Hand-held computing in the patient care setting: a pilot project.

Direct patient care has not fully benefited from a number of recent advances in modern technology. Many of the normal data collections tasks carried out by care providers are still done with manual, error-prone procedures. In addition, the ability to consolidate or represent patient data in a meaningful and timely fashion as required by managed care expectations is unavailable. The reported work attempts to address these problems with the application of new hand-held computing technology.