Palm Pilot Research Articles

Testing the cross-stressor hypothesis under real-world conditions: exercise as a moderator of the association between momentary anxiety and cardiovascular responses.

The cross-stressor adaptation hypothesis of exercise training has not been investigated under real-life conditions. Using ecological momentary assessment, we tested whether usual exercise level moderates the relationship of self-reported anxiety to concurrent ambulatory heart rate (HR) and systolic/diastolic blood pressure (SBP/DBP). Participants (N = 832) completed 24-h ambulatory monitoring of HR/BP, using a brachial BP cuff that took readings at 28-min intervals. Anxiety levels were concurrently reported on a visual analog scale (VAS) using a Palm Pilot. Usual exercise behavior was assessed by a self-report questionnaire. Random coefficients linear regression models predicting momentary HR/BP readings from time-matched anxiety scores were estimated, yielding the average within-person effect (slope) of anxiety. The interaction of exercise level (i.e., no weekly exercise, 1-149, and ≥ 150min/week; a between-person factor) with anxiety was added to the model in order to estimate the average anxiety slope for participants in each exercise category. The relationship of HR/BP to anxiety did not differ significantly among exercise categories, hence not providing evidence for the cross-stressor hypothesis. In an exploratory analysis of the difference in HR/BP between occasions when anxiety was in the top versus bottom person-specific quintiles of responses, the difference in HR (but not SBP or DBP) varied significantly by exercise level (F(2,625) = 4.92, p = 0.008). Though our pre-specified analysis did not support the hypothesis, we provide some post hoc evidence supporting the cross-stressor hypothesis of exercise training for the HR response to anxiety.

A Paraklausithyron

A Paraklausithyron Katie Hartsock (bio) is an old kind of poemaddressed to the doorof a house you want to get into,where someone you are intolives. Evening sees you return to that door that stays shut,and if it would only open wide enoughyour song could change from lamentto love. Our campaign was longthe season I canvassed a city and its hinterlands, ostensiblyfor John Kerry. At the time it felt dire,that nothing could be moreimportant, and I knocked on doorsfrom hefty moneyed houses that gave me lemonade in clean tall glassesto the most falling downplaces. And by no means,we were told, could we ever enter,anywhere. About to ring a bell on a dead-end street, I sawthrough a picture window a naked manasleep on his couch, and on top of hima crested iguana the length of a golf club,also sleeping. Sitting together on the cool concrete of her front steps,I wept with an old womanwho had just buried her sonand finished her story, but yes but yesI'm voting for Kerry. [End Page 144] In a Mill Creek Valley housing projectI can't find now on a map,no one on my Palm Pilot's listof registered namescame to the door; everyone said of everyone, they don't live hereanymore. Laundry hung from windowsto dry in the air that smelledlike a leak of somethingnobody should breathe. Standing in the dirt courtyard,I looked up and could see, highon the highest hill, my university,where I'd taken in so many timesthe almost panoramic view, and I never knew.Once a man who lived on a State Streettried to get me inside,behind his door with him.But that's not how the poem goes. Predicated on separation,stubbornness and never-having,the paraklausithyron,and always ending with another plea.I walked through an America about to vote and it made me dizzy sometimes,how I could smell some intricate historyat each threshold—bread baked,a pet gerbil, a toxic cleaner or clingy cologne,the rubber of a tricycle's handlebars and the plastic of its streamers,an ashtray between two tumblersleft behind the night before.I was often sure someone was homeand would not come to me for anything. [End Page 145] Katie Hartsock Katie Hartsock's first poetry collection, Bed of Impatiens, was a finalist for the 2017 Ohioana Award in poetry. Her work has recently appeared in Ecotone, Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation, Jesus the Imagination, and The Wallace Stevens Journal. She is an assistant professor of English at Oakland University. Copyright © 2019 Pleiades and Pleiades Press

Ttools (B): The Value of a Patent to the Entrepreneur

A self-employed innovator developed and patented a novel combination pen and stylus device to complement the recently released Palm Pilot personal digital assistant. He presented his design to Palm, under a nondisclosure agreement to discuss the market response to the product, and his company, ttools, was subsequently allowed to advertise the device in a monthly e-mail to Palm customers. After ttools' release of the Throttle pen/stylus, Palm and the design firm IDEO introduced a similar pen/stylus device that appeared to infringe on ttools' patent. ttools, being a small, resource-constrained company, was in a precarious position. Its competitive advantage and rights as a patent holder were being threatened. It had few financial resources to draw upon, and thus its livelihood as a company was at stake. Investigates the available options ttools had to respond to Palm and IDEO's actions.

