Medical institutions strive to provide each student with the best tools and training possible. These physicians in training are probably most commonly described as "mobile." To observe doctors, patients, and procedures, they move between classrooms, libraries, laboratories, hospitals, and clinics throughout the community. Their busy schedules make it next to impossible for medical schools to track each student's progress and accurately measure his or her experience. By taking advantage of this on-the-go lifestyle, however, the schools can supplement it with the appropriate technology. Such technology can enhance student education while offering the schools an important advantage in accreditation.

Right now, the healthcare industry at large is taking a closer look at how personal digital assistants (PDAs) can improve medicine and patient care (FIG. 1). Meanwhile, forward-looking medical schools are discovering that better access to information resources improves students' learning today. It also prepares them to practice medicine tomorrow. As stated by Dr. Bob Trelease, Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UCLA School of Medicine, "PDAs will be as common as the stethoscope."

Particularly as students move into their third and fourth years, mobility becomes an integral part of their education. The students spread out into community clerkships to gain firsthand experience with patients and medical procedures. Medical schools must therefore provide reliable information resources that fit their mobile lifestyle. Heavy textbooks and reference materials are no longer practical. Students increasingly "study" in a variety of locations and situations outside of the classroom. The reality is, however, that the learning tools have not kept pace.

Course management via paper-based reporting requires students to transcribe data on forms. The resulting feedback is rarely timely or accurate. As they struggle to track progress and ensure the observation of required procedures, the faculty finds it difficult to maintain the necessary level of communication with students. As those students spread out into the community and beyond, both the faculty and the administration lack an effective way to communicate with them. They also are hindered from evaluating each student's learning experience and making the necessary course adjustments.

Medical schools also are tasked with providing a well-rounded student experience for accreditation purposes. There is a growing trend toward quantifying experience through the monitoring and verification of student training and competency. This need also is being influenced by the increased credentialing requirements that face practitioners and post-graduate trainees. To meet accreditation standards, medical schools are attempting to add remote methods of monitoring student progress and faculty performance.

As they try to deal with these common pain points, the reality is that these institutions' budgets are tighter than ever. Medical schools have long found it challenging to manage information among such a dispersed population. They spent large sums of their budgets to institute paper-based processes that have now become inefficient. As a result, the evaluation of new solutions must take into account up-front costs, long-term costs, the anticipated return on investment (ROI), and any additional information-technology support or staffing that will be needed. Clearly, mobile technology answers the medical schools' need for a cost-effective solution.

For example, look at personal digital assistants. These devices are already changing the way that business is conducted and information is accessed and communicated. They fit easily into a mobile lifestyle to keep people connected. According to Harvard Medical School, between 70% to 75% of students entered medical school with a PDA. With those numbers growing, medical schools must consider how to leverage students' existing investments and add value. The PDAs can easily turn into an extension of their learning tools.

The medical schools are sandwiched between students' personal technology and the growing ubiquity of PDAs in healthcare. Physicians and hospitals use PDAs to track patient progress, facilitate rounds and data entry, dispense medication, and improve patient care (FIG. 2). A recent Harris Interactive Study¹ predicted that by 2004, half of the physicians in practice will be using handheld devices. Meanwhile, hospitals are beginning to adopt PDAs as the information standard.

The impetus to put mobile applications in medical schools is being driven from both ends. Today's medical students need to be prepared for the mobile world. By familiarizing them with the tools that will be used in tomorrow's medical community, the schools can enrich the students' education and better prepare them for the future. Incorporating PDAs into education also can help schools establish a competitive edge. Medical schools must deliver compelling advantages that make students choose one institution over another.

The implementation of mobile technology also will help schools adjust to the standardization of accreditation. Mobile applications can streamline the data-collection process. That data can then be used by the student or the practitioner as well as educators, administrators, and credentialing bodies.

Mobility is even the answer for resource-constrained medical schools that require affordable, flexible, and easy-to-maintain solutions. The harnessing of mobility represents a cost-effective endeavor that benefits all parties. Mobile access to course textbooks, anatomy illustrations, and drug-interaction tables, for example, enhances the quality of education. These available, up-to-date information resources enable students to remain focused on learning.

For faculty, electronic course-evaluation forms could deliver timely and relevant feedback. The faculty could then tailor the education to individual student and/or class needs. In addition, they could monitor progress more closely and accurately as students move among hospitals and healthcare facilities.