SATELLIFE Seeks Used PDAs

linuxwrangler writes "Upgraded your PDA this Christmas or just have one gathering dust? SATELLIFE is accepting donations of used PDAs for use by doctors in the poorest countries. The PDAs, when loaded with programs such those from Epocrates have become an invaluable resource for physicians in the remote areas of developing and impoverished countries. SATELLIFE's work earned them a 2004 laureate from the Tech Museum of Innovation."

Comments

Epocrates?

[Anonymous Coward]

A wooden box that stimulates production of erythropoietin? I'm not visualizing this.

Cut to eBay...

[skinfitz]

...and a sudden surge in used PDA's.

Minimum - Palm V

[pnevin]

Palm V's had what, 2Mb of memory. How useful would that be?

Re:Minimum - Palm V

[Kris_J]

You're right. When it comes to medical references, surely 2MB isn't enough for anything useful. Also, doesn't the V series have a custom battery pack? Those things just don't last that long. I would have thought that they'd only want the ones that take (easily changeable) AAA batteries.

Palms are also far from ruggedised. I'd put the lifespan of an old Palm V or IIIx in Africa at about six months. Hardly worth shipping out there.

Re:Minimum - Palm V

[Artifex]

em>I'd put the lifespan of an old Palm V or IIIx in Africa at about six months. Hardly worth shipping out there.

Let's see... # of lives possibly saved in 6 months vs. shipping cost. You really don't think it's worth it?

Re:Minimum - Palm V

[roseblood]

You did RTFA right?

From the Epocrates website:

Devices NOT Supported
Palm Personal
Palm Professional
Palm IIIe, Palm V, Palm VII, M100, and other 2MB Palm OS devices
TapWave Zodiac
HandEra/TRGPro
Devices with MIPS and NEC processor type
Cassiopeia devices
HP Jornada 520/540/600/700/800 series
Devices that do not use Microsoft ActiveSync
Windows Mobile PC (such as Samsung i600 and Motorola MPX200 Smartphones)

Re:Minimum - Palm V

[Kris_J]

I read something that said:

SATELLIFE will gladly accept donations of working handheld computers/PDAs with power cord/cradle. Models needed are Palm Vs or newer and any Pocket PCs.

I'm sorry, was the article supposed to be an ad for Epocrates or SATELLIFE?

Re:Minimum - Palm V

[Kris_J]

Let's see... # of lives possibly saved in 6 months vs. shipping cost. You really don't think it's worth it?

Let's see... Shipping, setup, testing, deployment, training, batteries/power, support, software licencing -- all of which costs money that could be spent on medicine and takes people out of the system that could be helping more directly. I'll go with no unless someone can provide real details.

OT: WebMD is a whore for the drug companies

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at their website. It is plastered with pharmaceutical ads, and recommends brand-name drugs in the page content. I was floored by it. This is supposed to be helpful medical advice?

Re:OT: WebMD is a whore for the drug companies

[Heftklammerdosierer!]

Haven't you been paying attention? Name-brand drugs are helpful medical advice.

Maybe they're going to use the lower-end PDAs to list name-brand drugs and how many years salary each one costs.

Donating PDA's

[Scott7477]

Thanks for posting this story. I have an IPAQ which I am going to send them. Hopefully these people find palmtops useful...

I have found the entire palmtop concept to be useless for me personally. Having to train the thing to recognize my handwriting or learning to write in the stilted font that some palmtops will recognize has been something I am not willing to do. Plus the dinky screen really is useless, especially at the prices that are being charged for these things.

I prefer to take my laptop computer with me when I am going to need a computer. It is far easier to type whatever and there's enough screen real estate to be useful.