Ttools (A): The Value of a Patent to the Entrepreneur

A self-employed innovator developed and patented a novel combination pen and stylus device to complement the recently released Palm Pilot personal digital assistant. He presented his design to Palm, under a nondisclosure agreement to discuss the market response to the product, and his company, ttools, was subsequently allowed to advertise the device in a monthly e-mail to Palm customers. After ttools' release of the Throttle pen/stylus, Palm and the design firm IDEO introduced a similar pen/stylus device that appeared to infringe on ttools' patent. ttools, being a small, resource-constrained company, was in a precarious position. Its competitive advantage and rights as a patent holder were being threatened. It had few financial resources to draw upon, and thus its livelihood as a company was at stake. Investigates the available options ttools had to respond to Palm and IDEO's actions. To provide students with an understanding of how utility and design patents may be used by resource-poor entrepreneurs and inventors for building and maintaining a first-mover advantage.

An Approach to Management Communication Pedagogy in MBA Education

This note provides a pedagogical overview of Management Communication for MBA education. Excerpt An APPROACH to Management Communication PEDAGOGY in MBA Education Management communication and corporate communication have changed dramatically in the last ten years. Corporations and organizations have become more complex; yet, the single biggest factors influencing management communication have been, externally, the explosion of business news, and internally, the very different working conditions of a highly competitive marketplace. Externally, communication in business was traditionally associated with public relations. The rise of consulting quickly pushed the envelope of communication culture in business, setting new standards of presentation, and the development of logical arguments applied to business problems. Internally, communication in business can be seen as the ways the practices of human resources are implemented, and how strategy becomes manifest. New technologies, such as the transparency of the Web, have resulted in an increasing visibility of communication in business. Increasingly, vice presidents of corporate communication and chief communication officers play a role in developing corporate strategy. The divide between internal and external communication has been replaced in more and more companies by an integrated function that communicates the strategy, values, and identity of an organization to its multiple stakeholders. A working definition of management communication can be stated as both the many communication-related activities within companies and the specific function of corporate communication. As Rosabeth Moss Kanter noted some time ago, managers spend most of their time communicating, often under a fair amount of uncertainty. Management communication continues to be the area of communication in business that centers on the individual manager's ability to be an effective communicator. The exclusive focus on writing and speaking skills, however, has evolved into a strategic approach set in real-world organizational contexts that directly prepare students for the demands placed on today's manager. A dazzling and often confusing array of communication choices and channels, from e-mail to teleconferences, from instant messaging on palm pilots, to multi-media presentation technology, faces the men and women who work in companies, where, as the cliche goes, the only constant is change. Change, by definition, raises the need for the ability to communicate persuasively. It is no coincidence that the most celebrated CEOs are often great communicators, individuals who not only articulate the company's strategy with precision, but also become the corporation's “story-teller-in-chief.” . . .

Return on Reputation in Online Auction Markets

This research develops an assurances framework to assess the effect of a seller’s feedback “reputation” on the closing price of an online auction. The framework treats bidders as if they were ‘intuitive statisticians’ in their use of reputation cues. The framework leads to hypotheses about how information-based assurances (particularly feedback scores and the seller’s provision of information about the product) may be used by buyers to reduce their trading risks. The hypotheses are tested using data collected from the eBay web site on auctions of Palm Pilot personal digital assistants. It is found that the higher the seller’s reputation the higher is the average closing price of the auction, which constitutes a return on reputation (ROR). Thus the reputation infrastructure rewards good behavior with positive economic outcomes and helps to sustain a virtuous cycle in the online ecosystem. More specifically, it is found that: (a) negative comments are weighted more heavily than positive ones (b) negative feedback is subject to diminishing returns (c) the assurance offered by reputation is more salient among risk-averse buyers and (d) a high level of information about the merchandise also provides another form of assurance. However, when faced with a high level of information, risk-averse buyers seem to rely less on the sellers reputation score for assurance (a three way negative interaction between risk aversion, reputation and high information). The economic impact of these findings is that the seller of a Palm Pilot who has a high reputation can expect to receive as much as 12.6% more for the item than if he had a low reputation score. Of course, eBay also participates in this upside through its commission structure as well as the wider impact that the feedback seems to have. It is argued that the market for assurances is a contributor to eBay’s success and is also essential to the optimal functioning of any online market.

