How many of you are using Palm for the clinical years?

[Guest Hello]

The CMA representatives came to our school today and talked about the usefulness of Palm for the clerckship years. It is quite tempting, for you can have easy access to the patients' schedule, Harrison, epocrates, calculator with medical formulas, etc. But even the cheapest model would cost more than 300$. Would you mind sharing with me your opinions on this? Thanks.

[Guest PeterHill0501]

I've actually touched on this exact question in another forum...some replys have indicated it's a worthwhile purchase:

 

pub44.ezboard.com/fpremed101frm10.showMessage?topicID=66.topic

[Guest Ian Wong]

A Palm is incredibly useful during clerkships, not only for the ability to look up stuff on the fly (I tend to use only Epocrates and 5 Minute Clinical Consult), but also for keeping yourself organized. I get hit with a barrage of meeting times, clinic dates, pager numbers, etc, etc, and having my Handspring Visor allows me to get everything down without carrying tons of little pieces of paper. The best part about the Palm, or PDA's in general, is that you have a backup copy of everything at home, so unlike if you lose a paper organizer, you still have all of your appointments and numbers still accessible at home. Next to my stethoscope and pager, it's one of the most important items I carry around on the wards.

 

Most of the entry-level Palm's should come in well under $300 by this time. For a slightly disorganized set of links of software and Palm reviews, you can check out this old thread:

 

pub44.ezboard.com/fpremed101frm24.showMessage?topicID=5.topic

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest RAK2005]

I use mine all the time, and I'm only in first year. It's really handy to be able to look things up in class or at the library etc. without having to leaf through (or CARRY!) textbooks. I wouldn't go back to being palm-free.

 

That being said, tons of my classmates (the majority) are doing fine without it. I think it's one of those things that can be fun/addictive if you like gadgets Must be the Y chromosome acting up.

[Guest Carolyn]

Being on my fifth handheld (i had the original pilot when I was working in IT before med school), I can't imagine living without it! It has been especially helpful in clerkship - often I had questions that could easily be answered by checking my palm - I use 5 minute consult and epocrates a lot but have also found Harrison's helpful and have purchased Documents to go which has allowed me to import a variety of word/excel documents that I have put together over the last two years.

[Guest gucio93]

I love my Palm! Precisely for the reasons stated above. It seems like many of my classmates are going the PDA route. There are some incredible programs out there. As Carolyne has mentioned, if you have the software, you can import word documents into your Palm. That means that many "cheat sheets" you put together that will be useful on the words are right there in this little gadget instead of taking up room in your already crowded jacket pockets ;-). I would definitely recommend it.

[Guest Hello]

[Guest MDCY]

If I get in, I'll be looking to purchase a PDA but the question is which one should I buy? Any suggestions? Palm OS based or Pocket PC OS? Are expansion slots worth it? Right now, I'm leaning towards a Sony PEG T-415 but I'd like to hear some opinions. I know that Ottawa has required that their students need a laptop but are there any other med schools that are like that? For those in med school, does a laptop help and if so, in what conditions? Thanks.

Cheers!

[Guest gucio93]

Personally, I would go for the Palm operating system PDA - at the moment much more software (esp. med software) is available for this system. Also, I would definitely go for the expension slots, you fill up that memory in no time, and then your'e just frustrated. As far as lap tops are concerned, I believe Ottawa is the only school that requires them. At Mac we use them sometimes for presentations, and usually at least one person per group has one. However, they are by no means necessary. If I was going to choose, I would go with a good pc and DEFINITELY high speed internet access. Hope that helps. Cheers!

[Guest PeterHill0501]

MDCY...I'd go for the T415...much better value for your money...it, as you know, also uses the Palm OS...I'm really happy with mine as I posted in the other thread. The clerk at the store, and rightly so, indicated that if you're going to keep documents, spreadsheets, graphics that the memory card is well worth the investment. I would have to agree. I purchased the 32 meg upgrade...I'm likely going to also get the 64 meg one soon. I think another purpose of the sticks...perhaps the most valuable...is that one can back up data to a third, independent source.

 

Peter