Do You REALLY Need a PDA for Residency?

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Does anyone care to address the necessity of a PDA (or iPhone) for internship and possibly the CA years?

Additionally, any recommended devices, applications, and suggested memory sizes would also be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[DrDre']

No need for residency.

Used it last yr for drug doses during internship

Rarely use eponyms program now

Never use it for drugs or anything else medical now. have all the drugs memorized that i use 95% of time


use pda everyday for personal life (appts, alarm clock, etc)

Does anyone care to address the necessity of a PDA (or iPhone) for internship and possibly the CA years?

Additionally, any recommended devices, applications, and suggested memory sizes would also be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[VentdependenT]

Don't own one.

 

[cchoukal]

I use mine quite a bit. Even in the OR I occasionally use ePocrates, and I have a case log program on there that syncs to my computer at home so I don't have to keep patient ID stickers. I also find the calendar application useful at work; when people want to go out a certain night, or I get asked to trade calls or something. BTW it's an old school Sony Clie.

 

[Salt Creep]

I'm not a resident (yet), but something often not utilized on PDAs is the ability to store textbooks. You can carry a large text easily, and many of them are available for free. But, if you're not already doing this, odds are that you won't later either.

 

[nutmegs]

Had a PDA in med school, loved it and used it often, broke the screen, never replaced it and have been surviving internship just fine with an orange pharmacopia and pocket medicine, when needed. there's always a computer 2 feet away if you need to look something up, and there is no such thing as a social life.... so no appts to keep.

 

[FutureHuskerDoc]

use pda everyday for personal life (appts, alarm clock, etc)

Definately. I'm just a med student and havent really used it much for stuff like epocrates, but as far as appointments etc, it cant be beat. I'd advise a pocketpc/phone. If you have the coin, wait 6 months for the SonyErricson Xperia X1.

 

[DuckhuntingDoc]

Waste of money.

 

[pjm]

If you have a burning need to get a PDA, get a cheap one <$100 like a Palm Z22. That way, when you discover you haven't used it in a month you won't feel so bad.

 

[CanGas]

I use and love mine. Palm TX with 2 Gb SD card.

Below are the resources I use commonly. For me it truly is a peripheral brain. I can survive without it but I am alot better with it. Quite often it was a lifesaver through off service rotations and middle of night ICU calls. Instead of keeping a notebook that is hard to modify and organize, all my notes are electronic. Easy to catagorize, easy to modify, and most of all it is always with me.

I have a HanDbase database case log that has every single surgical procedure in it as well as anesthesia procedure that I use to track my cases. I also keep notes on each case type and technique and over several years now have a nice little personalized "Jaffe". Great for quick refreshers when doing a case I have not done in a while.

I have used Plucker to download the entire Nysora website so I can browse in the OR and before doing a technique I have not done in a while.

RepliGo for my PDF viewer for all those PDF's of textbooks downloaded from that Egyptian guy who scanned them all in.

TCPMP for watching compressed movies on my way to work on the bus.

Skyscape programs:
The manual of anesthesia practice - nice snapshot of common procedures
Anesthesia and Co-existing Disease

Critical Care Handbook Mass General Hospital and Oxford handbook of acute medicine - both for ICU references

5 Min Clinical consult for a quick refersher on medical issues and diseases with the Outlines in Clinical medicine for a more in-depth review

Dr Drugs and Rx Drugs for drug dosing and interactions

MedCalc, MedRules and ICUmath for all those forumlas I don't want to remember

Strategies in pediatric anesthesia practice - for those odd peds case I do

Kidometer - for the age specific vitals, normal lab values and development

Aces Texas holdem, Bejeweled, Solitaire, Sudoku for when I don't want to study.

And "List" database program for organizing all my tips and pearls and practical pointers I have collected in practice over the years that I often forget.

 

[OB1🤙]

I have a bajillion programs on mine I never use, but I do use Epocrates all the time. Eponyms every once in a while. There's a Skyscape anesthesia drug program which gives more info than Epocrates does for most pertinent drugs.

I also have a Netter on there (which I got bootlegged as a med student), which is kinda nice to bust out and show pts from time to time. "You see this ligament here? That's what you tore." They dig it.

 

[Arch Guillotti]

I have a Treo and use it pretty frequently for mundane stuff. Epocrates every now and then. I like being able to keep to do lists and all my calendar dates together as well. I also make a fair amount of notes that I store on there, things like call room combinations, usernames and passwords, etc. there is also a cool little viewer I have to look at word documents, excel files, or pdf files. the excel one is the one that I use the most on peds, since I have a spreadsheet for drug doses where I can plug in the weight and it gives me the dose for everything.

 

[Coastie]

IPhone for life.

 

[joncmarkley]

skyscape has great stuff

Nurse drug handbook.... tells you so much stuff like how to mix drugs and what they are compatible with (makes epocrates look like a joke)

also Archimedes is a great medcalc that is free


anesthesiadrugs is also the bomb program (has stuff ndh handbook doesnt have like gases and stuff

check out skyscape.com

 

[coprolalia]

I got one to log my cases. It has made a huge difference in cutting down my backlog. That alone made it worth carrying.

-copro