The PDA is an important technology in clinical medicine. Although PDAs are widely utilized by medical students and residents, older teaching faculty have not readily adopted them. The medical library can position itself as a leader in training patrons to use these devices. The East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Quillen College of Medicine Library (QCOML) staff trained older, experienced teaching faculty to use PDAs loaded with ePocrates and InfoRetriever databases. The training was rated highly and several faculty members became PDA users. The library is now considered the place to go on campus for PDA help.

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Yes / As part of a CETL funded project (ALPS 2006) 29 student midwives and their link lecturers were given an electronic version of a clinical portfolio on hand held computers (PDAs). These devices were used during an eight week clinical practice placement to record tripartite assessment interviews and to facilitate grading of the placement. Three focus groups conducted at the end of the placement explored the concept of clinical practice assessment and the impact of the electronic portfolio on the students’ experience of clinical practice and its assessment. Data was analysed from an activity theory perspective in that the electronic assessment tool was viewed as an artefact mediating situated knowing about student assessment in a particular socio-historical context. Findings suggest that students perceive clinical assessment as contested with different assessors having different understandings of it. However the electronic devise facilitated changes to the assessment tool. These changes promoted a shared understanding of the assessment process which was pragmatic and acceptable to students and clinicians. The significance of this study is that it highlights the role of assessment tools in creating a shared understanding of the assessment process rather than simply articulating that understanding.

Effective Health Systems make service provision easy for health workers, especially if they have access to the latest guidelines in a dynamic profession where new technologies are ever emerging. However, available data indicates that the health system in Uganda is constrained and still using old technologies despite the availability of newer technologies. As a result, this study sought to investigate the adoptability, cost effectiveness, and sustainability with regard to Personal Digital Assistants. The study, which was cross sectional in nature, was carried out in Mbale District in Eastern Uganda between 2008 and 2010. In depth interviews were conducted with health workers and key informants. Also, published and unpublished literature about theUganda Health Information Network was reviewed.The findings revealed that the use of Personal Digital Assistants also known as handheld computers can go a long way towards improving healthcare delivery in countryside health facilities. To health workers in remote places, the PDAs are a source of the latest clinical care guidelines for several diseases including HIV and AIDS as well as malaria. Health information systems have been improved and data collection and reporting have been eased by this technology. However, while evidence of viability of this technology exists, it still has challenges like power and delays in software updates among others.

No / In this article we share our experiences of a large-scale five-year innovative programme to introduce mobile learning into health and social care (HSC) practice placement learning and assessment that bridges the divide between the university classroom and the practice setting in which these students learn. The outputs are from the Assessment Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS) Centre for Excellence in Teaching Learning (CETL), which is working towards a framework of interprofessional assessment of Common Competences in the HSC professions. The mobile assessment process and tools that have been developed and implemented and the outcomes of the first-stage evaluation of the mobile assessment tools are discussed from the student perspective.