pda phone helpful?

[pharmerdee]

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Hi everyone!
I'll be attending pharmacy school this fall, and I'm looking into getting a new phone. I was wondering if any of you have any thoughts on whether or not it is helpful to get a pda phone while in pharmacy school? If so, are there any phones in particular you would recommend? (I'm with Verizon) I'll appreciate any suggestions. Thanks! 🙂

 

[UTPharm]

Not while in your first few years. I know a lot of recent grads that have PDAs or PDA cell phones that have drug info on them.

 

[mrblah]

my brother has a blackberry atm and had a palm treo, but he prefers to use his dell pocket pc when he's working in the pharmacy, because the phones take to long too upload, and too long for the proggies to load/long search times, and not all proggies are compatible.

So with current technology, its not worth it unless you can live with the less than ideal search times and upload times.

I'd rather wait a few years or at least until you are out of pharmacy school, maybe then there will be advances in phone tech that will make these pda phones work more efficiently with pharmacy related programs. Also depending on who you work for and what you do, you might get one for free or at least be able to write it off as a business expense.


P.s. I would look into a regular pda when you start rotations, its definitely handy to have around, but its not a necessary piece of equipment.

 

[IrishRxMan]

You will probably want to get one for use in your fourth year for rotations. You should get it earlier than that so you can get used to whichever software you get. As for speed of a phone vs. a straight out PDA, I don't know yet. I know a few people that have the same phone I do, which is a Treo, and have LexiComp and I've heard nothing about slow speeds accessing info. The main reason I got my Treo now is because I was tired of carrying two devices and sometimes I would forget the PDA when I would need it. Plus, it felt like I was wearing the Batman utility belt when I had both of them with me. 😀

 

[mrblah]

ok i talked to my brother. He says with his blackberry worldphone, lexicomp for some reason is only a server viewable program on the blackberry, meaning you can only access it if you have reception/wifi because the program itself isn't actually downloaded onto your phone. Problem for him is that in hospitals, you will get very poor reception resulting in very slow loading speeds. He says that when you are doing rotations, you don't want to rely on the blackberry. He's pretty pissed off about this, but he still likes his bb to text message me stupid stuff when he is sitting on the can.

As for the treo, he had a old model and when it first came out, he had issues downloading and setting up the programs he wanted. Hence why he updated to the blackberry. He didn't go into to much detail about his old treo, and was more interested in pursuading me not to buy a bb.

He lastly added that it isn't wise to get a pda anything until your 3rd year, because you won't be using it extensively to justify its cost, and if you buy it now, new tech will replace your old tech by the time you actually use it.

To IrishRXMan: You know that batman utility belt will be "en vogue" when Darknight premiers in a few weeks. Now where did I put my black and yellow batman belt at, hmmmm.. jk.

 

[fiteOFFurDEMONS]

blackberry curve 8330

 

[IrishRxMan]

As for the treo, he had a old model and when it first came out, he had issues downloading and setting up the programs he wanted. Hence why he updated to the blackberry. He didn't go into to much detail about his old treo, and was more interested in pursuading me not to buy a bb.

He lastly added that it isn't wise to get a pda anything until your 3rd year, because you won't be using it extensively to justify its cost, and if you buy it now, new tech will replace your old tech by the time you actually use it.

To IrishRXMan: You know that batman utility belt will be "en vogue" when Darknight premiers in a few weeks. Now where did I put my black and yellow batman belt at, hmmmm.. jk.

I have the newest model of treo and the software is downloaded to the mini SD card. I don't know about the BB devices other than I didn't want to spend the extra $30 a month for their stinkin' service fee.

I didn't purchase my treo through my service provider but instead got a good deal on ebay. If it comes to needing new tech, I'll deal with that when the time comes, but I'm already going into my second year and I'll probably get LexiComp this year to start getting used to it.

As for the utility belt being en vogue, I didn't think about that!

 

[RxWildcat]

I have verizon and I use a blackberry curve, I love it. I use it all the time at work to look up info quickly like dosage checks, etc. Heres a link to the tech forums where they talk about PDAs and such.