Development and Evaluation of Personal Data Assistant Collection Toolset (PDACT), a Palm™ Pilot Interviewing System Using Handheld Devices (Personal Digital Assistant - PDAs)

Computer-Based Electronic Data Collection
One of the most common alternatives to paper is electronic data collection. Data is entered directly into a computer either during the patient contact or from paper and collected into a database management system running on the computer or PDA. The advantages of this technique is that the computer can provide some error checking and errors can be corrected at point of contact. In addition, data can be integrated directly from the databases.

Approach
Our handheld project began in 2000 as a collaborative project between two MRC units, the Health Systems Research Unit and the Biomedical Informatics Research Division. The aim of the project was to develop an electronic data collection system that would work on handheld computers. We surveyed the market and user needs and decided on the Palm™ Pilot. We also found a product, QDS, the Questionnaire Development System (QDS™) that presented a good way of developing questionnaires. Therefore, our strategy was to extend the QDS systems for the Palm Pilot.

Collaborators
The following groups collaborated on the project:

1. Knowledge Translation Programme, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto at St Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada
2. Health Systems Research Unit, Medical Research Council, South Africa
3. Biomedical Informatics Research Unit, Medical Research Council, South Africa
4. School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa
5. Knowledge Translation Unit, University of Cape Town Lung Institute, South Africa,
6. Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Adolescent Health Research Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa
7. Centre for Prevention of Global Infections, Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway