Table 1

Studies of handheld electronic medical records

Study, Year

Setting

Patients

Practitioners

Primary Function

Results

Comments

VanDenKerkof et al, 2004 [25]

Canada

Postoperative orthopedic patients (n = 72)

Anesthesiologists, n = 4

Documentation of acute pain management service

Encounter time 6.1 minutes in PDA group vs 4.6 minutes in paper chart (p = 0.00). Documentation significantly better for 3 of 5 main pain variables.

Stengel et al, 2004 [26]

Germany

Orthopedic patients (n = 78)

Registrar (n = 1), residents (n = 3), and medical students (n = 2) in orthopedics

Documentation of daily progress, diagnoses

More diagnoses entered using PDA vs paper (411 vs 157).

More incorrect diagnoses using PDA vs paper (48 vs 7)

Wu and Straus BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 2006 6:26   doi:10.1186/1472-6947-6-26