These are PDA software packages designed specificially for the medical profession. We've broken the types of handheld medical software packages into 5 categories:

1. House Staff and Medical Student PDA programs.

These are customized medical PDA solutions for house staff and medical students. Several companies have integrated PDA programs for patient tracking, PDR-type pharmacy references, and general medical and surgical references.

The most widely used medical PDA packages include:

Harrisons Manual of Medicine - both online and PDA access to a classic resource for internal medicine.
Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics - this consists of a PDA and desktop bundle of the resident's-best-friend.
5-Minute Clinical Consult (5mcc) - the recently updated title from Griffith is a standard on medical student and resident PDAs.

Tarascon Pharmacopoeia - one of the best pharmacology references for the PDA, includes dosing, interaction and even pricing information.

Medical PDA recommendations - these packages require a lot of processing power and memory from your PDA, so you should choose your PDA carefully. In this article two PDA's are reviewed, each functions well and they in the low- to mid-price range.

Epocrates - the most popular free medical software package among US medical students.

2. Free Medical PDA Downloads.

A sampling of the free pda packages you can download include:

ARTbeat - current medical news
Archimedes - medical calculator
Diagnosaurus - helps build differential diagnosis list; produced by McGraw-Hill medical publishing and specifically designed for medical students

3. Nursing Software

A variety of Nursing PDA Software packages - and online options - have come to market over the last 5 years. We've put together a discussion of some of the best:

Nursing PDA Software

4. General PDA medical program references.

These include medical dictionaries, the Washington Manual, and general medical references. The large memory capacity of contemporary PDAs allows a tremendous amount of reference material to be packed into a small container - so the pockets of medical student's lab coat no longer need to look like chipmunk cheeks stuffed with nuts. The peripheral brain has worked its way out of notecards and mini-books and into medical PDA software. We have partnered with Pepid and Skyscape to bring a full range of medical PDA packages to students and physicians alike.

5. Medical Software for offices and medical practices.

EMR software has been identified as major priority for improving both efficiency in the US healthcare system as well as reducing medical errors. As of October 2007, a small number of physician practices will be offered enhanced medicare payments in exchange for adopting EMR in their practices.

The largest body of medical software is medical billing software. Designed for use as medical office software, these packages are generally not meant for handheld devices - although a few integrated into palm medical software. The variety of tools available including medical coding connected to most major medical insurance companies, as well as patient scheduling and medical billing. These are usually very expensive packages, but like medical PDA software, they substantially improve productivity for the small and medium sized medical practice.

Electronic medical records software are separate packages - it's often easier to comply with HIPPA regulations with separate medical records software and medical practice software. Such packages usually contain medical records, physician orders and notes, as well as nurses notes. The two biggest potential benefits for digital medical records, of course, is having a portable, easily accessed medical record, which should reduce delays in treatment and diagnosis, and having a legible, consistent record format, which should reduce medical errors.

Links to other medical software sites