First-year residents at Duke University Hospital have been given PDAs
loaded with software from PatientKeeper, a Boston-based company with which
the University recently entered into a partnership. As a result, caregivers have immedidate, wireless access to
patient data and allows greater attentiveness to their needs.
The new PDAs and the PatientKeeper software provide a significant advantage to caregivers by lessening the amount
of paperwork and increasing the speed with which patient care can be provided. “PatientKeeper allows you to get
patient labs, statistics and other information without having to go to one of the PIN stations around campus,”
second-year medical student Israel Nosnik said. ”[The PDAs are] working out great. I can’t live without it.”
Before entering into the partnership with PatientKeeper, DUHS was developing its own mobile computing software,
but the decision to switch to PatientKeeper was “a win-win for both sides,” Ahmad said. “Developing a product
in-house is very expensive, so we negotiated a deal with PatientKeeper that was cheaper, very aggressive and could be
quickly deployed.”
