title: Personal digital assistants.
abstract: Personal digital assistant sales are growing exponentially, and as medical technology advances the amount of information available becomes staggering, making a handheld device, with the ability to store a great amount of information, progressively more valuable to health care providers. Mobile computing allows for a great deal of knowledge in a small package, creating a "walking library" with a mobile collection of data always accessible. There are many diverse types of PDAs, and this article discusses the history of PDAs, general purchasing issues, general PDA features, and the most significant differences between the Palm and the Windows CE operating systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Division of Neuroradiology, 1A71 University Hospital, 50 North Medical Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84132-1140, USA. Richard.Wiggins@hsc.utah.edu
authors.forename: Richard H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Wiggins
mesh_terms: D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000266:history; D034201:Computers, Handheld / Q000266:history* / Q000592:standards; D004865:Equipment and Supplies, Hospital / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D011873:Radiology Information Systems / Q000266:history