Medical Reference
Evidence Central App – Evidence Based Medicine Guidelines Instantly Available in Mobile Form [App Review]
The challenge of identifying and absorbing relevant medical literature will not abate anytime soon and the proliferation of services that purport to simplify or eliminate this problem for physicians is itself now becoming a distraction. The rapid adoption of web-enabled smart phones by physicians, such as the iPhone, is driving this dilemma from the theoretical realm directly to the bedside. The hope is that if relevant medical literature is immediately available at the point of care, physicians would be more inclined to use it.
At the same time, the mantra of practicing medicine that is evidence-based is ringing ever louder. Thus far, it seems to this reviewer that most physicians apply it most strenuously when criticizing other physicians’ decisions rather than applying it to their own practice. Nevertheless, large well-respected compilations like the Cochrane Abstracts are available and widely used. They offer well constructed summaries of evidence-based diagnostic and treatment guidelines for thousands of pathologies. It is into this nexus that the “Evidence Central” app enters. This review will cover the features of this recently released medical application, which is technically “free” in the App Store, but requires a paid subscription of $79.95 in order to actually use.
FDA Drugs App Provides a Mobile Interface to FDA Drug Approval Data [App Review]
FDA Drugs is an iPhone application that functions as a mobile drug database. The user selects a drug and the application exposes brand and generic equivalent drug information, with the added twist of being able to display the actual FDA approval document.
The name is unfortunate as it implies that the application was developed by the FDA, which it is not. Rather, the developers draw on publicly available FDA data stores to display the label information for thousands of FDA approved prescription and over-the-counter drugs. When the label information is not stored inside the application, it displays a NIH website (“Daily Med”) where the user can search for FDA label information.
ECG Interpreter App – Does this get our heart beating? [App Review]
Current Clinical Strategies Publishing recently sent us some free promo codes for this app, ECG Interpreter(you may have noticed) and we were thrilled by the last app we reviewed by them, ACLS Advisor. So then naturally, we had high expectations for this medical app. ECG Interpreter is relatively inexpensive at $1.99(current price), but with so many ECG apps out there we wanted to know if this app was on par with similar applications and if it met our high expectations.
Three Free Useful iPhone Medical Apps [Recently Released]
Free medical applications for the iPhone are being released on a daily basis, but not all of them are useful. This isn’t a surprise since they are after all free to download. However, there are definitely some free medical applications worth downloading.
This will be a regular column on iMedicalApps.com, where we will periodically post commentary on recently released free medical apps that are actually useful from a physician, medical student, or any other healthcare providers’ perspective.
In this post I’ll focus on three free medical applications related to the following: clinical trials, Framingham scale, and a radiology teaching app.
App Giveaway: ECG Interpreter
The developer for ECG Interpreter gave us 10 promo codes to give our to our readers. We plan on having a review of this app up on Monday, but in the meantime we’d like to hear what you think. If you use a promo code make sure to leave a comment letting others know which one you used, and let us know how the app works for you. This app actually attempts to give you a reading for an ECG based on variables you input, which is different than the other ECG apps we’ve reviewed.
Continue on for the codes:
Is the Instant ECG App Better Than the ECG Guide for the iPhone? We crown the best ECG app [App Review]
The interpretation of ECGs is a difficult art to master for medical students and house officers alike. We are all taught to keep to the “Dubin method” and work through each 12-lead study with consistent patience no matter how abnormal the ECG initially appears. A particularly talented cardiologist once told me that ECG interpretation is often equal parts evidence based science, art, and gut feeling. So how is one to navigate the complexities of ECG interpretation without getting overwhelmed? Instant ECG, a well polished ECG interpretation and study guide by iAnesthesia LLC, is how. Currently the app is on sale for $0.99 in the App Store. I have used this application for 2 weeks (although not on a cardiology service), and so far am extremely pleased with the results. I’ve also used the ECG guide, which was previously reviewed on this site. In the the conclusion I’ll discuss my favored app.
MD on Call App Hopes to Make Your Call Nights Less Painful [App Review]
Its 3 AM and you are the new intern on call covering far more than your share of patients for multiple services. Your pager goes off. Mrs. Smith is seizing and Mr. Jones is vomiting large amounts of blood and is hypokalemic. What do you do?
MD on Call ($5.99) hopes to provide these answers. The app is developed by MDMarkee Publishing and is a new addition to the App Store. It is a simple application with sometimes basic but vital information, especially useful at those early morning call hours. This review will focus on the information provided and my experience using this application while being on call.
Finding the Best Medical App for Lab Values, We Check Out the Top Four [App Review]
There are a few different medical apps that provide you with reference lab values. I’m going to go through each one to see how they compare to each other and see which ones are the most useful in the wards/clinic. The main four in the App Store are Pocket Lab Values ($2.99), Normal Lab Values ($1.99), MedRef ($0.99), and Lab Tests ($5.99). Each medical app overlaps a decent amount of information, but there are definitely significant differences. Epocrates also has a lab values section, but you need to be a premium member in order to use it (expensive). A key thing to note is different hospitals can have different reference ranges (depending on how their in-house lab works), so always make sure your hospital’s references ranges match up with the app you use. With that said, the reference ranges are usually pretty universal. Anyways, let the battle begin.
This post will discuss how these different medical apps stack up to each other.
Clinical Trials App Provides Key Experimental Trial Information on Your iPhone [App Review]
Clinical trials for cancer and other diseases are vital to test new therapies and improving existing ones. The treatment of cancer, in particular, depends greatly on discovering the optimal combination and timing of chemotherapy agents. Progress in these finer details can be slow and grinding, yet very important to patients, both in improving survival and in avoiding unnecessary toxic treatments.
Given the often surprising abundance of available clinical trials for each disease, finding the optimal one for your patient can be challenging. Each trial is aimed at one or a few diseases and each has its own specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. For physicians and patients searching for a clinical trial, the NIH website clinicaltrials.gov has been a godsend. Without it, there would be no practical way of finding every possible trial. Yet, the website currently currently more than 78,000 trials.
Therefore, providing convenient access to this information and simplifying the searching and categorizing of the information would be of great benefit for patients and physicians. In this review I’ll discuss how this iPhone medical app, Clinical Trials, aims to do just that. It succeeds in the former but unfortunately fails to do the latter.
