Handhelds Give Quick Access to Critical Reference Information, Patient Records and Clinical Data at Point of Care

MILPITAS, Calif., Aug. 13 -- To further enhance emergency medical care for patients and provide cutting edge medical training, Detroit Medical Center and Wayne State University Department of Emergency Medicine recently purchased 150 Palm handhelds for emergency room attending physicians and residents, Palm, Inc. today announced.

Because emergency medicine physicians are the first line of care and can be faced with any type illness or trauma, they are expected to be experts in all areas of medicine. Traditionally, emergency rooms are stocked with bookshelves full of heavy reference books for physicians to review. The Palm Tungsten C handheld, with integrated 802.11b (also known as Wi-Fi), provides these physicians with ready access, over the hospitals' Wi-Fi network, to not only medical reference information, but also, patient records, lab results, departmental memos and email, quickly and easily, in a form factor that fits comfortably in a lab coat pocket.

"Our vision is to provide our doctors with the technology to become better and more efficient physicians -- ultimately providing better patient care. Using Palm handhelds, our staff can perform multiple tasks as well as access medical information while sitting at the patient's bedside," said Bharat Sutariya, MD, Detroit Medical Center. "This access to real-time patient information, allows the doctor to remain where they're needed most, at the patient's side, rather than away, manually searching for paper-based charts or waiting to access a computer.

Brooks F. Bock, MD, chairman and specialist-in-chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine plans to continue this program by providing each year's incoming residents with new Palm handhelds. The majority of the units purchased were the Wi-Fi-enabled Palm Tungsten C handhelds.

The Emergency Medicine Department of Detroit Medical Center is also hosting a Palm Resources Web page where Palm users can download the most current medical applications for the Palm platform. The Web site contains a listing of some of the more than 80,000 medical software applications available for the Palm operating system to help physicians diagnose and treat patients as well as references to other handheld resources at http://www.dmc.org/em/palm/.

In addition to providing physicians with real time access to patient information, Palm handhelds provide residents and their mentors with new solutions, like the Palm enabled service from eResidency.net, to manage their residency programs and accreditation requirements. Instead of having to submit paper logs or wait for hours to use the one computer on the floor, eResidency creates a procedure, patient and continuing medical education logs for each resident and allows them to log in real-time and synchronize it with a central database. In addition, their supervisors can create reports for their evaluations and keep a record of performance.

"Palm is focused on working with the healthcare industry to provide mobile solutions that address critical healthcare issues: patient safety, quality of care and point of care support," said Michael Buhr, senior director of business and enterprise marketing for Palm Solutions Group. "We provide hospitals with easy to use handhelds and solutions that can be easily integrated into existing infrastructures to help physicians, residents, and staff provide the best quality patient care possible."

Today's announcement further illustrates Palm's commitment to providing valuable mobile solutions for education, healthcare, government, and general business and enterprise markets. Palm continues to offer the most integrated and cost-effective products and solutions to its customers while maintaining the great user experience that has made Palm the global leader in handheld computing.

About Detroit Medical Center:

The Detroit Medical Center is one of the largest private employers and the leading health care system in metropolitan Detroit. The DMC has 13,000 employees, operates 10 hospitals and institutes, two nursing centers and more than 50 primary care practices throughout southeast Michigan. The system has 1,900 licensed beds, 3,000 affiliated physicians and serves as the teaching and clinical research site for Wayne State University.

About Wayne State University School of Medicine:

With more than 1,000 medical students, WSU is among the nation's largest medical schools. Together with its clinical partner, the Wayne State University Physician Group, the school is a leader in patient care and medical research in a number of areas, including cancer, genetics, the neurosciences and women's and children's health.

Detroit Medical Center.Wayne State University School of Medicine