Personal digital assistants herald new approaches to teaching and evaluation in medical education.

Since its arrival in 1994, the personal digital assistant (PDA) has made significant inroads in the handheld industry, with 50% of physicians anticipated as users by 2005 due to its functionality as a point-of-care medical informatics tool. However, its use in medical education is less well documented. Since 1998, PDAs have been used at Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) as both a teaching and an evaluation tool for medical student and resident education. This article highlights the use of the PDA in medical education and describes current applications for monitoring clinical experiences of students/residents, and teaching resources for hypertension, cardiac auscultation, and community health. MCW's experiences with the PDA as a real time teaching and data collection tool serves as a model for other medical schools and for our students who are educated in the importance of self-monitoring one's clinical experiences and the need for continuous improvement as future physicians.

Personal digital assistant for "real time" assessment of women's health in the clinical years.

OBJECTIVE: To assess in "real time" the degree to which women's health competencies are addressed in the clinical curriculum by using a personal digital assistant. STUDY DESIGN: Competencies for women's health were developed. Twelve students were supplied with a personal digital assistant, pre-loaded with a patient log system, for use in assessment of the inclusion of these competencies in the clinical arena. The students received instruction on completing the log for each patient for whom they were primarily responsible. RESULTS: There were 2690 total encounters. In clerkships other than obstetrics and gynecology, gender was discussed in 10% to 20% of encounters. Other than obstetrics and gynecology diagnostic categories, no more than 15% of diagnoses included gender discussion. CONCLUSION: Student recording of patient encounters reveals a minimal amount of women's health discussion in the clinical years; however, the personal digital assistant is an effective tool with which to monitor curriculum content in the clinical setting.