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  • Top 10 Free iPhone Medical Apps for Health care Professionals 37 comment(s) | posted on February 15, 2010
  • iAnnotate PDF App for the iPad - Almost one of the best apps for medical professionals and students on the iPad [App Review] 9 comment(s) | posted on May 11, 2010
  • Top 5 Free Android Medical Apps 11 comment(s) | posted on March 29, 2010
  • Should medical professionals get an iPhone, Blackberry, or Android phone? It's complicated. 32 comment(s) | posted on June 1, 2010
  • Top 5 Medical Apps for the Upcoming iPad [Health Care Professionals Edition] 15 comment(s) | posted on March 25, 2010

Radiation Passport aims to fulfill an important need: to quantify the cancer risk for the various diagnostic imaging studies and to add up the cumulative exposure and cancer risk for one patient. The app makers explicitly invite lay persons to track their own cumulative dose (thus the monicker “passport”) but the design and vocabulary appear to be targeted more toward physicians.

While the diagnostic benefits of modern imaging techniques are easily appreciated, the risk of exposure to ionizing radiation is less well understood. This question has become more acute as recently published studies attempting to quantify cancer risk from diagnostic radiation were widely picked up by media outlets. I can attest that, in recent months, many of my patients have brought up this coverage when I ordered scans. At the same time, I have also decreased orders for CT scans and even x-rays in my pediatric patients.

Here we review Clinical Pharmacology Mobile (CPM) from Gold Standard/Elsevier, a program that promises to deliver quality drug and interaction information in the palm of your hand. As a web-based program, CPM supports most advanced devices that use standard browsers (iPhone/iPad/iTouch, Blackberry, etc.) and runs on the Safari/Android/ Symbian/ Windows Mobile/RIM operating systems.

Gold Standard/Elsevier represents a trusted name well-versed in the development of “medical management solutions.” Their suite of products also includes: Alchemy, Clinical Measures, Clinical Pharmacology, FormChecker, MedAlternatives, MedChecker, ProspectoRX, and ToxED. However, CPM appears to be their first foray into mobile applications.

Here we review the Medscape iPhone medical app, the number one downloaded medical app since August 2009 – when they claimed the throne from Epocrates. The Medscape app is developed by WebMD, obviously a well-regarded and trustworthy source for medical news and content.

We first reviewed the Medscape app when it launched in July 2009, but here we offer a more extensive review that covers the newer Medscape 2.1 version – the 2.0 update brought huge updates that made this application number one in our top 10 medical apps list.

As for the app itself, the home screen features a search function, medical news, sections for Drugs, Diseases & Conditions, Clinical Procedures, a drug Interaction Checker, and a bottom bar with more functions.

The news that appears here is in the specialty one used when initially logging in with an account (here for Internal Medicine, but the user can easily change this, as discussed later in this review).

Skyscape has ported over their base application, Skyscape Medical Resources, to the iPad – and now you can enjoy your Skyscape apps on the full screen of the iPad.

Lexi-Comp was the first major medical reference app company to take the leap into the iPad, and now the question remains, where is Epocrates, and why are they taking so long?  But before we go into that, lets talk about how this Skyscape app looks on the iPad.

Currently, Skyscape is not yet utilizing the double panel screen that enhances the user experience on the iPad – they are basically using the extra space to display more text – but according to the description of their iPad update, specific functionality custom made for the iPad is coming very soon.

Here we review the free version of the Kaplan Step 1 QBank App from Kaplan in conjunction with TakeFiveLabs, which features 100 free high-yield USMLE-like questions from Kaplan Medical. One important note though is that this release is as a stand-alone app unable to integrate with existing Qbank accounts. In other words, the 100 questions featured in this app are separate from the existing Kaplan Qbank set. This app was released in March as a “test” to generate feedback and guide development of a full version of the Kaplan Qbank app (which is underway with the positive feedback they have received so far from this app), and all indications are that it will be compatible with existing Qbank accounts.

Although the Qbank features Kaplan Medical content, it is powered by TakeFiveLabs – “systems engineers at the intersection of design, media, and technology.” TakeFiveLabs dabbles in a variety of projects as it “seeks new ways to improve the human-computer experience”, and has developed other apps including MyCalmBeat, What’s Invasive, Twitflick, and GMAT preparation. Though TakeFiveLabs may represent a young and innovative enterprise, the TakeFiveLabs library appears to include solid, well-reviewed, respected apps. And they definitely seem to be on the right path with this app.

Update: Per reader requests, we’ve made direct links to the pictures in this article now, so they should show up full screen with only one click now

If you have an iPad, iAnnotate PDF is almost a must have application for healthcare professionals and students. I’ll explain the almost part later.

