Rural but not remote! Access in outback Australia. Report on the implementation of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) for medical students, clinical teaching staff and health librarians at the Rural Clinical Division, School of Medicine, University of Que

摘要

Funding to provide 95 Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) to medical students, located at the Rural Clinical Divisions (RCD) in outback Australian Queensland regions, was obtained in 2003 from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. The PDA Project commenced in October 2003 and will continue until the end of 2004. The objectives of the Project were to provide access to authoritative, evidence-based information to rural medical students at their point of need and to address equity issues for students placed in remote or isolated areas with limited access to information and technology infrastructure. The project will be used to identify how such technology can help to educate and prepare students for practicing medicine in the 21st Century and as a means to identify appropriate resources, training and support required to utilise PDAs. The Herston Medical Library, University of Queensland, provided a senior Liaison Librarian as the Rural Pack Project Coordinator, along with two Liaison Librarians, who are based at the rural sites in the Central Region and the South West Region of Queensland, each working at the main hospital within each region. The Coordinator of the Project has led a team of clinicians, librarians, information technology representatives, a medical education officer and medical students to evaluate the technology. Included on each PDA distributed to PDA Project participants are e-resources, including a major drug index, medical textbooks, a medical dictionary and a medical calculator. The Microsoft Office Suite of software, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook are also included on each PDA. A report on the implementation of the Project, study design and outcomes reported during 2004 is provided. Various challenges, such as licensing complexities, that were encountered with the introduction of this innovative service are outlined, as well as future plans.