Factors Determining the Use of Personal Digital Assistants Among Physicians

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the factors that might influence the use of personal digital assistant devices (PDAs) by physicians for assistance in the delivery of their routine patient care. An Internet-based single-institution survey was done of internal medicine resident physicians. None of the baseline demographic characteristics measured were associated with whether PDAs were being used or not by resident physicians in patient care. Resident physicians who used their PDAs for medical purposes perceived more benefits associated with the use of PDAs, and fewer barriers, than did those who did not own a PDA, or owned one but did not use it for medical purposes. Among regular users of PDAs for medical purposes, greater frequency of use in patient care was associated with more positive perceptions of the devices. Some associations were also found between residents' self-reported standardized test scores and the type of information resources being used on their device. Similar to previous studies, the majority of those in this cohort owned PDAs, and most of those who owned one used it for assistance in delivery of their patient care. It is concluded that users of PDAs for medical purposes differ from nonusers in certain attitudes and opinions, and standardized test scores may correlate with different patterns of use. These results may be useful in helping medical leaders overcome barriers to more full adoption of PDAs as a tool for effective patient care.

PDA Use by Physicians: Where Do They Fit with Emerging Technologies and Use of Electronic Health Records in Office Practices?

“…Those not classified as a primary care physician indicated that they were in specialty ambulatory care practices. The distribution of respondents by these demographic characteristics was comparable to the national data generated from the AMA workforce statistics on physicians in the United States [14].…”

“…A longitudinal study of PDA use by medical students, residents and staff determined that their reasons for use are to access drug references, medical references and medical calculators; a high rate of acceptance and longitudinal use was observed [13]. Studies about PDA users indicate that they believe PDA use supports clinical decision making, promotes patient safety, and improves productivity and efficiency [14].…”

Health Care Provider Adoption of eHealth: Systematic Literature Review

“…Further, some studies also showed significant correlations among the identified factors. Perceived usefulness had the strongest impact on health care providers’ behavior intention [88], whereas their perceived usefulness was influenced by the perceived ease of use, eHealth and business process alignment, end user involvement, management commitment and support to change, health care provider-patient relationship, and IT experience and knowledge [25,28,33,56,77,83,86-88]. The variance of the perceived ease of use was associated with the computer self-efficacy, end user involvement, management commitment and support to change, as well as health care provider-patient relationship [77,88].…”

Use and Perceived Benefits of Mobile Devices by Physicians in Preventing Adverse Drug Events in the Nursing Home

“…Surveys of physicians in other clinical environments have found mobile device adoption rates of up to 86% 21,22 with access to drug references consistently among the leading uses. 21,23,24 …”

“…Some studies of clinical uses of mobile devices have seen a form of technology-affinity effect, with positive attitudes toward the technology, changes in practice, and changes in outcomes associated primarily with clinicians who were more active users of technology. 36,37 Utilization rates may be lower for less enthusiastic practitioners. Finally, the results of this study may differ over time, as mobile device use amongst physicians has increased and the operating systems running on these devices has changed considerably since the survey was administered.…”