title: Using wireless handheld computers to seek information at the point of care: an evaluation by clinicians.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate: (1) the effectiveness of wireless handheld computers for online information retrieval in clinical settings; (2) the role of MEDLINE in answering clinical questions raised at the point of care.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective single-cohort study: accompanying medical teams on teaching rounds, five internal medicine residents used and evaluated MD on Tap, an application for handheld computers, to seek answers in real time to clinical questions arising at the point of care.
  
  
  METHODS
  All transactions were stored by an intermediate server. Evaluators recorded clinical scenarios and questions, identified MEDLINE citations that answered the questions, and submitted daily and summative reports of their experience. A senior medical librarian corroborated the relevance of the selected citation to each scenario and question.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Evaluators answered 68% of 363 background and foreground clinical questions during rounding sessions using a variety of MD on Tap features in an average session length of less than four minutes. The evaluator, the number and quality of query terms, the total number of citations found for a query, and the use of auto-spellcheck significantly contributed to the probability of query success.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Handheld computers with Internet access are useful tools for healthcare providers to access MEDLINE in real time. MEDLINE citations can answer specific clinical questions when several medical terms are used to form a query. The MD on Tap application is an effective interface to MEDLINE in clinical settings, allowing clinicians to quickly find relevant citations.
authors: Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, National Library of Information, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA.
authors: Susan E
authors: SE
authors: Hauser
authors: Dina
authors: D
authors: Demner-Fushman
authors: Joshua L
authors: JL
authors: Jacobs
authors: Susanne M
authors: SM
authors: Humphrey
authors: Glenn
authors: G
authors: Ford
authors: George R
authors: GR
authors: Thoma
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D034201:Computers, Handheld; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D016239:MEDLINE; D046650:Medical Subject Headings; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D014584:User-Computer Interface
references: J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2002 Jan-Feb;9(1):80-6
references: 11751806
references: J Nurs Educ. 2007 Mar;46(3):127-31
references: 17396552
references: Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2004 Jun;74(3):245-54
references: 15135575
references: BMJ. 2004 May 15;328(7449):1162
references: 15142920
references: Stud Health Technol Inform. 2004;107(Pt 2):1430-3
references: 15361051
references: J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2005 Jul-Aug;12(4):398-402
references: 15802478
references: J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2005 Sep-Oct;12(5):568-75
references: 15905482
references: Ann Fam Med. 2005 Nov-Dec;3(6):507-13
references: 16338914
references: Health Info Libr J. 2006 Mar;23(1):51-9
references: 16466499
references: J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2006 Mar-Apr;13(2):171-9
references: 16357350
references: AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2005;:191-5
references: 16779028
references: J Med Internet Res. 2006;8(2):e7
references: 16867970
references: J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2006 Nov-Dec;13(6):619-26
references: 16929041
references: AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2006;:945
references: 17238564
references: BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2007;7:5
references: 17313680
references: J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2004 Jan-Feb;11(1):19-28
references: 14527976