Hand-held computers and consultation-liaison psychiatry: a practical tool for the information age
✍ Scribed by Christopher Ryan; Beth Kotze
- Publisher
- Informa plc
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 340 KB
- Volume
- 9
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1039-8562
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Objective: To demonstrate the practical utility of a new generation of hand-held computers in the practice of consultation-liaison psychiatry.
Method: In their work over the last 3 years as consultation-liaison psychiatrists in two large general hospitals in Sydney, the authors have developed a series of clinical databases carried on small computers. Illustrative examples demonstrate the utility of this dynamic learning tool.
Results: An affordable pocket computer provides a new means of accumulating, organizing and readily accessing the reams of information required by the consultation-liaison psychiatrist in day to day clinical work.
Conclusions: The information explosion in psychiatry, and in psychiatric pharmacology in particular, has placed enormous demands upon the practicing psychiatrist. Retaining and gaining access to this information is even more onerous for the consultation-liaison psychiatrist, who must maintain a familiarity with general medical illness and its treatment and investigation. The use of hand-held computers to assist is relevant to continuing medical education and embedding evidence-based medicine in clinical practice.