Which PDA?

Originally posted by V SPN
I've been offered a beta test of medical reference for PDAs by a major publisher. I'd love to work with them on it, but I need to aquire an actual PDA first. Which unit do people prefer? I know the Palm units have the major market share, but I read good things about the Handera units. Any advice on brand, megs, memory, speed, price, etc. from actual working nurses using these things would be appreciated.

v-

Originally posted by PC Nurse
I have started to distribute the iPAQ (PocketPC) to some of the key management, nursing and ancillary health users. They find it to be an invaluable tool and use it to dictate and write notes which are then transferred to the CPR. It also serves as a reference tool utilizing different publications. I have found physicians reluctant to move to the iPAQ from the Palm OS as they are comfortable with them and most purchased the unit themselves.
The main drawbacks I have found are battery life (I get 2.5 hours of constant use), difficulty interfacing with Lotus notes - we are using Cadenza from common time and find that to be a very good product, and that epocrates (a popular PalmOS software)is not available for this platform. .
Having 32MB ram (we use the 3650) with a 200mhz processor are big selling points. They are more powerful then most of the desktop units we have.

Most common uses by our staff:[list=1][*]spreadsheets - stats[*]task list[*]notes[*]short dictation[*]email and scheduling[*]reference materials[*]contact files and information[/list=1]

Another section of the hospital uses the wireless card attachment to access their CPR and transmit real-time data. We are planning to use this in the future.