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A new survey released this week at the American Psychiatric Association’s 157th Annual Meeting demonstrates psychiatrists’ increasing reliance on their handheld computers and the impact these device have on their daily activities. The survey of more than 280 psychiatrists was conducted by Skyscape, a provider of mobile medical and nursing references.

Respondents to the survey stated that PDA use provides significant benefits by enabling them to spend more time with patients, while still treating more each day, and by improving the overall quality of patient care.

More than 64 percent of those surveyed use their PDA more than four times a day, with 12 percent using it more than 25 times a day. Some of the most useful PDA references for psychiatrists are gold standard clinical references, such as DSM-IV-TR, drug references and drug interaction guides­with over 71 percent of survey respondents crediting PDAs with helping them reduce medical errors. In fact, more than 16 percent of respondents said that by using a PDA they were able to eliminate over 10 percent of medical errors.

When asked how they use their PDAs, 68 percent of psychiatrists reported they rely on their PDA for treatment purposes­primarily using it for drug references, clinical references, drug interaction guides or treatment guidelines. When asked to quantify the specific benefits PDAs bring to their daily practice, 82 percent of respondents concluded that PDA use enables them to provide more care in less time.

In addition, Psychiatrists rely on more than one PDA reference. More than 78 percent of psychiatrist respondents have at least three medical references on their PDA. This is a higher percentage than the number of doctors using multiple references in the 2003 Skyscape survey.

An earlier survey by Skyscape found that handhelds, be it a PDA or smartphone, have made significant inroads into the medical industry in general. The survey from December 2003 showed that 85% of the 900 doctors who participated pointed to PDAs as helping to reduce the number of medical errors, with more than 50% indicating PDA use reduces their medical errors by more than 4-5%.

With the National Academy of Science – Institute of Medicine reporting that medical errors cost the healthcare system $2 billion a year, this equates to preventing more than $100 million in preventable drug errors alone. Yet less than 20% of medical professionals have their PDA software integrated with the larger hospital IT enterprise (prescription, billing, charge capture or patient records systems).

The survey found that more than 88% of doctors use their PDAs at least four times a day, with 15% using them more than 25 times a day. When asked how they use their PDAs, 72% of doctors reported they rely on their PDA for treatment purposes—primarily using it for drug references, clinical references, drug interaction guides or hospital treatment guidelines.