Larry

I don't disagree with anything you say. My points are simply that

1) We speak quicker than we write
2) If speech is an option, most prefer it
3) Clinicians prefer to dictate
4) New pdas have dictaphones built in. You can select patients and dictate a note for your secretary then download via wireless or cradle. This is akin to (and better than) digital dictation- itself a "breakthrough" technology in the last few years.

I agree with you re screens; I delayed almost to the point of stupidity in buying a notebook so I'd get a PIII and 15" screen. I bought one of the firsr Dell Inspirons with that configuration. BUT there is no way I'd lug it around with me on a ward round or in a plaster room. The iPAQ: sure I carry it around. So the iPAQ is already ahead.

Re speech to text: I've written papers on why it will not work in hospitals, so we agree. But you can dictate into a pda in the car or in the theatre tea room. It works. I like that!

I've not said that the pda will wipe out the PC across the board so I don't want to argue that. I've said there *are* industries where it is going to take the PC's place. Hospital medicine is one. surgeons who refuse to touch a PC WILL dictate into a pda and it is a short step from there to "lessee, if I click that there... wow! There's the histology".

Why should this be a problem for anybody? VFP makes a "bl**dy marvelous" server side manager for such apps. The pda and something like WW can communicate using existing file-based communication. I love it- faster, cheaper than ado-based competitors who are fiddling with service packs (already!).

I'm interested in the work for nurses. We could talk profitably on this point. Are you a contractor?

Regards

JR