History
After having owned both a Psion Series 3a and then a 3c, I decided to upgrade to
a Series 5 right after it's release in 1997. I was still an intern
at that time and I used my Psion mostly to scribble down notes,
appointments, some spreadsheet calculations and other simple stuff
like that. There wasn't much software for the Series 5 back then.
As an intern, I noticed that palmtops were scarcely used in any
department, although the anesthesiologists were far ahead of
everybody at this point. They're the more technical guys I
guess...
In 1998, I found a position at the Department of Dermatology at the University
Medical Centre in Nijmegen. There was already one palmtop there.
... my professor's Series 3a whose alarm sounds rang out over the
whole department ... I decided to choose a different sound for
myself !
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Psion Series 5 | |
Gradually I
noticed more and more people with Psions and exchanged ideas with
several of them. They all worked on their own with their beloved
devices, and used them mostly for simple
agenda functions. Sometimes people didn't even know that these
machines could do much much more. When problems arose, they didn't
know what to do and our UMC computer department didn't support
palmtops at all.
The thought
emerged that it would be great to help each other, show each other
what the possibilities of these machines were and also how they
could help improve the life of medical professionals by exchanging
information, sheets, databases etc. So in the summer of 1998 we
founded the Psion User Group UMC.
Objectives
We wanted to
support and encourage the use of Psion palmtops (the more users,
the more possibilities). We also wanted to inform people about the
possibilities and to exchange information since many people used
them to scribble notes, make there own digital reference and record
protocols. We wanted to share this stuff. After all why should
everybody have to make their own drugs database? We realized we
should be working together on these things. We also wanted to
reduce the amount of books and notes that we carried in the pockets
of our white coats. We decided that membership should be free and
easy with no strings attached. Members must own or be intending to
own a Psion / EPOC device.
Results
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The Psion Series 5 | |
We started
with a handful of members, but have grown in two years to more than
70. There are actually even more Psion users in the hospital.
Probably about 150 medical professionals use them altogether. The
largest groups of users are the Department of Anesthesiology, the
Intensive Care Unit and Department of Internal Medicine. However,
almost all departments are represented. We not only have interns,
but also several professors who are members of the group. The Psion
Series 5 and 5MX are most used, followed by the older Psion
machines and the REVO. The series 7 and netBook are still
unaccounted for, as these are to bulky for bedside use.
We have
ported several local medical reference works and hospital databases
to the Psion platform. Some of these are available on our website,
others are strictly for local use. Twice a year we have a meeting
in which software can be demonstrated, information is exchanged and
lots of questions discussed. We also have a weekly news update by
e-mail with the most important news from the Psion/EPOC world. We
have arranged special discount prices at our largest Psion dealer
for all members. We even have our own small helpdesk for all
questions and small repairs.
On a smaller
scale some users have started to synchronize their agendas with a
centralized agenda using MS Outlook for Win NT.
The Future
Our ideas are
endless, but unfortunately our time is limited. It would be great
to be able to access the hospital network from our palmtops. We
still need to port a lot of reference works to EPOC. So much work
is still needed to be done here...
There are a
lot of other hospitals that have already contacted us about having
a medical usergroup themselves, or if they could join us. Who knows
what will happen, perhaps we'll go national in the future...
You can check
out our homepage at http://www.psionumc.cjb.net
Milan Tjioe is a leading
figure in the Psion User Group at UMC Nijmegen. He is perhaps most
famous for being the first person to get his hands on an EPOC
Quartz communicator device and post photographs on his website !
Check them out in the CeBit 2000 section of
http://www.psionumc.cjb.net
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