No matter where you are in your career in medicine, you’re reading PDF files constantly – it’s what keeps your evidence based clinical skills up to date. And as we all know, PDF files aren’t exactly optimized for the iPhone or other mobile devices. Rather, the two column appearance that dominates journal layouts is displayed horribly on mobile devices.

When the iPad was first released, I was looking forward to a host of medical applications, but unfortunately, most developers have been slow to convert their medical apps to the iPad format. I’ve documented the show transition in prior posts. But PDF viewing apps such as Papers, GoodReader, and now iAnnotate have not disappointed – and were quickly released with the iPad in mind.

With the iPad’s larger real estate, I knew viewing PDF files would be significantly easier, but I didn’t know how much I could do with them until I tried iAnnotate PDF. This app allows you to annotate in ways you couldn’t even do if you had a paper version of literature with pens and highlighters. However, it does have some flaws that we’ll get into later in the review. 

One of the most frequently used benefits to my EMRA (Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association) membership is the always handy, EMRA Antibiotic guide (which they sell on their website for $25.95).

It is often the only thing on me besides a stethoscope and my pen while I’m working an ED shift. Its pocket size, common sense organization (color coded pages by alphabetized organ systems) and ease of use make it a trusted reference of physicians both in and out of Emergency Medicine.

As small as the pocket guide is however (96, 4” x 6” pages), the idea of having an iPhone version and eliminating one more thing from my pockets excites me. Add in search functionality, and I figured we had a keeper. Not only that, but the fact that the iPhone app costs 10 dollars less than the physical text (available for 15.99 from the App Store) made this an app we had to check out.

Follow along to find out what we liked, what we didn’t, and if this should be an addition to your app library as well.

As a medical student, there were a few must-haves when it came to surviving the wards. On pediatrics, the Harriet Lane Handbook was a godsend. On surgery, Surgery Recall was key to surviving the all too common tradition of pimping on obscure eponyms and surgical approaches. And when it comes to any topic relating to internal medicine, Pocket Medicine – produced by the good folks at Massachusetts General Hospital and Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins (LWW) – was my best friend.

Anyone who has ever set foot in a teaching hospital is surely familiar with Pocket Medicine, perhaps one of the best quick reference texts for medical students, residents, and other medical professionals. It is a concise yet comprehensive, conveniently sized, and evidence-based tool that certainly helped me get through a lot of call nights. Skyscape has now brought this venerated reference text as an iPhone and iPad medical app.

Here we review the 5-Minute Clinical Consult (5MCC) iPhone medical app from LWW (and powered by Skyscape), a reference hailed as a “comprehensive clinical resource” with rapid-access, up-to-date information on diagnosis, treatment, medications, follow-up, and associated conditions of 715 of the most common medical conditions.

Powered by Skyscape, 5MCC is published by LWW (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins). If you follow our website, you are  probably already aware that we trust LWW, a productive and highly regarded publisher of healthcare content. The editor-in-chief of 5MCC is Frank J. Domino, MD, an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The 5MCC program is also available online and in print form, and has been around since 1994.

Here we review it in its latest incarnation as a member of the Skyscape suite of medical resources.

Now in its 32nd edition, the Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics has earned a glowing reputation over the past almost-half-century as an invaluable reference for use on inpatient medicine wards by residents and students alike.

In fact, the Manual has become the best-selling medical title worldwide. Here we review the “WashMan” (Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics) app from Lippincott (available through Skyscape), a user-friendly way to access all that the Manual has to offer from your iPhone or iPod touch.

The Manual is a joint partnership of (I am proud to say) my very own Washington University School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine and LWW (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins). Wash U SOM’s Medicine Department (whose attendings and residents write and edit the Manual) represents a prolific tertiary care referral center, a nationally-ranked medical residency program, and a global leader in research.

Check out the comments section for a special offer for this app! And for the iPhone’ers among us, there is a link to 15 promo codes

From primary care to orthopedics, diagnosing injury and pathology of the musculoskeletal system relies upon the ability to accurately perform and interpret the orthopedic exam.   Learners of the orthopedic exam often become frustrated by the vast and eponym-laden terminology involved; and mastering the jargon and techniques requires a great deal of practice and memorization.

The team at Clinically Relevant developed an iPhone app to aid in the process of learning, re-learning, and perfecting the orthopedic exam.  Android users will be grateful to hear that CORE (Clinical Orthopedic Exam) is available for the Android OS, and at a discounted price ($29.99) compared to the iPhone version.