Wow, thank you all for the flood of responses!
I am intrigued by this EMR-on-PDA idea. Can you tell me more about this? Do you think you could post some screenshots?
I find myself leaning towards the BB because I feel I will probably use the messaging part of the phone most, and because being able to quickly take out my phone and make calls, add contacts, and write messages is important to me. A few of the responders discussed the number of steps involved for contact calling on each device. The same whooshing animation that makes the iPhone so cool also frustratingly seems to slow down how long the overall process takes, regardless of steps.
Maybe I'll just get a Touch if the medical software is worth it when I get to the wards?
OK, let's just say I am a senior attending (kind of like the ones that will be asking you lots of questions on rounds and in conferences in your 3rd and 4th years).
I've been looking at medical PDAs since the very beginning. I had Treos galore(up to the 750), several BBs, a Dash (with WM6 smartphone). I trolled and looked at just about every palm medical PDA site out there.
To be honest, I never found anything that met my needs. Sure, there are native palm rounding programs, etc that the housestaff are probably better at advising you on.
For good medical info right next to you, on tap, whereever you are (which is what you really need on the floors, right before the attending finishes with the intern and turns to you), you need the following:
(1) fast internet access
(2) a good, fast browser with bookmarks to medical sites of interest (like Pubmed)
(3) a screen and interface that allows you to rapidly see and get the info you want
The iphone 3G, which I just bought to replace an iPhone 1.0 that I had (one of the benefits to being an attending) fits all of these criteria. Not only are there native apps from the app store, but there are Web Apps (like Pubget) that link directly to Pubmed for ultrafast searching for important articles, especially in 3G. The interface can't be beat.
I suspect, as others have told you, that many palm apps (or palm like apps) for medicine will be ported over to the iphone fairly soon.
You can start using this device with the web apps immediately on the floors.
Yes, I sound like a 45 year old fanboy, but I think that I am typical academic attending who is really into technology.
You whip one of these babies out at morning report or case conference during a discussion to settle a debate over some (usually arcane) point by finding the data online faster than anyone else, and you bet the house officers and attendings will take notice.
A few words of advice:
(1) Know your patients, especially during your medicine rotations. And that includes the morning labs, my friend. Knowing the potassium and fluid balance, and giving it to the overworked intern right before cardflip, makes you a friend for life.
(2) Be nice to everyone, and as helpful as possible to patients, houseofficers, and especially the nurses. You were hopefully preselected with these qualities when you got into medical school, but sometimes my colleagues in academia were out too late the night before the admissions committee and/or sometimes we can get too jazzed about someones research potential and forget this when we choose students.
(3) Finally, if you really get into it, find some attending or houseofficer with an interest in medical computing and informatics and design some iPhone apps yourself. This thing has enormous potential.
Sorry for the long email, and good luck.
