title: Electronic data collection by trainee anaesthetists using palm top computers.
abstract: The Royal College of Anaesthetist requires that trainees wishing to specialise in Anaesthesia register with the College and keep a logbook documenting their experience and training in clinical anaesthesia. There are a number of advantages if such logbooks are kept in an electronic format. For the first time in the United Kingdom, we have evaluated the usefulness in a district general hospital of introducing a computerized system of record keeping based on a portable palm top computer. This has enabled the careful analysis of the individual work load of each trainee in the department by means of a specific program designed to generate a comprehensive report after the information from each individual has been downloaded on to a standard desk top computer. We have found a number of interesting and unexpected results and have highlighted ways in which the system may be improved.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Poole Hospital; Department of Anaesthesia, Poole and Royal Bournemouth Hospital, Poole, UK.
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Hammond
authors.forename: B P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Sweeney
mesh_terms: D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000193:education* / Q000295:instrumentation; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019992:Databases as Topic; D001330:Electronic Data Processing / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005568:Forms and Records Control / Q000379:methods; D006767:Hospitals, District; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D008838:Microcomputers; D011996:Records; D012984:Software; D006113:United Kingdom; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D016526:Workload