Use of personal digital assistants in diagnostic radiology resident education.
OBJECTIVE
Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are gaining widespread use in the medical community. We introduced a PDA-based mobile system that provides departmental and educational information with a seamless connection to the intranet. The objective of this study is to determine the impact a PDA has on educational resources (learning or data reference) brought to work and used at home by a radiology resident based on user surveys.


METHODS
Survey was performed on 32 radiology residents in our department before and 6 months after the release of the PDA-based system. We assessed the changes in (1) sources of learning at home and at work, and in (2) data reference. The second survey also evaluated the usefulness of each component of the system.


RESULTS
After the release of the PDA-based mobile system, the use of "digital books and references" as data references and educational resources that were brought to work every day significantly increased (P = .016, P < .0001, respectively). "Traditional books and references" remained the "most useful source in learning radiology"; however, "digital books and references" increased as the residents' first choice from 0% to 16% within 6 months of introducing the package (P = .125).


CONCLUSIONS
The introduction of a PDA-based system consisting of educational and departmental information had a statistically significant impact in increasing the use of digitized information in radiology resident education.
Nishino
Mizuki
M
Department of Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 USA. mnishino@bidmc.harvard.edu
Busch
James M
JM
Wei
Jesse
J
Barbaras
Larry
L
Yam
Chun-Shan
CS
Hatabu
Hiroto
H
D034201:Computers, Handheld; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D011871:Radiology / Q000193:education*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires