personal digital assistant, PDA

personal digital assistant, PDA

A light-weight, hand-held and pocketable computer that has become important in medicine as in many other strongly information-based disciplines. PDAs use the familiar Windows environment and can communicate with other PDAs using wireless or infra-red networks. They are invaluable for rapidly accessing information of all kinds including patients' records; consulting medical textbooks and medical databases; for internet access, diary, timetable and calendar purposes; and for running application software such as word processors and spreadsheets.