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The mobile medical reference tool

Published 9 November 2009

Hand-held computers are helping students research clinical information in seconds in a trial at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS).

The mobile medical educational project (MoMED), run by BSMS, a partnership between the universities of Brighton and Sussex, is the first large-scale trial of its kind in the UK.

Student doctors in years three, four and five are pioneering the use of Personal Digital Assistants or PDAs which give instant access to medical reference libraries to help with their learning. Doctors sometimes have to leave wards to research illnesses in books, on PCs and with colleagues but PDAs can help them diagnose as they stand by patients' beds.

The PDAs come with a card containing a suite of medical reference material including the British National Formulary, BMJ Clinical Evidence and several Oxford Handbooks, all in full text. The card, called Dr Companion, is produced by Scandinavian company MedHand which worked with BSMS to produce the resource best suited to student needs.

Updates to Dr Companion are supplied online and it is possible to access more medical resources using wi-fi.

More than 130 third-year medical students recently took part in a PDA teaching session at the Audrey Emerton Building, Royal Sussex County Hospital. Led by Dr Inam Haq, director of undergraduate studies, Dr Jethin Rafique, clinical teaching fellow, and Jil Fairclough, medical school librarian, students use PDAs to answer problems about patient diagnosis, investigation and management that helps embed knowledge in context rather than in abstract.

Dr Jethin Rafique (right) exlaining how to use the PDAs to medical students

Pictured above is Dr Jethin Rafique (right) explaining how to use the PDAs to medical students in a mock diagnosis with student Charlotte Pay acting as the patient.

Students have welcomed the PDAs. Year three student Charlotte Pay said: "They are so quick in comparison with having to look things up in medical books, and references are easy to find. They save a lot of time and effort."

Each PDA comes with a stylus which enables students to flick through screen pages in seconds. Student Julian Birch, said he could find references usually in less than a minute and sometimes in under ten seconds.

PDAs resemble mobile phones and students are expected to seek patients' permission before using them and to explain what they are, to avoid patients thinking the doctors are sending text messages to friends.

The use of the new hand-held devices on wards and in clinics has generated considerable interest among senior medical and healthcare professionals. The teaching programme in Brighton is assessing the impact PDAs have on student learning by logging usage and through questionnaires and focus groups.

Jil Fairclough said: "We are determining how often PDAs are used, when they are used and which resources are most and least used. Most importantly, we are assessing how effective they might be to the students."

Dr Haq has no doubt about their value: "Students are being given the opportunity and the skills to use these devices which will stand them in good stead for future changes in the delivery of healthcare."