ADOPTION OF HHC’S  Adoption of mobile technologies is a process of social interaction between users, environment and organizations.  Organizational, environmental and technological factors should be taken into consideration when adopting mobile technologies in hospitals.  Organizational factors –internal factors including top management support, project teams capabilities, championship, user cooperation and acceptance, cost benefit and internal needs.  Environmental factors –represent the external factors such as business competition, government policies and coordination and capability of external suppliers.  Technological factors – the characteristics of mobile communication, communication of mobile devices and integration with existing HIS. Pharmacists physicians and nurses are all among the early adopters of HHC’s. they perceive HHC’s as relatively inexpensive, portable “integrated platform for point- of-care clinical reference, patient and data management, and a communication tool that can be used to enhance their clinical practice”.  According to a recent survey in 2003, 40 % physicians owned a PDA and a higher proportion of nurses were using PDA’s (559,800 versus 408,020).  Wireless connectivity is a driving force for the adoption of PDA’s. Wireless technologies provide access to Internet based resources such a web based medical databases and evidence based references. An increasing number of HIS systems are using mobile technologies to offer portable and convenient access to the medical records of patient’s.

Barriers to handheld computer adoption User complaints regarding HHC’s include small screen size, uneasy data entry and fear of breaking the device. Physician and clinical staff resistance to new reforms and use of technology as opposed to the paper based system. Slow organizational and institutional adoption due to inadequate evidence about positive effects of HHC’s on patient outcome. Clinicians discourage the use due to personal factors including eyesight, age, over-dependency on technology, discomfort with technology and ineffectiveness of using PDA’s. Usability barriers include size, weight, screen size, data entry mechanism, wireless transmission technical issues, security and maintenance concerns, inadequate technologies, negative patient perception, competing technologies, lack of organizational support, insufficient training and lack of motivation.

Overcome barriers of HHC adoption  Better designed software and hardware to promote greater adoption and acceptance of HHC’s in health care.  Sufficient training and institutional support to promote individual adoption.  Advances in usability and technology can help overcome technical issues such as short battery life and limited storage capacity.  Moreover organizational changes such as providing the required infrastructure for HHC’s such as funding for the software applications and devices, technical support and training and education.

Facilitators to promote physicians HHC adoption and use The main themes about opportunities to facilitate adoption and use among physicians are improving usability and usefulness, promoting HHC’s and device use and providing training and support. Organizational concerns about HHC use are security related concerns, economic concerns, technical concerns and strategic concerns. Hence, support personnel must be constantly available to provide application and device support to technical staff and physicians. To facilitate adoption of HHC’s physicians and colleagues should work together in understanding the potential of HHC’s and promote the devices usefulness. Organizations hoping to facilitate physicians HHC’s use must respond to physicians needs and remain sensitive to this variability.