Survey Shows PDAs are Just What the Doctor Ordered

Global Physician Survey Reports Mobile Devices Help Doctors Provide Better Patient Care; Improve Interactions with Pharmaceutical Representatives


Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are helping the vast majority of physicians with devices today to provide better care through timely, relevant information and boosted productivity, according to a recent survey conducted by AvantGo, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVGO), the leading provider of mobile enterprise software. The global study also cites the future PDA functionality that doctors believe will make them even more efficient and effective.

The physicians surveyed felt that mobile devices could significantly improve patient care. Specifically, 92% of physicians with PDAs are using their devices multiple times per day to keep calendars, access drug reference guides and read medical journals. These doctors would also like to be able to use their PDAs to access medical reference websites (48%), write and transmit prescriptions (33%), access pharmaceutical manufacturers websites (28%) and keep records of clinical trials (27%), while fully 93% of respondents claim that this additional information would enable them to provide improved patient care and make them more productive.

The survey results also indicate that PDAs are an effective tool for pharmaceutical companies to add value to and build relationships with physicians. In the survey, 84% of doctors felt that the time they spent with their pharmaceutical representatives would be more valuable to them if the representatives had immediate access to important drug or clinical trial information on their PDAs. Additionally, 86% felt the value they derived from pharmaceutical companies would be dramatically increased if pharmaceutical companies offered an on-device channel that would provide them with the latest information, including product collateral on new drugs, clinical trial results and industry news.

Fully 86% of the doctors surveyed felt that if their affiliated hospitals supported mobile devices, it would significantly improve the quality of in-hospital patient care. Yet, only 20% of the affiliated hospitals currently offer this support.

"These results are consistent with what we have experienced at Harvard Medical School, where we provide value-added services that help medical students use their PDAs more effectively, improving physician workflow and reducing our costs," said Dr. John Halamka, Assistant Dean of Harvard Medical School and CIO of Caregroup, Inc. in Boston. "We have deployed a PDA solution that in just six months has eliminated $150,000 in paper costs and reduced the need for data entry personnel, as well as significantly improved our paper-based process. The solution has provided us with higher quality data and increased our form completion compliance from the usual 20%, delivered up to six weeks after the completion of a course, to 80% delivered in near real-time."

The physician survey was completed by 3,482 self-identified physicians responding on their PDAs using the AvantGo mobile Internet service. The on-device survey was conducted over a four-week period. AvantGo is presenting the full survey results at the eyeforpharma e-Sales & Marketing: from Mobile to Wireless conference in Philadelphia, April 11-12.

About AvantGo

AvantGo, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVGO) is the leading provider of mobile enterprise software. AvantGo solutions automate business processes and improve the exchange of information between companies and their employees and customers, resulting in improved business efficiencies and more effective customer interactions. AvantGo solutions include the best-of-breed mobile software platform for creating and deploying enterprise applications, proven customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) and personal information management (PIM) mobile business applications, and professional services to assist in the strategy, design and delivery of end-to-end mobile solutions. AvantGo's customers, which include 28 of the Fortune 100 and over 2,500 companies in 50 countries, include McKesson Corp., Ford Motor Co., Cisco Systems, FedEx, Scottish Power, The US Senate, Tyco, Harvard Medical School, American Express, The World Economic Forum, BG Group, plc., Genencor and Alcatel. For more information, please visit www.avantgo.com.

The Company recently introduced AvantGo Mobile Pharma(TM), a powerful mobile application designed to help pharmaceutical companies gain market share by dramatically improving the quality of physician interactions and increasing the productivity of their sales representatives. The mobile application provides sales representatives with immediate access to the information most relevant to them, including their existing SFA system, product and clinical data, prescription distribution data, corporate intranet and the Internet on their handheld devices.

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