Pharmacists' utilization and interest in usage of personal digital assistants in their professional responsibilities

Background and objectives: Pharmacists use PDAs for performing various activities related to their profession. The objective of this study was to examine pharmacists' utilization pattern and interest in usage of personal digital assistants (PDAs) in various facets of health care. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted by distributing a pre-validated 23-item instrument to a convenience sample of pharmacists (n = 295) in the Houston area. Usage frequency (0 = never to 5 = frequently) and interest in future use (1 = extremely disinterested to 5 = extremely interested) of PDAs for various activities were evaluated and compared across pharmacy practice settings. Results: Most pharmacists reported maximum use of PDAs, as personal organizers (3.7 +/- 1.8), in obtaining drug information (2.9 +/- 1.8) and as medical calculators (2.6 +/- 1.9). Similar results were obtained while evaluating interest of pharmacists who did not have PDAs and have never used PDAs for these three activities. Hospital pharmacists owned and used PDAs significantly (P < 0.05) more often than community pharmacists. Conclusions: Pharmacists used PDAs for basic functions in their profession role. Application of PDA technology in community pharmacy settings may result in its better adoption in both the settings.