MOBILE SENSING

It is difficult to think back to a time before smartphones existed, with their ubiquitous computing and communication capabilities, and with detailed location sensing easily available from Global Positioning Systems (GPS). In the late 1990s, when my research group began work on mobile sensing, smartphones had not yet been invented. While GPS did exist, GPS receivers were expensive, power-hungry and not widely available. Our first mobile computing project started as a powerefficiency study for a GPS-based interactive campus tour. GPS-based tour applications are familiar now, but were unheard of then, and the physical implementation was a challenge. We used a Palm Pilot PDA (personal digital assistant) connected to an external GPS receiver and an external Wi-Fi card. In those days, PDAs had neither GPS nor any wireless communication capability! Given the bulkiness of the various pieces of our "app," we carried them and their batteries around in a shoebox. Since both the GPS and the radio were quite high power (over 1W), they greatly impacted the system's battery life. Our power-efficiency work explored methods to locally cache maps on the PDA, and to power down modules when not in use.

A naturalistic study of fat talk and its behavioral and affective consequences

Fat talk is a style of verbal expression among young women involving negative self-statements, complaints about physical appearance, and weight management. This research used ecological momentary assessment to examine the impact of naturalistic fat talk experiences on body dissatisfaction, body checking, negative affect, and disordered eating behaviors. We examined trait self-objectification as a moderator. Sixty-five female college students completed a baseline questionnaire and responded to questions when randomly prompted by palm pilot devices for five days. Results indicated fat talk is common and associated with greater body dissatisfaction, body checking, negative affect, and disordered eating behaviors. Fat talk participation was associated with greater body checking than overhearing fat talk. Greater trait self-objectification was associated with greater body dissatisfaction and body checking following fat talk. These results suggest that fat talk negatively impacts the cognitions, affect, and behavior of young women and has increased negative effects for women higher in self-objectification.

Understanding the utility of emotional approach coping: evidence from a laboratory stressor and daily life

Background: Dispositional emotional approach coping (EAC) marks an adaptive tendency to process and express emotions. EAC's association with cognitions, affect, and intra- and interindividual characteristics that may account for its utility was examined in response to an acute stressor and in daily life. Design: This study included a laboratory stress task and ecological momentary assessment. Methods: Healthy undergraduate students (n = 124; mean age: 20; women: 56%) completed a laboratory component (baseline survey, speech stress task, pre- and posttask measures) and five subsequent days of surveys via palm pilot (six surveys/day). Results: Controlling for sex, neuroticism, and social support, greater EAC was associated with more positive cognitive appraisals, personal resources, and positive affect and less-negative affect during the lab stressor, and with more perceived control and positive affect in daily life. Significant EAC × sex interactions were found for poststressor affect: men with high EAC reported more positive affect and women with high EAC reported less negative affect. Conclusions: Findings provide support that EAC's utility may be independent of intra- and interindividual characteristics, and that men and women may benefit from EAC in different ways in regards to affect. The proclivity to use EAC may come with a resiliency that protects against stress and promotes general well-being.

The examination of nursing work through a role accountability framework

To use work analysis data to describe the amount of time registered nurses (RNs) and health care aides (HCA) spent on key clinical role accountabilities and other work activities. Health care providers are not effectively utilized. To improve their efficiency and effectiveness, it is necessary to understand how nursing providers enact their role accountabilities. Using palm pilot Function Analysis technology, observers recorded the activities of 35 registered nurse and 17 health care aides shifts on a second-by-second basis over 5days. Work activities were classified using the Nursing Role Effectiveness Model, which conceptualizes nursing practice in terms of clinical role accountabilities. The registered nurses spent a considerable amount of time on bio-medical assessment/surveillance, relatively little time was spent on patient and family psycho-social-cultural-spiritual assessment/surveillance and support. Unlike other work sampling studies, this research project examined nursing work within a role accountability framework; an important first step in the call for the measurement of the impact of nursing care. Changes to how registered nurses and health care aides enact their role will require a clear vision by unit managers and their staff of their role accountabilities, and the gap between ideal and actual practice.

