Palm plans healthcare push

An article in MarketWatch describes the change in the PDA market over the last decade and future challenges ahead particularly in the convergence of the PDA and the smart phone. Palm Computing is taking advantage of that market and and is making a play in healthcare, where it sees an opportunity for growth. FierceHealthcare met with the Palm healthcare team recently. Palm estimates that nearly 60 percent of physicians have a PDA--predominantly to look up reference information like Epocrates, and for calendaring. Of course the use of PDAs and smart phones (like Palm's Treo or RIM's Blackberry) for transactions like charge capture and ePrescribing is much lower, at perhaps 10 to 15 percent.

Palm also believes that while only some 15 percent of nurses are using a PDA, that market has great potential for expansion. In addition, Palm's new Treo using the Windows mobile operating system now gives it access to a broader market, including vendors like ZixCorp who's applications are built on Windows. But while they've been dominant in stand-alone PDAs, Palm will face competition in the expanding market as healthcare starts to integrate PDAs and smart phones. That competition may even include Apple, which is rumored to be bringing out an iPod smart phone.

- read this article from Marketwatch