Palm OS vs. Pocket PC

[SwingDoc]

Can someone give me some insight on what type of handheld is best for school and clinicals?? Thanks much.

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[tc]

I've had both. The only advantage I found for the Palm was the availability of a free drug reference called Epocrates. The PocketPC is easier to use with my windows desktop PC. Plus familar tools like MS Word and Excel are built into the PPC.

After trying a few dozen programs, I settled on the following:

A medical reference is handy - I use Ferri's (Mosby's) Practical Guide to the Care of the Medical Patient and the Resident's Survival Guide from Skyscape.

A drug reference is ESSENTIAL - I use DrDrugs (Davis Drug Guide) and Drugology Quick Reference also from Skyscape.

The above listed programs cost $20 - $50 each.

I also found tons of free stuff for the PPC - Blood Gas analyzers, Lab Interpretation Guides, Electrolyte Management programs and many others that I use every day.

The iSilo document reader ($15) and the Adobe Acrobat reader (free) for the PPC give you some cross-compatibilty and access to most of the free stuff available for the Palm.

The clincher was that all of our classes are scribed and stored in MS Word format, so I can save and search all of our lectures on the PPC.

Just my humble opinion. There are many who are religious about their Palms (and their Apple Mac's). But, when it comes to tools that I use everyday, I prefer to conformity to idealism.

😎

 

[Doc AdamK in 2006]

Pocket PC may have a faster processor and more memory but Palm is light weight which is a huge plus remember your carrying it around all day

Plus you can add memory

AK

 

[DrWBD]

If you had asked me this question two years ago, I woud have said Palm OS, without hesitation. Back then, "Windows CE" devices were bulky, crash prone, expensive, and had too little medical software.

Fast forward to today, and now the Pocket PCs are comparable in size to most Palm OS devices. The price difference has also become less significant. And medical software is readily available (though still not as ubiquitous as Palm, but not far behind).

Most importantly, though, technology has advanced in the handheld market such that the PDA is no longer really a companion to your PC, it is in fact powerful enough to be considered a "pocket computer". And as a tech-saavy friend of mine put succinctly, "A real computer needs a real operating system."

If my school hadn't provided us with Clies, I'd probably be using a Pocket PC right now.

 

[SwingDoc]

Thanks for the responses - they are very helpful. So, wanna_be, your school handed out PDAs, or was it a requirement to purchase one?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Chris_P]

I too have owned both PPC and Palm handhelds.

I currently only use my PPC as I have a lot of my mp3s and some pretty addictive games on it.

Most new medical programs are available for both formats now although there is still a lot more freeware available for the Palm.

I have to admit that my PPC crashes a lot more frequently than my Palm used to and the battery life is considerably lower.

My advice would probably be that if you want something cheap and easy to use get a Palm but if you want to spend a bit of money and have something that will last get a PPC.

I've put together a list of most of the available medical software for Palm and PPC at http://www.newmediamedicine.com/mobile/software.htm

(Most of the ebooks listed are linked to amazon but you can also get a lot of them at Skyscape.com. The calculators and other software is linked to the makers homepages in most cases.)

PS Has anyone seen Tablet PCs used on the wards yet?

 

[DrWBD]

Originally posted by SwingDoc
So, wanna_be, your school handed out PDAs, or was it a requirement to purchase one?

I originally purchased a Handspring Visor Deluxe when they first came out 4 years ago, which has served me well in school and on the wards 🙂 A few months ago, the NYCOM Technology Initiatives project and NYCOMEC provided 4th year students with Sony Clie SJ-30's free of charge.

 

[paean]

Wait until you get to school, and find out what all your classmates have. That way you can trade software and schedules. At UCSF, palm based PDAs dominate, and I have to say that overall, I think they're a better value for your money.