for technophiles, pdas/handhelds in dentistry

[Blue Tooth]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Is there anyone out there who has any knowledge on this subject? I'll be upgrading from my old Palm IIIx this summer before I start and I was wondering if anyone has experience using a pda in health care and dentistry. I'm specifically interested in what software is good and useful either as a reference guide or for patient management. Thanks

 

[DMD DOC]

The research lab I work in has several orthopedic surgeons and they all use Physicians Desk Reference in their PDA's. I am not sure what a dentist would keep in his or her palm though.

-Vikas

 

[quantumhead]

I have a Compaq iPAQ PocketPC. I love it. Although I just use it for business/personnel scheduling and such right now I do plan of using it during Dental School. I researched some software that is compatible and found these.

<a href="http://www.softwaresupportgroup.net/dental/dental-com_products.html" target="_blank">http://www.softwaresupportgroup.net/dental/dental-com_products.html</a>

<a href="http://www.prodocsoftware.com/patienttrac.htm" target="_blank">http://www.prodocsoftware.com/patienttrac.htm</a>

There are many more, I think I deleted my links when I cleaned up my Favorites folder. I compared the iPAQ with all Palms and found the Palms lacking. There is so much an iPAQ can do that a Palm cannot. It costs a lot but in the end I believe that it is worth it. Also it runs a version of Windows which is the universally accepted OS for any ting that you might be interfacing with. I could go on but you should look at it for yourself.

 

[ItsGavinC]

A Palms battery life will last 10-20 times longer than the iPaq, depending on what you are doing with it.

Palm offers a signifigantly larger amount of software than do the PocketPC machines.

Interfacing shouldn't prove to be much of a problem. I'm running Mac OS X, on which I often use the Microsoft office Suite, and all of the program files (Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) transfer directly to my Palm via the DocsToGo program that is bundled with the Palm.

PocketPC handhelds win the multimedia competition hands down (Palms don't have an audible speaker).

All in all, it depends on what you are looking to do with your handheld. I already have two portable computers, and a desktop, so another computer was *not* what I wanted. My Palm m505 fits in my shirt pocket, doesn't cause my pocket to sag, and managers everything I need.

 

[dmd1272]

yep, I 2nd that entry, eventhough window based pdas are more like a real computer, they are bulkier and for me nothing beats the portability of my Palm Vx or the M505, they're actually the same casing.....Go Palm.. 😎

 

[dmd1272]

by the way, try ebay for some great deal on Palm, Palm V's are going for around $80 while Vx are @ $100.00 with the double the memory... hope this helps.. 😀