(5) Mobile Security Apps:
SmrtGuard and Contact Owner
This is a bit of a cop-out, lumping two apps into one ranking. Mobile security, however, is of utmost importance in health care, particularly as app developers move to create mobile interaction with electronic medical records. SmrtGuard is the most functional free security app. Through a remote website users can track, data wipe, call-forward, remote listen, and backup data on their mobile device and SD card. So if you lose your mobile device with sensitive information on it, you can wipe its data remotely. The app is free, except for two features – remote backup and data restore to a new mobile device – which require an upgrade to the Pro version ($2.99 per month for 12 months). Contact Owner is a basic app that displays a message about the owner’s contact information (or the information for an emergency contact) on the lock screen. With contact information displayed on the lock screen, a person who finds your lost phone knows who to contact without accessing the phone’s data.
Conclusion:
Again, if you look at the top 10 free medical apps list we made for the iPhone OS, you saw a wealth of useful medical applications, that provide a great deal of value. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said with regards to free Android medical apps we have listed here. They do provide value – but do not provide functionality even close to the level of the iPhone App Store.
We seriously hope this changes in the future. The Droid and Nexus One are popular Android devices – offering great hardware waiting to be tapped. We only hope Google can get their Market in order, and find ways to motivate developers to tap into the hardware these phones have to offer. If you know of some free Android apps we didn’t mention, make sure to leave a comment and let the rest of the community know.
Other Free Apps
Listed here are other medical apps – many of them medical calculators – that may be of interest to your practice or learning needs. Note: many of the calculators are similar to those included within Epocrates or Archimedes (Skyscape).
- BMI Calculators (many of them)
- EuroSCORE – European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation Calculator
- Ankle Brachial Index
- A-a O2 gradient
- Fluids & Electrolytes
- Glasgow Coma Scale
- Insulin Calc
- Breast Cancer Risk Calc
- OB Dating/Calc
- My Days – Menstruation and Ovulation History
- Ovulation&Pregnancy
- AAOS Now – Monthly news magazine of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgons
- BeatDroid
- Psych Drugs
- Doctor Finder
- AgileMedSearch – an alternative to PubMed Mobile
- AgileMedCalc
Free Apps for Patients
- StopSmoking
- Pregnancy Ticker Lite
- OnTrack diabetes – blood glucose log
- Know your BMI
- Hands-only CPR – CPR directions and videos for the the untrained
- Calorie Counter
- Diet and Food Tracker
- Body Fitness
- Iltifat Husain contributed to this post
Why is the Android Market still lagging behind so severely? You would think Google had the blue prints to a successful App Store by looking at Apple?
Brett will probably comment on this more, but I think the main problem right now is the variety of Android devices and versions. Variety is always good for consumers, but not necessarily for developers. Certain phones can’t run certain android apps because of their version or the hardware specs on the phone – and this causes developers to lose interest in making apps for the Android Marketplace. Windows phone 7 series is requiring certain “minimum specs” on their phones, and I can bet its a direct result of the lessons learned from Android…
Re: Droid-MD
You ask a really good question that deserves an extended answer. We are in the process of collecting perspectives from Android App developers about this issue.
In the coming weeks, expect a post describing some of the difficulties that app developers are having with Android.
Thanks!
If you are a developer of medical apps for Android, please feel free to contact us with your own perspective on the situation. Contact us here: /co…
Android and Palm WebOS both suffer from lack of excited programmer-physicians I think, compared to the heady days of the Palm OS medical app explosion from 1999-2004 or so. Then we had all kinds of medical apps, not just calculators. It seems now there is Epocrates, Skyscape, and Everything/one Else. There are a couple encouraging free/cheap apps out there that I have seen in WebOS (MediPDA and the one that could access several pharm databases) but nothing like the huge selection of MEDICAL apps that Palmgear HQ had.
I for one hope that WebOS and Android programmers will hook up with some doctors or med students and do apps like ABGPro, PregTrak, Shots, Narc Convert, Riley Kidometer, MedCalc, MedRules, Eponyms (at a non-Skyscape price!) and GrowthBP and so many more that I used to use on my Palms, before the dark days of PalmPre and WebOS (which I still like better than my wife’s Android phone).
Of course with EMRs, we are not supposed to need Palms, etc now. For some things that is true, but usually not as fast.
It does seem like the price of entry is higher and that doctor weekend programmers are not going to achieve much prominence in an App store with 250k apps. There are still physician IT entrepreneurs out there, however, who are succeeding – look at AirStrip on the iPhone as an example.
There is actually a free Eponyms app using Andrew Yee’s database in the market now (search for Eponyms).
I was just wondering if anyone at your site has been able to test out the Android versions of Lexi-Comp suites. http://www.lexi.com/pda/google… I was thinking about buying it but would love to hear what someone says about a handson experience. Thanks
We will try to get a review of this. Thanks for the comment.
It would be great if they would make android apps specifically geared towards respiratory therapist. They have so many for nurses, emt’s doctors etc. But would be wonderful if someone would come up with one specifically for ventilator, pulmonary resources, etc…. Would well be worth the money to all of us Respiratory therapist!!!
Becky
I think that Android is still more promising than Palm OS. iPad apps are even more exciting to me. I am one of those physician IT entrepreneurs who enjoys playing with new platforms. My “specialty” in IT is medical records and charting applications. One draw back for charting applications/document generation using hand held devices is that it is a pure pain to input data from a tiny QWERTY keyboard. I decided to just stick with creating a charting application that would run off of a thumb drive so that any available PC could be used (with a full sized keyboard and monitor).
With the advent of the iPad and Samsung Galaxy S I think I am going to have to rethink my strategy. These devices are great and will accommodate my software nicely. So, be on the look out for FasterCharts in an iPad and Android version very soon!
http://www.fastercharts.com
great, now i have to deal with iphone AND android patients who think they are doctors
No offense, but I know someone who found out her problem from educating herself, when multiple doctors and specialists missed the diagnosis. You may be annoyed, but the people suffering from things doctors aren’t catching have a different perspective. Not to mention its hard for doctors to really get detailed info when all they give us is 10 minutes of attention before rushing off to the next patient.
You never think of Androids being so useful for such things as medical tools. Thanks.
I am a caregiver of a patiant that needs 24 hour care, it seems simple but i am looking for and app that has one button wiggit that they can tap and it would send me an txt letting me know she needs something. I have looked but I can’t seem to find any such app. any ideas?