Due to the flourishing of wireless communication networks and the rapid evolution of handheld electronic devices, the mobility and "wirelessness" of electronic medical records have become more feasible.
To confirm this, we performed a systematic review of the evidence assessing the effects of handheld electronic medical records on clinical care.
We included randomized controlled trials that evaluated effects on practitioner performance or patient outcomes of handheld electronic medical records compared to either paper medical records or desktop electronic medical records.
The use of a handheld electronic diary has been shown to be feasible, and to produce greater compliance and accuracy than paper diary in prospective recordings of headaches and other pain in children and adolescents in small group clinical studies [36, 37].
Results from a sample of primary care practitioners in the US revealed that 76% agreed that the use of handheld devices for electronic prescribing would substantially reduce medical errors and improve the quality of health care [ 67].
Our aim was to evaluate the feasibility and the reliability of using a handheld electronic communication device via telemedicine as a method for assessing and monitoring pain and discomfort in chronic pain patients.
Participants recorded headaches, associated symptoms, and other characteristics of their headaches, as well as drug use, in a handheld electronic (Palm OS ) diary for the 16 months of the trial.
Thus, we used a cross-over design to compare responses to a pediatric health quality of life instrument (PedsQL 4.0) delivered using a handheld electronic device to those from a traditional paper form.
269 274 275 276 Also, when compared to paper based data collection, the use of electronic handheld devices and internet websites has the potential to improve protocol adherence, data accuracy, user acceptability, and timeliness of receiving data.
Connecticut bans the use of handheld cellphones, yet goes a step further by prohibiting the use of other electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants.
