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Institutions Buying iOS Apps?

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Started 4 months ago by krafty
Latest reply from Amanda Chiplock

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krafty

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This was posted by jewells in the Apps List for Medical Libraries and I created a new thread for it for people to comment specifically on it.
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Hi krafty
Are you aware of any institutions that buys iOS apps at a discount to give to med students / residents? As a developer, we're asked if we're willing to offer a "Discount for Educational Institutions" when we submit apps to iTunes; however, I've never seen evidence of that "feature" being used by universities. Has anybody here heard of something like that? For the lucky ones with iPads provided by their school; did they come pre-loaded with apps?
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Posted 4 months ago #
krafty

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Hi jewells,
I am not aware of institutions buying apps through iTunes but I am at hospital not an academic institution so there might be something with iTunes U. Maybe an academic medical librarian is more familiar with that area.
Right now I tend to see two major trends to institutional distribution of app resources.
1. Is the Unbound Medicine method where the institution has an account and license agreements with Unbound Medicine for certain resources/titles and people can download the app. Unbound Medicine tends to have more online medical textbooks.
2. Is the current subscription method. Institutions have current subscriptions to various online resources and databases and their employees, students, (authorized users) create a free personal password while on the institution's computer network. Then the user can download the app for free at the App Store. When they launch the app they are asked to provide a username and password. They enter the one they created while on the institution's network. This allows the user to access the content using the institutional subscription.
Maybe somebody in academia sees something different and will comment.
Posted 4 months ago #
JNicholson81

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Other than uCentral and the current subscription method that Krafty lists above at NYU we have purchased a couple other medical education apps, though not for clinical care, only for a small set of iPads in our anatomy lab. One, the Netter's Atlas app, was purchased through iTunes and we were given the codes to download onto the specific devices. The second was a book through Inkling, we had to put in the e-mail address and password for the individual Inkling accounts and the text automatically downloaded. Both were very labor intensive processes, but now that they are on the devices and registered it seems we won't have to worry about it.
Posted 4 months ago #
Deweydecimal13501

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That is my question - sort of. Are residences/fellowships/CME/hospitals/other libraries now allowing purchase of apps from their funding? I have not started purchasing apps yet from my library budget (yet) but am wondering about other places.
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Posted 4 months ago #
Marc-Emile Plourde

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Actually, it was my question in the other thread ;-)
That's also what I thought with regards to subscription services like Unbound Medicine. UpToDate does not allow access via institutional accounts (at least not for now).
What @JNicholson81 mentioned with regards to Apps downloaded using special codes is probably what Apple does to sell the discounted apps. It would make sense: library buys a bunch of codes for one apps, then sells those codes to students. Kinda like what developers do to send promo codes.
If I were in the medical library field, I would look into that as a way to help students have access to payed quality apps for iOS for less than what they sell on the AppStore.
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Posted 4 months ago #
krafty

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@Deweydecimal I know when I worked at another hospital the medical residents were given approximately a $2000 stipend that they could use on things for their job such as medical texts, laptops, PDAs (way back when), study guids and test aid fees. Medical Education administered that money, I (the library) just go involved when they were interested in medical texts because I could get them at a discount.
A lot of residents used the money for new computers. I would think buying an iPad and apps, mobile texts, etc. would qualify. They would just need to provide a receipt for reimbursement which is easy for an iPad but maybe not so much for an app depending on the app and the company. My guess is that something like Unbound and Epocrates are very good at this sort of thing.
@Marc-Emile
Many developers and publishers are interested in individual sales of products. When you start adding institutional sales, license agreements, etc. it gets more complicated and the they either aren't interested or they just aren't set up for the complexities that institutional purchasing creates. For example I went round and round with an established online company (totally unrelated to apps and mobile devices) and they couldn't understand that as a non-profit institution we don't pay tax on our purchases. I am not sure if I was dealing with one dud in the group or what, but there are distinct differences when buying for an institution. It it isn't always a matter of buying in bulk for cheap.
Posted 4 months ago #
btuttle

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Marc-Emile: Yes, our PA program purchases many apps for the students at a discount (and provides them with an iPod Touch). They buy items from Skyscape as well as some standalone products.
Posted 4 months ago #
Amanda Chiplock

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Hi, yes, at Nova Southeastern University's Health Professions Division (HPD) Library, we purchase medical, production and education apps in bulk via the Apple Volume Purchase Program for Education http://www.apple.com/itunes/education/. We use library funding to buy the apps - we actually have a budget line for apps and software. Our Library circulates iPads to students, faculty and staff with pre-loaded apps which we've purchased this way. Many of our programs are also using the volume purchasing program for faculty research projects. I would be happy to share our experiences in setting up these programs with anyone who is interested :)
Posted 4 months ago #
Amanda Chiplock

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Marc-Emile, I just read your comment regarding libraries selling codes to students. I believe the only problem with this situation would be that the code would still be attached to the library's account, meaning the library would "own" the app. Even if the code was sold to the student, the library would still be responsible for the app. When using the volume purchase program, you are warned to retain records of all codes and where they go, in case Apple decides to do an audit. While in theory one could just make note of who the code was sold to, you still have the matter of the license, which will always remain with the library since the app was purchased with the library's account. Does that make sense?
Posted 4 months ago #
Marc-Emile Plourde

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@achiplock8 ok, it makes sense that Apple wants libraries to keep track of who owns the apps (to prevent mass re-selling)
Thanks for all the insight here; it's very helpful.
Posted 4 months ago #
corbetron

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For what it's worth, any registered doctor in Victoria, Australia gets access to DynaMed through Skyscape on iOS. I imagine that they must do a bulk purchase for this. They can also access iMIMS at no cost. I guess this is the health department purchasing apps/licenses. I also know that a number of Australian hospitals have a budget for smartphone apps - where requests for purchase need approval of a senior clinician.
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Posted 4 months ago #
Marc-Emile Plourde

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@corbetron It's easier for publishers to sell licences for downloadable content on an app platform (for which the main "app" is free -- like what Unbound Medicine does). It's different than buying apps from the iTunes AppStore, which is payed "up front" to Apple (like I do with the apps I maintain, like Lanthier or MD on Call). The later gives the developer significantly less control over the price at which an app is sold to a certain person or group. (we have control over the price of the app, but it's the same price for everyone). That's why that Educational Institutional purchase plan was put in place; I just never heard of any institution taking advantage of that program, hence the question. Thanks all for the feedback!
Posted 4 months ago #
Amanda Chiplock

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@corbetron Our library receives codes for "free" from our Dynamed vendor because we pay an annual subscription for the database. These codes can be released to our patrons freely; however, we still keep track of who we give the codes to because of licensing. The vendor wants to ensure that only those who are supposed to have access to the library's database receives the codes. Skyscape is a free app from the App Store. No purchase necessary for that situation (besides the annual database fee, of course).
For hospitals, there is an Apple Volume Purchase Program for Businesses which they could make bulk purchases through. If buying directly through iTunes and the App Store, you could buy one copy of an app and share with more than one device, as long as the devices are all registered to the same Apple ID account of an individual and not a business. This may be how the Australian hospitals are purchasing apps. For academic institutions, however, Apple considers this practice to be illegal. We must make bulk purchases through the Volume Purchase Program, even though we have all our devices registered to the same account.
Posted 4 months ago #
Satish Misra, MD

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@chiplock8 - you have all of your devices registered on the same AppleID or do you use an MDM service?
Posted 4 months ago #
Amanda Chiplock

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@Satish Misra Currently, we have them all registered to the same AppleID - a generic library ID. Our institution may be looking at MDM services in the future.
Posted 4 months ago #

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