Perfectionistic self-presentation predicts social anxiety using daily diary methods

Perfectionistic self-presentation is thought to confer risk for social anxiety. Although this relationship is thought to occur dynamically from moment-to-moment, no research has yet tested this relationship using experience sampling methods. The present study stringently tested whether perfectionistic self-presentation predicted social anxiety beyond several important covariates using a 21-day experience sampling design. A sample of 165 undergraduates (75.6% women) completed a series of questionnaires each day for 21days using palm pilots. Generalizability theory and multilevel factor analyses suggested daily measures of perfectionistic self-presentation, social anxiety, perfectionism cognitions, and depressed mood evidence within-subjects and between-subjects variability, can be measured reliably, and represent distinct factors, allowing hypothesis testing. Multilevel regressions showed perfectionistic self-presentation predicted social anxiety at the between-subjects and within-subjects levels, even when controlling for socially prescribed perfectionism, perfectionism cognitions, and depressed mood. Overall, perfectionistic self-presentation emerged as a robust predictor of daily social anxiety, clearly extending prior cross-sectional research on this topic. By understanding how perfectionism operates from day-to-day, we can better understand the processes that give rise to social anxiety, and ultimately how to devise more effective ways to help people suffering from social anxiety.

Bodystorming with Hawkins’s block: Toward a new methodology for mobile media design

Inspired by the intuitive prototyping method employed by Palm Pilot founder Jeff Hawkins, this formative field study recreates and reimagines his generative techniques as a new methodology that could be useful for mobile media designers. Viewed theoretically through an activity theory lens, this approach also integrates bodystorming ideals as a way to externalize and embody user perspectives about the potential of place-based media, in situ, using a proposed National Park Service app, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, as an example. Such data gathering, especially early in the design process, could help user-centered projects gather otherwise inaccessible feedback, leading to better designs, through tailored content and interfaces, particularly at the dynamic intersections of digital and physical space.

Measuring Momentary Stress, Affect, and Cognition: Relationships with the Internalizing and Externalizing Spectra

The Internalizing (INT) and Externalizing (EXT) spectra are an emerging way to conceptualize the structure of psychopathology. Demonstrating relationships with emotional reactions to, and cognitive appraisals of, daily stressful events would be strong evidence of ecological validity. In the current study (N = 78), the experience sampling method (ESM, a structured diary technique with Palm Pilots) was used to capture affect and cognition related to current stressor, five times per day, for 1 week. Multilevel random coefficient modeling was used to examine affective and cognitive reactivity to daily stressors as a function of baseline levels of INT and EXT. INT scores were related to higher levels of negative affect (NA), lower levels of positive affect (PA) and more negative cognitive appraisals of the stressful situation. Several cross-level interactions were found between psychopathology scores, cognitive appraisals, and affect. Participants higher in INT psychopathology showed less decrease in NA as level of control increased, compared to participants low in INT. EXT moderated the association between NA and distress, with higher levels of EXT resulting in a stronger association between distress and NA. INT and EXT also moderated the relationships between the cognitive variables (distress and control, coping and control). Findings support both the utility and validity of the INT and EXT dimensions in understanding different forms of stress-related impairment in emotion and cognition.

Marijuana impacts mood in bipolar disorder: a pilot study.

Patients with bipolar disorder (BP) often report subjective mood improvements after smoking marijuana (MJ); however, empirical studies supporting this claim have not been conducted. We conducted this study to determine if marijuana has an impact on mood in bipolar patients who smoke marijuana (MJBP), hypothesizing MJBP participants would experience improved mood after smoking MJ. All participants completed electronic mood ratings three times daily and recorded episodes of MJ use using Palm Pilot devices in their own environments in order to examine the impact of MJ use on mood in MJ-smoking bipolar patients (n = 12) and pure MJ smokers (MJ; n = 20). Difference scores were calculated between pre and post-MJ scales. Patients with BP (n = 11) who did not smoke MJ were also included as a comparison group. Significant mood improvement was observed in the MJBP group on a range of clinical scales after smoking MJ, while the MJ group reported a slight worsening of symptoms. Notably, total mood disturbance, a composite of the Profile of Mood States, was significantly reduced in the MJBP group, but increased in the MJ group after smoking. Further, while the MJBP group reported generally worse mood ratings than the BP group prior to smoking MJ, they demonstrated improvement on several scales post-MJ use as compared to BP participants. These data provide empirical support for anecdotal reports that MJ acts to alleviate mood-related symptoms in at least a subset of bipolar patients and underscore the importance of examining MJ use in this population.

