Table 2
Organizational Concerns About Handheld Computer Use
| Security-related concerns |
| General security |
| “There is no security on these things” |
| “A big weakness” |
| “A big problem” |
| Physician compliance with security measures |
| “The process of reauthenticating takes like 20 seconds” |
| “We could…force the encryption…but we would have a lot of complaints” |
| “Most guys have it set up right now that you just turn it on and there it is.” |
| Confidentiality of patient data |
| “These certainly create some new challenges with HIPAA” |
| Network and viruses |
| “We want to make sure that it [the HHC] is not going to corrupt anything or eat away too much bandwidth.” |
| Copyright and liability |
| “When we put information on these things, who is responsible for its accuracy?” |
| Economic concerns |
| Expanding support services |
| “What we discovered is that there is an ongoing maintenance that is going to take some effort.” |
| “I think we underestimated the effort.” |
| Device durability |
| “They are dropped in toilets, they are lost, and they are smashed.” |
| Incremental expenses |
| “When something bad happens, it's kind of 1,000 fixes.” |
| Technical concerns |
| Device limitations |
| “The size of the screen” |
| “The speed of the device” |
| “Battery life” |
| HHCs “just are not there right now” |
| Application limitations |
| “There is no perfect software” |
| Infrastructure limitations |
| “There aren't enough printers” |
| “We're not yet wireless” |
| User limitations |
| “Limitations with the ability of physicians to grasp the technology and successfully use it” |
| “Just the functional computer literacy of some of our medical staff is a barrier” |
| Strategic concerns |
| Rapidly changing technologies |
| “It is a big up-front investment, particularly when you look at how quickly things change.” |
| “How do you spend big dollars on something today that you know is going to be obsolete?” |
| “The question is ‘what will the doctor find most useful and when?’” |
| Physicians' expectations |
| Expectations are “ahead of the technology” |
| “Higher” than reasonable |
| Strategic priorities |
| “Where does the PDA fit?” |
| “Trying to find the balance” |
| “The use of PDAs, if not used wisely, could be an added expense that doesn't produce a reciprocal benefit.” |
