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Handhelds
help docs avoid errors: MedAmerica poll
Walnut
Creek, CA, Jan. 31, 2005 -- (MobileVillage) -- Emergency room
physicians insured by MedAmerica Mutual report avoiding medical
errors in a survey completed by the insurer last year. MedAmerica
Mutual is a physician-directed, controlled and governed professional
liability insurer specializing in serving emergency physicians
and their medical groups.
The survey
was conducted over the course of 2003 - 2004 with MedAmerica
Mutual's insured physicians in an ongoing effort to assess
the impact of the Mutual's support of handheld technology
use. Since 2001 when MedAmerica Mutual first provided its
insured physicians with handhelds and then subsidies to purchase
the Epocrates Rx Pro drug reference guide, the company says
it has seen PDA ownership grow significantly among its clients.
Over
66% of the 224 respondents said they use their PDA to look
up information and perform medical calculations on every shift,
with an additional 15% using their PDAs on more than half
of their shifts. When asked to describe how the PDA was used
in their clinical practice, 93% said as a drug reference,
56% a medical calculator and 38% medical reference.
Most
importantly, respondents reported the types of medical errors
they had avoided by using PDAs, with 65% saying they had avoided
a dosing error; 58% a dosing frequency error; 25% a drug error;
24% a therapeutic error; and 18% another type of error.
The Epocrates
Rx Pro drug reference includes over 3,500 monographs including
adult and pediatric dosing, contraindications and cautions
and adverse reactions; an alternative medicine guide covering
over 400 herbals; a function capable of checking up to 30
drugs simultaneously for interactions; health plan formulary
coverage and retail prices; an infectious disease treatment
guide; and built-in dosing and medical calculators.
Recent
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Mobile
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PatientKeeper
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