Beaming in the clinic: Palms outshine the others
I spotted a fellow blogger and colleague, Spinosum’s post in PA about a Beaming Session In Clinic. I must say most of the stuff I have “beamed” over to colleagues at work are really non-medical applications e.g. utilities like NVBackup and other great freeware which many users are simply not aware of. One big advantage Palm PDAs have over other platforms is the simple ability to beam applications and not just data across to other users. In the Windows mobile world, it’s a lot harder as many programs require you to run a setup file on the PC and then install it on your device (unless you have an installation cab file which may be beamed over).
What I have not done much (hardly at all) would be beaming across data in the course of clinical work either with colleagues or with patients. This is a great pity I feel, and I think it’s largely because of the lack of standards across platforms. Windows mobile as a platform is so unfriendly when I beamed a memo over to a collegue once, it got “lost” and it took us sometime to figure out where it went on his device!
I think for the most part, simply beaming (either via IR or Bluetooth) across your virtual business card or contact details to other colleagues should be encouraged. I think most people are simply underusing the beaming capabilities of their mobile devices.
Have you beamed stuff to and from colleagues/patients? I would love to get feedback from you.
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About the author, Alan: Alan Teh is a Malaysian Physician who specialises in Hematology-Oncology & Stem cell Transplantation. He has been using Palm PDAs since 1997 and is absolutely reliant on them. His current PDA is a Palm Pre and is a strong advocate of the webOS platform, Palm's latest operating system. Caught the blogging bug in 2004 and has been addicted ever since… |
Hello! I am an internal medicine resident. In my hospital, most residents and doctors have Palm OS devices. Many of us have personal memos with clinical pearls that we sometimes share via beaming. I have also beemed a few medical applications to my collegues. I must admit I use a lot more bluetooth then Infrared to share files between devices.
Glad to hear that. Many of my colleagues with “smartphones” haven’t even heard of beaming!
@Jasmin L
I agree that Bluetooth is “easier” to transfer files and you don’t need to position the devices with their IR ports face-to-face.
However, at times I tend to forget to switch the BT off, and therefore drain my battery faster! So I usually still reside to IR if just for transfer 1-2 files; however, I use BT to Hotsync my Treo with my Dell XPS laptop.
Not to forget BT transfer is faster than IR so that would be the preferred route for “beaming”.