Handhelds in Medicine: A Practical Guide for Clinicians

Handheld Computers in Medicine is an essential volume of information needed for all physicians, especially those in the primary care specialties. It is in the tradition of Mark Ebell's recent successfu book and CD-ROM, Evidence-Based Diagnosis: Handbook of Clinical Prediction Rules. (This enables the clinician to make an automatic calculation of risk assessment based on the patient's presenting symptoms, which are fed into the program. By working with the CD-ROM, a risk calculation can be made in seconds, all within the time period of a standard office visit.) Ebell is a renowned family physician and educator who has devoted his career to assessing and processing clinical information, which is to be used in making an accurate diagnosis and prescribing the correct therapeutics in the shortest time period. If this is to be done correctly, the physician must be able to implement a variety of electronic information bases effectively, and during the time period of a standard office visit. Nothing accomplishes this goal as efficiently as handheld PCs and Palm Pilots. This allows the physician to engage the patient, take a case history, perform a physical examination, access patient records, complete the diagnosis and prescribe the necessary therapeutics and process the bill coding, all without leaving the patient's side. Depending on the physician's degree of 'tech-savvy' skills, this can be an exhausting and intimidating process. It can be especially complicated to convert an entire office practice, then conform to a particular healthcare organization's plan of operation. Ebell's book and CD-ROM set operates as a concise guide to enable any physician and healthcare professional to implement the use of handheld computers into their practice. It is important to note that the spirit of this publication's goal is to eliminate error and thus raise the level of quality in all aspects of patient care.