PalmOne LifeDrive Mobile Manager Debuts

Caping months of rumors, leaks, and tremendous anticipation, palmOne has officially unveiled the LifeDrive Mobile Manager, its first handheld with a built-in 4 GB hard drive. Full story

Unbound Medicine’s Gateway Adopted by Five Leading Medical Institutions

Unbound Medicine recently announced that its gateway product, Unbound Central, has been adopted by five leading medical institutions. Through Unbound Central the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, MedStar Health, University of Muenster, and University of Washington will connect directly to their users’ Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), wireless devices, and the Web. Full Story

Blackberry Becomes World's Most Popular PDA

Following a surge of PDA sales due to advancing wireless networking capabilities, Research In Motion's BlackBerry device has become the world's most popular PDA, according to research firm Gartner. Full Story

Microsoft smart guy takes on smart-phone business

With Windows-powered mobile devices lagging behind the Palms and BlackBerrys of the world, Microsoft has brought an electrical engineer from China--a master of the strategy game Go--to put them back in the race. Full Story

Verizon to Release Treo 650

Verizon Wireless indicated it would launch palmOne's Treo 650 'soon' early last month. The communicator is still a no show for the second largest carrier in the United States. Phone Arena reports Verizon's 'soon' may finally be just around the corner. It said the operator's business channels should roll out the Treo 650 on May 11th with consumer customers gaining access to the smartphone 12 days later. Full Story

Unbound Medicine Releases Anesthesia Central

Unbound Medicine recently announced their agreement to release select PocketMedicine references to be delivered on Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), on the Web, and via wireless devices. In addition to the two PocketMedicine titles, Anesthesia Central includes a leading drug reference, a handy diagnostic test manual, and MEDLINE literature tracking and searching. Full Story

Now, tech-savvy docs like to have a handheld

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently wrote an article on the increased use of PDA's by Doctors, Nurses, and Medical students. Free Registration is required to read the article.
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Non-Profit Uses Wireless PDAs

Valle del Sol is an example of a nonprofit innovating through adaptation, integrating new technology to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in the community. The largest Hispanic behavioral health and social service agency in Phoenix, Valle del Sol has case managers visit families in their homes, helping them connect with services for substance abuse, family crisis, and other support.

Valle del Sol wanted to find a way to enable staff in the field to quickly, easily, and securely gather and upload data about clients, streamlining the process and reducing the chance of errors.

Today, the solution is literally in hand. Thanks to a grant from AT&T Wireless (now Cingular), Valle del Sol is introducing wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs) to 60 of its case managers, equipped with software that manages all of the forms and data needed by field-based clinicians.
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Automakers try to jump-start e-prescribing

Advocates of electronic prescribing are hoping that the Big Three automakers can do what others have not -- get physicians to put down the prescription pad and adopt electronic prescribing.

On Feb. 9, General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler Corp., along with the United Auto Workers union and two insurers, launched the multimillion-dollar Southeast Michigan e-Prescribing Initiative to help up to 17,000 physicians in Michigan implement such systems in their offices.
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Nurses Neglecting Mobile I.T.

Though mobile technology has accelerated many nursing processes, it also has been the tipping point for nurses who perceive I.T. as increasing their workload, said Ann Farrell, R.N., principal and senior consultant at Farrell Associates, a San Francisco-based consulting firm. Farrell said nurses have been slow to adopt mobile technology because they first want to be shown how it can save them time. Unfortunately, most nursing applications have been designed by engineers, so they don’t support the workflow, ergonomics and usability that most nurses need, she added.
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Birmingham Heartlands RFID-tags patients

Birmingham Heartlands Hospital has become the first NHS (UK National Health Service) hospital to radio-tag patients. The hospital has installed a radio tracking system throughout the hospital and can find and identify patients using standard radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. The idea is to allow clinical team to confirm they have the right patient and are performing the right procedure. The pilot is currently running for patients undergoing ear, nose and throat surgery.
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Could Palm OS still take the lead in VGA?

While at this point, Pocket PCs have the lead in VGA screen, the race is far from over. The latest version of Palm OS Cobalt has support for VGA built into it. Full support for VGA was only added a few months ago, and no handhelds have been released running Cobalt, so exactly how well VGA has been implemented isn't clear yet. Full Story

Untapped power: A physician's handheld

When handheld devices hit the market, many experts predicted that physicians, even those who weren't early adopters of computers and health technology, would quickly find use for a device that seemed to fit right into their busy lives. Those predictions were correct, although the devices have yet to come close to being used for their fullest potential in medicine. Full Story

Cancer Trial List now Available on the PDA

The Southwest Oncology Group, one of the largest adult cancer clinical trials organization in the world, has recently created a PDA version of its studies list. The priority list of open studies can now be downloaded to your Palm Pilot, Pocket PC or other personal digital assistant. Full Story

Webinar on Mobile Computing

American Medical Informatics Association has put together a Webinar to assist those in healthcare with developing and using applications on mobile platforms. This will take place February 8th at 5:30pm EST. More Information

Microsoft Releases ActiveSync 3.8

Without much noise, Microsoft has released an updated version to their synchronization software. While the changes may not be obvious, Microsoft does say that "ActiveSync 3.8 contains fixes making synchronization more trouble free than ever before and includes all the significant improvements brought to you in ActiveSync 3.5, 3.6, and 3.7.1: it is easy to install and use while offering the best levels of reliability". Link

Access Information in a Matter of "Seconds"

PalmSource has announced the release of the Wrist PDA with Palm OS from Fossil, the next generation Palm Powered wrist watch. The Wrist PDA offers all the benefits of a PDA plus the added convenience and portability of a watch. Full Story

Samsung announces medical mobile solution packages

Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung) today announced a mobile solutions package that gives medical professionals access to critical data for diagnosing and treating patients without leaving the bedside or examining room. By combining Samsung's wireless handsets with healthcare technology applications, the offering is designed to help healthcare professionals deliver better and more efficient patient care.

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Buying Handheld-Related Gifts?

These days there are so many handheld options out there that choosing one to give as a gift may be overwhelming. Brighthand has compiled this collection of gift suggestions for any handheld user, no matter what device they use. It ranges from memory cards, to software, to handhelds themselves. Link

New Palm OS to be Based on Linux

PalmSource has just announced that it is going to develop a version of the Palm OS based on Linux. Because Linux is very popular, PalmSource hopes that by providing this new version they will increase their sales. For the most part, PalmSource believes that this new operating system will not be noticeable to their users. Full Story