Handheld health

David Neff has been working on a handheld cancer tool for physicians. Maybe we need to be looking at the potential of PDAs for the general public too.

With a personal digital assistant and a bit of software, you can now
hold volumes of information about nutrition, exercise, health, calories
and carbs literally in the palm of your hand.

Contemplating a can of split pea soup at the supermarket recently,
Margie Keegan wondered if it would be an acceptable choice for the diet
she follows.

She pulled out her new Tungsten personal digital assistant, tapped
an icon for her Weight Watchers On-the-Go software, scrolled through
the options and found out that that the soup was just fine.

On the horizon is an Atkins program that would deliver information to
low-carb devotees by mobile phone. The program, called Atkins2Go, is
scheduled to launch early this year.

Among the other popular mobile software titles on the site are
programs designed for runners, yoga practitioners, bikers and swimmers.

"Thousands of people benefit from these programs each year," Patterson said.