DSM‐IV‐Defined Anorexia Nervosa Versus Subthreshold Anorexia Nervosa (EDNOS‐AN)

Eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) is the most prevalent eating disorder, yet its heterogeneity begs less reliance on this broad diagnostic category. The purpose of this study was to compare women with anorexia nervosa (AN) and EDNOS, AN type (EDNOS-AN) from a multisite study on eating-related and general psychopathology measures. One hundred eighteen participants (n = 59 with DSM-IV AN, n = 59 with EDNOS-AN) completed structured interviews, questionnaires and a physical examination at baseline. In addition, participants carried a handheld palm pilot computer for 2 weeks to provide ecological momentary assessment (EMA) information about mood and eating disorder behaviours. No significant differences between AN and EDNOS-AN were found on the self-report and interview measures, or on the EMA mood assessments. The only differences to emerge were that participants with AN reported higher rates of binge eating and purging on EMA compared with those with EDNOS-AN, whereas EDNOS-AN reported higher rates of checking thighs and joints on EMA compared with those with AN. For the physiological parameters, AN presented with lower white blood cell counts compared with EDNOS-AN. Findings highlight the clinical significance of EDNOS-AN and support a closer look at the definition of AN as proposed by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition.

Palm or Cell? Comparing Personal Digital Assistants and Cell Phones for Experience Sampling Research

Personal digital assistants (PDA), particularly Palm Pilots, are popular data collection devices in experience sampling research. The declining availability of such devices, however, has prompted researchers to explore alternative technologies for signaling participants and collecting responses. The present research considers interactive voice response (IVR) methods, which can deliver questions and collect data using common cell phones. Participants completed an experience sampling study using either a PDA ( n = 428) or a cell phone under three different conditions (IVR condition n = 98; IVR Callback condition n = 93; IVR Callback Comeback condition n = 94). We found that response rates were higher when people used PDAs (69%) than when they used their cell phones (IVR condition = 51%), but response rates increased when people could call back within a few minutes of missing a signal (IVR Callback condition = 58%) and had a face-to-face meeting with a researcher midweek (IVR Callback Comeback = 64%). The daily life ratings were similar across the conditions. The findings are encouraging for researchers interested in using IVR cell phone methods for ecological momentary assessment, but more work is needed to develop procedures or incentives that increase response rates.

Perception of Partner Sleep and Mood: Postpartum Couples’ Relationship Satisfaction

Separate research areas indicate that sleep quality, mood, and relationship satisfaction decline among couples during the postpartum period. Furthermore, accurate partner perceptions are associated with positive relationship qualities. In this study, 21 first-time postpartum mother–father dyads, contributed 1 week of continuous wrist actigraphy along with concurrent subjective Palm Pilot monitoring to provide objective and subjective sleep measures. Parents also reported on their own as well as their perception of their partners’ sleep, mood, and relationship satisfaction. Greater objectively measured total sleep time was associated with greater relationship satisfaction. Mothers (a) underestimated fathers’ self-reported frequency of nocturnal awakenings, as well as (b) relationship satisfaction, and (c) overestimated fathers’ self-reported sleep quality. Fathers (a) underestimated mothers’ self-reported duration of wake at night, as well as (b) sleep quality, and (c) overestimated mothers’ self-reported mood disturbance. Preventative measures that target sleep and improvement in perception of partner's experiences could be used to buffer against decreases in relationship satisfaction among new parents.

Commercializing Technological Innovation: Learning from Failures in High-Tech Markets*

Commercialization is known to be a critical stage of the technological innovation process, mainly because of the high risks and costs that it entails. Despite this, many scholars consider it to be often the least well managed phase of the entire innovation process, and there is ample empirical evidence corroborating this belief. In high-tech markets, the difficulties encountered by firms in commercializing technological innovation are exacerbated by the volatility, interconnectedness, and proliferation of new technologies that characterize such markets. This is clearly evinced by the abundance of new high-tech products that fail on the market chiefly due to poor commercialization. Yet there is no clear understanding, in management theory and practice, of how commercialization decisions influence the market failure of new high-tech products. Drawing on research in innovation management, diffusion of innovation, and marketing, this article shows how commercialization decisions can influence consumer acceptance of a new high-tech product in two major ways: (i) by affecting the extent to which the players in the innovation's adoption network support the new product; (ii) by affecting the post-purchase attitude early adopters develop toward the innovation, and hence the type of word-of-mouth (positive or negative) they disseminate among later adopters. Lack of support from the adoption network is found to be an especially critical cause of failure for systemic innovations, while a negative post-purchase attitude of early adopters is a more significant determinant of market failure for radical innovations. There follows a historical analysis of eight innovations launched on consumer high-tech markets (Apple Newton, IBM PC-Junior, Tom Tom GO, Sony Walkman, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Sony MiniDisc, Palm Pilot, and Nintendo NES), which illustrates how commercialization decisions (i.e., timing, targeting and positioning, inter-firm relationships, product configuration, distribution, advertising, and pricing) can determine lack of support from the innovation's adoption network and a negative post-purchase attitude of early adopters. The results of this work provide useful insights for improving the commercialization decisions of product and marketing managers operating in high-technology markets, helping them avoid errors that are precursors of market failure. It is also hoped the article will inform further research aimed at identifying, theoretically and empirically, other possible causes of poor customer acceptance in high-tech markets.

