pharmacy students must have iPhone or iPod Touch

It's getting to be the 'in' thing for Colleges and Universities. The University of Florida at Gainesville is now requiring incoming pharmacy students for the fall semester to have either an iPhone or an iPod touch.

The student Newspaper, the Alligator, quotes the College of Pharmacy Dean William Riffee saying:

"These are the instruments at the forefront that are developing applications for medical uses by the hundreds. We want our students to become adept at using these mobile devices early on because we see this as the future in pharmacy practice."

The Dean also owns an iPhone so he knows of what he speaks.

In May, the University of Missouri School of Journalism also required the popular Apple devices, saying they would be helpful for recording lectures and other academic uses.

This is obviously a good thing for Apple, and the University thinks it is a good thing for students. It's not so good, however, if you already own a Zune.

Thanks to Billy S. for the tip - http://www.tuaw.com/2009/07/09/university-of-florida-pharmacy-students-must-have-iphone-or-ipod/




Previously, I began adapting my iPod Touch to be used as a medical PDA during my clinical clerkships and beyond. Thus far, the results have been rewarding and are in part supported by the notable rapid spread of iPhones (and a handful of iPod Touches) that I have seen in the workplace among attending physicians, residents, medical students, and even a few nurses. (I chose an iPod Touch instead of an iPhone because of the cost of AT&T phone and data plans and the poor reception of its network in the hospitals where I work; I felt that it would seem unprofessional to not be reachable by cell phone since Tulane medical students are not provided with pagers.) Riding the popularity of the iPhone as a revolutionary device, the iPhone/iTouch platform has attracted a variety of medical resource publishers and software developers that have turned them into indispensable devices. In honor of those people who have made this early stage of my medical career so much easier with the power of knowledge and technology, I would like to list my top 10 medical resources for the iPhone/iTouch and the ways they have empowered me. -

The iPod Touch Medical PDA: Med Student’s Best Friend

DoctorCalc: Medical Apps for the iPhone and iPod touch

Medical Calculator - helps doctors and nurses compute useful formulas and equations.
Normal Lab Values - helps medical professionals interpret test results.
Sedation - supplies procedural sedation and analgesia information.
RSI - provides quick access to the rapid sequence intubation procedure.
Jaundice - helps clinicians apply the AAP guidelines for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.
Vaccines - shows immunization schedules recommended by the CDC.
Medical Abbreviations - contains 13,000 medical abbreviations.
Lab Unit Converter - converts lab values between USA units and SI units.
Patient Tracker - helps you track information about your patients, including history & physical (H&P) and daily notes.