Patient Tracking Software for Smartphones and PDAs

Does it make sense to run patient tracking software on smartphones or PDAs? If you are running an EHR (Electronic Health Record) in your hospital and you're able to access the same data on your smartphone, then that's the ideal situation. Otherwise, I wonder if it makes sense to use a smartphone to re-record all that data. If you work in a hospital that doesn't employ digital records, then be patient (forgive the pun) because that will change very shortly. Hospitals that don't have EHRs and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) will have them within a few years.

If I were starting my clinical clerkships or residency next month, I don't think I'd try to use a smartphone to track my patients. I don't know that it's worth the extra effort considering that you're probably surrounded by computers everywhere. If anything, I'd advocate for the use of an ultra-mobile PC so that you can gain access to all the digital records and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) when you're on-the-go.