Philosophy’s Entanglement in Metaphysics and Ontology and Their Relationship to Science and Technology in Heideggerian Philosophy

This paper argues that science and technology have both failed to acknowledge being according to Heidegger. This failure is underscored by Heidegger in Being and Time and his post- Being and Time works. He laments that science and technology should have shown due credence to a relationship of difference between Being and beings which he calls ontological difference and that science and technology should have, likewise, placed a considerable dose of importance to a relationship of identity – a relationship between Being and the human person. This is why Heidegger has refused to call man man, but Dasein. He places man above the ambiance of rationality. To him, man is a process; he is in a process of fulfilling his mission as the guardian of Being. But this goal is somehow shattered by science and technology. To become a guardian of Being, Dasein should embrace meditative thinking rather than calculative thinking . It is Heidegger’s desire that both science and technology should have served as pathways where the being of beings and the beings of being can be gleaned through. But because of science and technology’s rigorous utility of calculative thinking , they both proceeded to deprive man of the terminal point of his existence, i.e., to become the guardian of Being. Instead, they both reduced man to a mere commodity. Technology authors the resurgence of technological beings, viz.: omputers, cell phones, microwaves, and palm pilots, fax machines, DVDs, VCDs, among others. Consequently, Heidegger laments that science and technology have succeeded in enframing (Gestell) man and eventually they both have achieved to dehumanize man. But this paper maintains that Heidegger is neither antiscience nor anti-technology. Heidegger does not deny the enormous contributions of science and technology to us. However, he is also quick to warn us of the dangers that science and technology may bring to us like inventions that intervene and disrupt the intrinsic flux of nature, including the human body, or those that could bring grand scales of destruction to life, viz.: instruments of war that could surely bring mass destruction to any form of life, hungry and deadly germs that could result from scientific experiments, specifically in bioethics. So, to dispel these disastrous effects man must engage in meditative thinking to soften the appalling and abominable blows of science and technology.

The effectiveness of M-health technologies for improving health and health services: a systematic review protocol

BackgroundThe application of mobile computing and communication technology is rapidly expanding in the fields of health care and public health. This systematic review will summarise the evidence for the effectiveness of mobile technology interventions for improving health and health service outcomes (M-health) around the world.FindingsTo be included in the review interventions must aim to improve or promote health or health service use and quality, employing any mobile computing and communication technology. This includes: (1) interventions designed to improve diagnosis, investigation, treatment, monitoring and management of disease; (2) interventions to deliver treatment or disease management programmes to patients, health promotion interventions, and interventions designed to improve treatment compliance; and (3) interventions to improve health care processes e.g. appointment attendance, result notification, vaccination reminders.A comprehensive, electronic search strategy will be used to identify controlled studies, published since 1990, and indexed in MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Global Health, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, or the UK NHS Health Technology Assessment database. The search strategy will include terms (and synonyms) for the following mobile electronic devices (MEDs) and a range of compatible media: mobile phone; personal digital assistant (PDA); handheld computer (e.g. tablet PC); PDA phone (e.g. BlackBerry, Palm Pilot); Smartphone; enterprise digital assistant; portable media player (i.e. MP3 or MP4 player); handheld video game console. No terms for health or health service outcomes will be included, to ensure that all applications of mobile technology in public health and health services are identified. Bibliographies of primary studies and review articles meeting the inclusion criteria will be searched manually to identify further eligible studies. Data on objective and self-reported outcomes and study quality will be independently extracted by two review authors. Where there are sufficient numbers of similar interventions, we will calculate and report pooled risk ratios or standardised mean differences using meta-analysis.DiscussionThis systematic review will provide recommendations on the use of mobile computing and communication technology in health care and public health and will guide future work on intervention development and primary research in this field.