DFM PDA Support Policy

PDAs have been used in the department for several years. Patient care providers frequently use them as a point of care tool during patient visits. Staff often use them to help organize their lives - maintain schedules, keep address books, record task lists, and as a repository for notes. The DFM IS staff has seen the use of handheld computers increase dramatically over the past few years. The Residency Programs began requiring new residents to use PDAs beginning in 2001, and standardized on the Palm Operating System.

The DFM Helpdesk is the first-line support for PDAs. Because of the number of devices being used in the Department and the limited resources in IS, the decision was made to support only Palm OS units. Another factor used in the decision was that the majority of medical software (particularly free programs) is available in Palm OS format. This decision was re-visited at the start of 2005, with the outcome to continue to limit the support of PDAs to the Palm OS and re-evaluate the support policy annually.

To view the DFM PDA Support Policy, see http://inside.fammed.wisc.edu/pda/support.pdf.

In addition, the IS staff is often asked for recommendations of PDAs to purchase. A web page is devoted to such recommendations and can be found at http://inside.fammed.wisc.edu/pda/recommendation.html.