Use and perceived benefits of handheld PDA clinical reference applications.

Methods During a 2-week period in February 2005, 3567 users of Epocrates were asked by email to complete a survey and permit analysis of their usage patterns. Participants were offered discounts on future product purchases as incentives. The software includes a pharmacopeia (Rx Pro), an infectious disease reference (ID), a medical diagnostic and therapeutic reference (Dx) and transmits medical alerts and other notifications during PDA synchronizations. Users may have had all or only some of the software products. Software usage patterns were recorded during synchronization and captured usage history from the prior 4 weeks. Patient information was not collected and physician identifiers were removed before analysis.