PDAs are most commonly used for simple organizational tasks, but this is changing as more applications become available and physicians cont...