More and more people are using handheld devices to stay in touch and also to run "apps" (applications) to accomplish a variety of tasks or to just have fun. If you've been thinking about getting one to use at work but aren't sure which type of device you should get, this month's article is for you.

There are a wide variety of clinical medical programs available for a variety of handheld devices. Common types used today by NPs include drug references, general clinical references, continuing education programs, and medical calculators. Since many of these programs are available for most, if not all, of these platforms, I won't focus much on software here, but rather the devices themselves. Let's review what's available.

Probably the most popular platform at present is the smartphone. Simply stated, a smartphone is a cell phone that has the ability to add third-party software. It's more than just a phone that can get onto the Internet, although smartphones do that as well. The key is being able to add additional programs that do specific types of things you need. For a banker, this might be an amortization program. For a nurse practitioner, it would be one of the types of software I mentioned above.

Blackberry
Many (but not all) smartphones use the Windows Mobile operating system (OS), which is put out by Microsoft. There are many brands of smartphone that use this OS; you will, however, be limited in your choices based on what cell phone carrier you wish to acquire service with (i.e., not all carriers offer all brands or models). There are also still nonphone Windows Mobile PDAs in use today (though they are now in the minority); they function in much the same way, but without the phone capabilities.

Windows Mobile OS has a look and feel similar to the Windows operating system on a desktop PC. The latest version of the Windows Mobile OS has features aimed to make it a viable alternative to the Blackberry, such as the ability to view HTML e-mail (the "fancy" e-mails that look like a mini-web page), and the ability to edit Microsoft Word documents that reside on a network server. It also allows the device to be remotely wiped clean if lost or stolen, something the Blackberry has featured for a while now.

A Blackberry is simply another brand of smartphone; they are very popular. Blackberries have their own proprietary OS, and are produced by one company, RIM (Research In Motion Ltd.). Blackberries are known for excellent usability and for providing outstanding e-mail support. Initially, they were used mostly by corporate business people for this reason, but now the Blackberry is very popular with noncorporate users as well. Although a few years ago there were only a few medically themed programs available for this platform, in recent years many more have become available.

Palm Pre
Palm Corporation has also made a recent foray into the smartphone market with its new model, the Pre. This represents a fairly radical departure from prior Palm devices. The Pre has a totally new and different operating system that is Web based, and its touch screen makes it a natural for comparison to Apple's iPhone. There is already an app out for the Pre called "Classic," which allows you to run older, legacy-type Palm apps on the Pre in a smaller screen that emulates an older Palm PDA. Palm still has a few older PDA models in use, namely the Treo, the LifeDrive and the Palm TX. While still useful, they are slowly becoming obsolescent.

iPhone
Apple revolutionized the smartphone with its iPhone just a couple of years ago. This intriguing device has a touch screen and something called an accelerometer that detects how you're holding the device. As a result, when you flip the device on its side, the screen flips to match. The latest iPhone model, the 3GS, has voice command capability for both phone (e.g., "Call Bob") and nonphone (e.g., "play jazz music") commands.  Apps are added by shopping at Apple's iTunes store; this is the only authorized venue for adding apps to the device. While apps are written by all sorts of companies and developers, they are each vetted and approved by Apple before being made available for users in the iTunes store.

At present, the prevailing type of handheld device is the smartphone. Choosing one will depend not only on what type of device you like best, but also whether or not that device is offered by a cell phone carrier that you want.

Andy Craig is a family nurse practitioner at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte Student Health Center. He is a member of the ADVANCE for Nurse Practitioners editorial board and is the journal's technology consultant. Reach him at aec-618@carolina.rr.com .