Understanding usage patterns of handheld computers in clinical practice.

Handheld computers are commonly used in clinical practice and often considered invaluable by physicians. Though full of promise, the technology is still costly and literature assessing its real use in clinical practice remains scarce. In an effort to better understand how Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) can be utilized as clinical tools, we designed a study that closely monitored the use of a selection of handheld applications by a cohort of interns in a service of Internal Medicine. Information gathered about actual use of the mobile applications offer valuable insights on usage patterns of tools that promise to be become an important part of our clinical practice in the years to come, and will hopefully help guide future developments.