| |
|
Survey
reports PDAs enhance patient care
|
Global Physician Survey Reports Mobile Devices
Help Doctors Provide Better Patient Care.
HAYWARD, Calif., April, 2002 - Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)
are helping the vast majority of physicians with devices today to
provide better care through timely, relevant information and boosted
productivity, according to a recent survey conducted by AvantGo.
The global study also cites the future PDA functionality that doctors
believe will make them even more efficient and effective.
| The physicians surveyed felt that mobile devices
could significantly improve patient care. Specifically, 92%
of physicians with PDAs are using their devices multiple times
per day to keep calendars, access drug reference guides and
read medical journals. These doctors would also like to be able
to use their PDAs to access medical reference websites (48%),
write and transmit prescriptions (33%), access pharmaceutical
manufacturers websites (28%) and keep records of clinical trials
(27%), while fully 93% of respondents claim that this additional
information would enable them to provide improved patient care
and make them more productive. |
| 92% of
physicians with PDAs use it multiple times per day |
|
The survey results also indicate that PDAs are an effective tool
for pharmaceutical companies to add value to and build relationships
with physicians. In the survey, 84% of doctors felt that the time
they spent with their pharmaceutical representatives would be more
valuable to them if the representatives had immediate access to
important drug or clinical trial information on their PDAs. Additionally,
86% felt the value they derived from pharmaceutical companies would
be dramatically increased if pharmaceutical companies offered an
on-device channel that would provide them with the latest information,
including product collateral on new drugs, clinical trial results
and industry news.
|
"These results are consistent with what we have experienced
at Harvard Medical School, where we provide value-added
services that help medical students use their PDAs more
effectively, improving physician workflow and reducing our
costs," said Dr. John Halamka, Assistant Dean of Harvard
Medical School and CIO of Caregroup, Inc. in Boston. "We
have deployed a PDA solution that in just six months has
eliminated $150,000 in paper costs and reduced the need
for data entry personnel, as well as significantly improved
our paper-based process. The solution has provided us with
higher quality data and increased our form completion compliance
from the usual 20%, delivered up to six weeks after the
completion of a course, to 80% delivered in near real-time."
The physician survey was completed by 3,482 self-identified
physicians responding on their PDAs using the AvantGo mobile
Internet service. The on-device survey was conducted over
a four-week period.
|
| Fully
86% of the doctors surveyed felt that if their affiliated
hospitals supported mobile devices, it would significantly
improve the quality of in-hospital patient care. Yet,
only 20% of the affiliated hospitals currently offer
this support. |
|
.gif)
|
|
