Pharmacists' utilization and interest in usage of personal digital assistants in their professional responsibilities.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pharmacists use PDAs for performing various activities related to their profession. The objective of this study was to examine pharmacists' utilization pattern and interest in usage of personal digital assistants (PDAs) in various facets of health care. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted by distributing a pre-validated 23-item instrument to a convenience sample of pharmacists (n = 295) in the Houston area. Usage frequency (0 = never to 5 = frequently) and interest in future use (1 = extremely disinterested to 5 = extremely interested) of PDAs for various activities were evaluated and compared across pharmacy practice settings. RESULTS: Most pharmacists reported maximum use of PDAs, as personal organizers (3.7 +/- 1.8), in obtaining drug information (2.9 +/- 1.8) and as medical calculators (2.6 +/- 1.9). Similar results were obtained while evaluating interest of pharmacists who did not have PDAs and have never used PDAs for these three activities. Hospital pharmacists owned and used PDAs significantly (P < 0.05) more often than community pharmacists. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacists used PDAs for basic functions in their profession role. Application of PDA technology in community pharmacy settings may result in its better adoption in both the settings.

Application of the Extended Technology Acceptance Model in predicting pharmacists' intention to use personal digital assistants.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate pharmacists' behavioral intention to use personal digital assistants (PDAs) in their profession, by means of the Extended Technology Acceptance Model (ETAM). DESIGN: Prospective cross-sectional study. SETTING: Hospital and community pharmacies in Houston, TX, in 2004. PARTICIPANTS: Convenience sample of 295 practicing pharmacists. INTERVENTION: A prevalidated survey containing 30 items, evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale (1, strongly disagree, to 5, strongly agree), which measured the ETAM variables. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Predictors of intention to use PDA for pharmacists owning the device. RESULTS: Among the surveyed population, 49% of pharmacists owned PDAs. Overall, the ETAM constructs showed fairly good reliability. Stepwise regression analysis showed that the ETAM explained 69% of the variance in intention to use PDAs for pharmacists owning the device. Result demonstrability (beta = 0.53), subjective norm (beta = 0.25), and voluntariness (beta = -0.10) were significant (P < 0.05) predictors of pharmacists' intention to use PDAs. CONCLUSION: ETAM proved useful in predicting pharmacists' behavior in using PDAs. With improvements in technology, PDAs be an effective tool for pharmacists in providing better patient care.

Consumer knowledge and perceptions of formularies.

A study was undertaken to determine consumer knowledge and perceptions of formularies. A prevalidated survey containing 11 scored items was administered to 714 consumers waiting to receive prescription medications at 72 community pharmacies in Houston. Overall, these consumers were satisfied with their prescription insurance plans, but their attitudes toward formularies were negative, and the negative perceptions were significantly correlated with satisfaction scores. However, only 25% of the surveyed population had a copy of the formulary, so that a large majority had no knowledge of their formulary or the types of drugs it covered. Efforts to educate patients may reduce the difficulty faced by pharmacists in explaining formulary issues to consumers.