VetPDA
Features • Screenshots • Credits • Downloads • Version History

Features

VetPDA (Veterinary Personal Digital Assistant) was originally conceived with the goal of having accessible, accurate and clinically relevant information available in the student's hand on a device known as the PocketPC. It has been designed to be easy to use as possible. VetPDA work has provided a valuable tool for use by students during vet school and currently includes:

• Information on specific diseases (Etiology/Pathogenesis, Signalment, History, Clinical Signs, Diagnosis, Differential Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prognosis)
• Differential lists (Based on Physical Exam, Hematology, Chemistry, and Urinalysis)
• Hematology and Clinical Chemistry Normals with Physiologic Information
• Diet and fluid composition/comparison.
• Calculators (CRI, Enteral Nutrition, Anesthesia, Emergency, and Transfusion)
• Phone and Pager Lists (Clinician and Student)
• General, Neurologic, and Orthopedic Physical Exams

VetPDA has been designed entirely in HTML for two main reasons, linked information and cross-platform compatibility. The most valuable aspect of this project is the ability to quickly jump between linked sources of information. For example, a student is looking up information on serum calcium. They want to look at the differentials for hypercalcemia, so they tap the link. This will bring up a list of the most common causes of hypercalcemia. Tapping on hypoadrenocorticism will take the student to information on that disease. Tapping on the diagnosis button will take them to information regarding diagnostic testing and the changes that are commonly seen on bloodwork for an Addisonian patient. From there, they can tap on calcium and have it take them back to where they started. This problem oriented approach is vital to the learning experience of veterinary students and is the method practiced in the clinical setting. The inclusion of both differential lists and disease monographs utilizes the problem-oriented approach to aid the student in developing relevant differential lists that are suited to the current situation.

VetPDA is currently targeted towards small animal medicine, but is not limited to it. With student assistance, equine, food animal, and avian/exotics sections could be generated within just a few years. Simple sections such as animal normals and differential lists could be added immediately, with detailed disease information following. Some of the information can be easily shared between small and large animal versions such as clinical chemistry and phone/pager lists.

A limited version of VetPDA is available for Palm devices. This version lacks the calculators and tables are not displayed properly. This is due to the lack of support within the browsers (iSilo) currently available for Palm.

Screenshots

The Homepage	Includes UC Davis Normal Values for Small Animals	Compare different diets
Disease monographs		Complete Neuro Exam

Palm

Disease main page	Tables	Complex diseases

Credits

Editor / Webmaster		Content
Chris Brandt		Erika Loftin, Amy Ito, Mike Barlia, Amanda Bowman, Craig Loftin, Tim Runion, Andrew Lie, Kim Bercovitz, Alan Schule, and Chris Brandt
Design Team		Calculators
Chris Brandt Mike Barlia Craig Loftin		Chris Brandt Mike Barlia Tim Runion

Downloads

Download the current version

Version History