Development of a personal digital assistant-based wireless application in clinical practice

Purpose: Our study aims to develop a personal digital assistant (PDA)-based wireless application in medical information processing by using Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11b wireless standards and SyncML codes. Methods: In this study, an "integrated database access module" is used to provide a unified integrated access interface while consistency of wireless data transmission is achieved by using the standardized SyncML protocol. A prototype of the system has been developed, implemented, and tested for its mobility, usability, stability, and performance with questionnaire survey. Results: Response time for browsing/searching was usually less than 3 s. The average time intervals needed for data transmissions were 68.6 ± 8.5 s for Bluetooth and 47.0 ± 4.8 s for 802.11b. The five-point Likert scale (from 1 = least to 5 = most) questionnaire survey of 30 medical professionals yielded a high degree of satisfaction with the system's mobility (4.18 ± 0.89), usability (4.69 ± 0.90), stability (3.81 ± 0.94), and performance (3.97 ± 0.88). Conclusion: The results of our study suggested that PDA applications which exploit wireless communication are convenient and feasible in clinical practice.