Scalpel? Check. Stethoscope? Check. Handheld? Check.

By Roland Piquepaille

In "ER doctors have new tool to help diagnoses: Palms," the Detroit Free Press gives more information.

Emergency room doctors need more information about more illnesses and injuries than virtually any other specialty. And they always need those facts fast.

And unfortunately, most of medical reference comes as books, sometimes missing in a room or hard to read when you're in a hurry. So here is the solution: a handheld computer.

The Detroit Medical Center system just became the latest to benefit. Medical Center Emergency Services, the physicians' group that represents all of its ER docs, just bought 150 handheld computers with wireless networking capability for all its emergency room members.

"We're required to know lots of things about lots of different disease processes," explained Bharat Sutariya, an emergency room physician who helps coordinate technology for the emergency department and DMC. "It's a challenge to keep up."

The new handhelds -- Palm Tungsten C models, which have color screens, can run a variety of medical software programs -- have been in doctors' hands for about a month, Sutariya said.

And what do these doctors use?

Programs loaded on the devices range from drug-interaction checkers, to procedure trackers for residents, to medical calculators, to continuously updated reference books on emergency medicine.

And what about the future?

The ultimate plan is to allow doctors to look directly at patients' records on the Palms, something that's supported by the hospitals' software but not yet in place on the handhelds, Sutariya said. He said the first trials should begin in a month or two.

Sources: Andrew Dietderich, Michigan CrainTech, August 19, 2003; Heather Newman, Detroit Free Press, August 28, 2003