The associated looping videos can be paused and navigated frame-by-frame, and users can also zoom and pan within the videos:
A nice touch here is the synchronization of the video with the rhythm strip near the lower-left corner, allowing users to see where in systole or diastole the frames are. Noticeably lacking, however, are annotations within the video frames.
Another impressive element of the Echo Atlas app lies in its inclusion of continuous-wave spectral Doppler, a useful facet of cardiac echosonography (here, to calculate transvalvular gradients):
Yet another useful function of the app is the ability to bookmark certain topics for quick retrieval. Here, we have selected the Tetralogy of Fallot topic for bookmarking by clicking the ribbon at the center of the bottom of the screen:
Bookmarking a topic allows for quickly looking at it through the Bookmarks button on the app’s home screen:
Finally, the Normal Values Tables button from the home screen allows for the quick look-up of echosonography-relevant reference ranges and other values in easily navigable table formats:
Summary:
In summary, the Echo Atlas App, edited by a well-respected physician and designed by a health education app maker, represents a powerful and convenient way to learn about cardiac ultrasonography. Also of note, all images and videos are stored locally, which makes initially downloading/installing the app somewhat time-consuming, but facilitates faster loading of content and renders 3G/WiFi connection unnecessary to actually use the Echo Atlas App.
Pricing:
The Echocardiography Atlas App is currently available at a promotional price of $19.99 (regular price is $29.99).
Likes:
-Reasonably priced for the learning it offers
-With 250 annotated images and 189 videos embedded into 12 chapters, encompasses an impressive range of cardiac pathology
-Ability to pause, zoom, and pan videos
-Content is locally stored- 3G/WiFi connection unnecessary, makes loading faster
Dislikes/Future Updates I’d Love to See:
-Is not optimized for the iPad! This app, especially by it’s graphical nature, would look great on the iPad. Although it will work on the iPad, since it’s not optimized for it, the pictures look grainy and the app cannot be fully utilized as on the iPhone.
-Videos are not annotated with labels like the images (granted, it would be a LOT of work to annotate each frame of every video)
-Initial downloading + installation time (took me almost 30 minutes)
The Bottom Line:
The Echo Atlas app is a graphic and compelling tool to help master cardiac ultrasonography—a must-have for cardiologists-in-training, recommended for internists-in-training, and suggested for medical students who want to impress on cardiology and medicine rotations.
Links for Echocardiography Atlas app by Modality: iTunes, Website Support
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