GMS Medizin – Bibliothek – Information (Sep 2008)
Evaluation des Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)-Angebots der Zweigbibliothek Medizin in Münster / Evaluation of the PDA-project at the Branch Library Medicine at Münster
Abstract
Since 2004, in a project the Branch Library of Medicine (ZB Med) offers a PDA service for its users. The service consists of eight PDAs on loan for four weeks, as well as a number of programs to install on the user’s PDA. The programms for installation on the user’s PDA were Medline search and TOC alert, Drug Interaction Facts (all OVID) and the Rote Liste (Editio Cantor Verlag Aulendorf). Within half a year, the programs were installed 154-times. Rate of satisfaction with the Rote Liste was an exceptional 1.58 (on a scale of 1–5, 1 = very satisfied, 5 = very dissatisfied). The Drug Interaction Facts followed with 1.75, Medline with 1.88. In the subsequent phase of the project, the main focus was on the transfer of licences to users. The list of applications has been extended to nine programmes: DDInnere, Yellow list, Herold – Internal Medicine, ifap index Pocket, ICD-10, Medline, Pschyrembel, Rote Liste, and UpToDate. With a survey of 186 users, this phase was evaluated in April 2006. Overall, the library transferred 570 licenses to their users. The five most popular applications were the Rote Liste (84%), the Herold – Internal Medicine (76%), Pschyrembel (75%), the Arzneimittel pocket (67%) and the Phone book of the clinic (63%) – all products offered by the ZB Med. 88% of respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with this offer, 11% are undecided and only one dissatisfied. The PDA service considerably increased the market penetration and the use of these applications. Before the PDA project the Rote Liste was used only by 8% of the PDA owners and after the project by 77%. This represents an increase of the 8.4-fold. The same also holds true for the DDInnere, Ifap index, ICD-10, Herold and the Pschyrembel. The Arzneimittel pocket is the only product that did not need this "helping hand": With 38% it was almost perfectly distributed. Compared with the respective printed books, the Rote Liste achieved best: 83% found the PDA version better than the printed book. The PDA-Arzneimittel pocket was preferred by 58%, the PDA-Pschyrembel by 53% and 46% by DDInnere. The Herold was the only PDA product, which compared worse to the book. About 92% of respondents praised an overall effective work by the PDA and 79% believed that the use of the PDA applications increased their knowledge advantage. 78% declared a better drug dosing through use of the PDA databases, 68% had better treatment recommendations and 53% were able to quicker diagnosis. 48% was helped by the PDA in test preparations. Hits and looser could be clearly identified in a comparison of importance and satisfaction with an so-called action portfolio. It turned out that the students were much more satisfied than the doctors: While the students marked four products with 1.57 or better, the doctors only marked the Rote Liste this high.
