Color PDAs for Wireless LANs?

David Macfarlan asks: "My father owns a small medical practice and has always desired to get information to himself and his patients rapidly. With recent advancements of 802.11b and powerful Pocket PC's he's developed an itch for information-on-demand through a wireless handheld (preferrably color) while he is in the examination room. A database for the knowledge he's looking to access already exists, and can be queried via any browser. He has approached me on implimenting a system of reliable, fast PDA's which could deliver a browser-based wireless access (within 100 feet) of this system. Is there anyone who has experience with the PPC's, and could offer any suggestions as to which is best suited to such an application?"

Comments

ViewSonic's Airpanel

[acer123]

It has a much bigger screen than a pocket PC (perfect for showing charts, illustrations, etc). It is already wireless and would connect directly with your existing server. It is really just a mobile touchscreen monitor
[viewsonic.com]

Re:ViewSonic's Airpanel

[kableh]

I would second the above suggestion.

I've used ViewSonic's Viewpad 100 and 1000. The 1000 is sweet, since it is basically a PC in tablet form. Windows 2000 runs on it, and it is quick enough for most apps (600MHz Celeron I believe). The Viewpad 100 is sort of like an iPaq in tablet form, but it doesnt run PocketPC OS, so that is something to consider. I believe it runs the H/PC version of CE. And web browsing on an iPaq sucks, partly because it is underpowered. I would have to wonder how the Viewpad 100 would compare.

Then again, the Airpanel might be a better choice than the Viewpad 100, since you could run the apps on a Terminal Server, and not be hindered by trying to run IE on an ARM. Then again, you would have to consider the cost of the Windows Server license and Terminal Services licenses.

As far as security goes, I wonder if the OS on the ViewPad 100 and the Airpanel support VPN. The latest PocketPC OS has VPN functionality built in, allowing you to secure your wireless connection with PPTP.

So, to recap:

- ViewPad 1000 - Powerful, but pricey

- ViewPad 1000 - Affordable, but kinda slow?

- Airpanel - Licensing costs?

Good luck, sounds like an interesting experiment! =)

issues...

[kevin lyda]

when i first left uni, i worked for the dental school. some interesting issues cropped up when we discussed computers and patients. i only really remember these two, but make sure you work out the medical issues with your dad.

how do you sterilise a pda? pda's don't like autoclaves.

what resolution do you need to store x-ray's at? if your dad misses a tumor because the resolution isn't good enough, what will the lawyers say? and i doubt he has x-rays now online, but he might want them in the future.

Watch out for HIPAA! Fines of $25,000 - $250,000

[Nonesuch]

The HIPAA regulations provide some rather severe penalties for privacy violations.

The privacy provisions of the federal law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), apply to health information created or maintained by health care providers who engage in certain electronic transactions, health plans, and health care clearinghouses.

In HIPAA, Congress provided penalties for covered entities that misuse personal health information.

• Civil penalties. Health plans, providers and clearinghouses that violate these standards will be subject to civil liability. Civil money penalties are $100 per violation, up to $25,000 per year for each requirement or prohibition violated.
• Criminal penalties. Congress also established criminal penalties for certain actions such as knowingly obtaining protected health information in violation of the law. Criminal penalties are up to $50,000 and one year in prison for certain offenses; up to $100,000 and up to five years in prison if the offenses are committed under "false pretenses"; and up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison if the offenses are committed with the intent to sell, transfer or use protected health information for commercial advantage, personal gain or malicious harm.

When you really really want a hammer...

[Bud]

... you will justify it by looking at all problems as if they were nails. I'm willing to bet big money that the clinic doesn't really need "color PDAs".

If you merely need textual and numeric information, a simple Palm will be enough, as you can fit hundreds of patients, their medication, their billing history and whatnot into the standard 8MB. The information you need is probably not time critical up to the split second, it's more like up to ten minutes or so. You get the same benefits at a fraction of the price.

If you need graphical information and it absolutely HAS to be accurate up to the split second (like in the emergency areas of a clinic), you'd better get stationary computers instead. You don't want your PDA to run out of batteries when your patient is flat out in the ER room.

Or you can just get "webpads" or "tablet computers" instead of PDAs. It's not much fun to look at 4000x4000 pixel X-ray shots on a 200x200 screen... Shop around, there are lots of different models around, some running Linux and some Windows CE. They all come with web browsers, and they all either have WLAN built in or take PCMCIA cards.

But don't get color PDAs just because they would be cool. That's not cool.