Uma década de publicações sobre a utilização dos computadores de mão em saúde

Resumen

The purpose of this study was to review articles published in PubMed between 1996 and 2007 that made reference to PDA (personal digital assistant) use in health care, and to classify these articles based on topics addressed and analyze their progress over an 11-year period. Of 1,375 publications initially found, 702 were excluded because they had no abstract (required for classification purposes) or showed biased inclusion criteria (articles not related to the topic of study were reviewed). A total of 673 articles were selected and then arranged by year of publication and classified into five groups according to the topic: Applications, Data Bases, Data Collection, Review, and Usability. It was concluded that the use of these devices in health care increased the number of publications. Most of them (40.1%) addressed PDA applications and only 19 (2.8%) were literature review of articles that had been published. This is the first study to show a potential trend in the issues addressed in these publications with a decrease in the number of articles focusing on PDA usability and an increasing number of articles that describe the use of specific PDA applications. This review study points to a wide range of possibilities for medical informatics professionals to develop useful applications.