On Sept. 6, Palm announced it has awarded mobile medicine technology grants to 17 U.S. universities and teaching hospitals. Palm has provided a total of 1,000 Palm™ IIIc handheld computers for students studying medicine, dentistry, pharmacology and veterinary medicine.

The 17 mobile medicine grant awardees and their research projects are as follows:

• Auburn University School of Medicine, Auburn, Ala. -- Research projects are focused on how medical students use Palm handhelds to learn how to maintain patient information, check medication dosage, reference decision-support compendia, do order entry and track intervention activities. The medical faculty is coordinating its research activities with Palm handhelds.
  
  
• Cornell Hospital for Animals, Ithaca, N.Y. -- Interns are using Palm handhelds to gather medical information about animals and to access veterinary references.
  
  
• Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, N.H. -- Second-year medical students are using the handhelds with the ePocrates application, and the faculty is creating a custom patient tracker for fourth-year medical students.
  
  
• Drake University School of Medicine, Des Moines, Iowa -- Medical students on clinical rotation are recording interventions, tracking patient care and accessing health information from drug databases. The medical faculty is collecting data on how students perform medical interventions.
  
  
• Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, N.C. -- Anesthesiology and surgery residents are downloading anatomical diagrams; tracking rotation information; and using knowledge-based tools, such as drug information references and medical calculators. Duke's medical educators also are investigating how security software for handhelds protects the privacy of patient records.
  
  
• Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C. -- Medical student are using Palm handhelds to access online medical library resources while doing patient care.
  
  
• Indiana University School of Dentistry, Bloomington, Ind. -- Dental students are tracking patient treatment and accessing curriculum resources.
  
  
• Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, Md. -- A 10-month observational study is ongoing using Palm handhelds and the Patient Keeper application to record the often complicated medical history of pediatric patients, with a focus on improving the accuracy and security of patients' records.
  
  
• New York University College of Dentistry, New York, N.Y. -- The dental faculty is creating a Palm OS® application that does English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English translations of greetings, dental health history, emergency treatment, diagnosis and treatment planning. Educators will investigate how third-year dental students use Palm handhelds and dental-language translation software in clinics at the point of care.
  
  
• Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Rootstown, Ohio -- Third-year students in the pediatric clerkship program are using Palm handhelds and applications, such as Patient Keeper, to manage patient medical records and make diagnoses. Faculty members are assessing the configuration and support issues associated with using Palm handhelds for medical education.
  
  
• Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine, Pikeville, Ky. -- Students in the first-year clinical skills course are taking Palm handhelds into Appalachian Mountain areas of eastern Kentucky so they have easy access to patient records and numerous medical-information resources while caring for patients during home visits.
  
  
• The Medical Center, Columbus, Ga. -- The Medical Center, which is associated with the medical schools at Auburn University, the University of Georgia and Mercer University, is investigating how students use Palm handhelds to provide patient care and track pharmacy, diabetic, asthmatic and hypertensive patients. The center also is investigating the use of Palm handhelds for data entry during ambulatory and family-practice care.
  
  
• University of California at San Francisco School of Pharmacy, San Francisco, Calif. -- Medical educators are researching how second-year and third-year pharmacy students acquire, use and update Palm OS prescription-drug databases and other applications. Using a website, they will survey students to determine how they used a variety of Palm OS based medical software during the sequence of the students' didactic and clinical experiences.
  
  
• University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Conn. -- The family medicine program is using Palm handhelds to provide students with evidence-based, medical teaching resources and to deliver patient-tracking data.
  
  
• University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Information Services, Philadelphia, Pa. -- Students are using Palm handhelds for patient tracking and evaluation.
  
  
• University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, Vt. -- Students are collecting data, reviewing patient information and learning anatomy and physiology with their Palm handhelds.
  
  
• Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. -- Fourth-year medical students use Palm handhelds to gather patient data, download information and input patient data into a master patient database.

Palm is a trademark of Palm, Inc. Other brands may be trademarks of their respective owners.