One of the most important apps for healthcare providers might not be a medical app after all, rather a business app, called Citrix Receiver for iPad. This app allows your to have secure access to virtual desktops, applications, and data – those of you who have accessed your hospitals electronic health record when off campus are using this type of software. Hospital systems can use the Citrix app to access their own servers and desktops, as shown in the above video, and display key information on their iPad. The data can be accessed as long as you have a Wi-Fi or a 3G connection, allowing you to become mobile.
![Post image for Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics via Skyscape – The “Bible of the medical wards” on your iPhone [App Review]](http://cdn.imedicalapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/TableofContents2-242x364.jpg)
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. (read more)
![Post image for High Performing Apps Enter the Android Market – CORE (Clinical Orthopedic Exam) App Delivers [Android Medical App Review]](http://cdn.imedicalapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Logo_thumb.png){kind=logo}
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. (read more)
![Post image for Is More Better? Lexi-Comp on the iPad – An Incredibly Comprehensive Resource [iPad Medical App Review]](http://cdn.imedicalapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/photo5_Layer1_thumb.jpg)
Lexi, a medical information provider for 30 years, is making news by releasing an iPad-compatible version of its comprehensive drug and disease database. This is notable not only because of the depth of its databases but also because it’s beating other medical players to the iPad door – including Medscape, Epocrates and Evidence Central – all of whom have iPhone apps in the market but have not yet released iPad versions.
The evolution of mobile computing will help redefine the competitive landscape for point-of-care clinical information solutions. Lexi, a name not commonly heard among the most familiar iPhone medical information apps, has been selling its products to hospitals and physicians since 1978. A look at its website shows that it has a complex, multiple-tiered pricing structure, allowing individuals and institutions to choose which subset of its many databases they want to license. It has also made these databases available on multiple smartphone platforms. In an era where Medscape and Epocrates are offering substantial amounts of information for free, it may be understandable that many medical students and residents have not yet downloaded Lexi’s applications, although their hospital librarians may be quite familiar with them. (read more)
The iPad is a pretty cool device, as you may have gathered from our healthcare perspective comprehensive review of it. And with the iPhone OS 4.0 bringing some new features to this powerful platform, the iPad certainly has a lot of things going for it.
In particular, the enterprise and security features of the new operating system will further lower the barriers to adoption of the iPad in healthcare. We could finally have a user-friendly and practical mobile device on which to the access radiology images, enter orders, educate patients, and so on – the beginnings of a revolution in healthcare workflow.
However, whether the iPad will overcome the biggest hurdle of all – adoption by a generally late-adopting profession – remains up in the air. But at least one report suggests that this may not be that much of a hurdle after all.
![Post image for iTriage Attempts to Empower Patients as Informed Consumers Through an iPhone Medical App [App Review]](http://cdn.imedicalapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/photo_thumb1.jpg)
There is a huge movement to empower patients to make better decision regarding their care. Hopes are that more informed choices will lead to increased satisfaction as well as better follow-up and compliance rates. In addition, there is also a more fundamental underlying issue – whether healthcare is a human right or a market service. In order for the latter to be possible, it requires a well informed consumer with access to the same information as the service provider. And there are certainly a plethora of services that are aiming to fill the void of patient resources.
iTriage brings many of these services as well as symptom/disease based medical information to the iPhone and iPad. It allows patients to find healthcare providers as well as reports on those providers from HealthGrades, a popular vendor of physician and hospital quality reports. It also provides access to healthcare advice lines staffed by healthcare providers, and aims to incorporate cost information for a wide range of procedures and tests in the near future. (read more)
This is part two of a two part series focused on the iPhone 4.0 Operating System (OS) recently announced by Apple.
Enterprise and Security:
One of the key updates in iPhone OS 4.0 are related to enterprise – the Blackberry’s forte. The upgrade in enterprise will be instrumental in the iPad and iPhone platforms penetration into large health care business, such as hospitals or hospital systems. Here, the new features are aimed at pleasing the healthcare IT department by simplifying mass iPhone/iPad deployment and enhancing data security and Microsoft Exchange integration. (read more)
Unless you spent the last two years in a Himalayan monastery, you are certainly aware of the bitter healthcare battle that unfolded in Washington. Underlying the nonsense about death panels from the right and claims of impending doom from the left lies a far more legitimate conflict about how we view healthcare – as a basic human right or as a market service. Conservatives generally ascribe to the latter, viewing non-emergent healthcare as a service delivered to Americans via a free-market.
Among the problems with that view (don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a liberal rant) is that Americans are far from informed consumers of healthcare. There is an enormous asymmetry of knowledge between the producers of the service (insurance companies, physicians, hospitals, etc) and the consumers a.k.a. patients. There is no ability to comparison shop for example – not only is it difficult for patients to assess costs for something like a knee replacement, there is no way for them to know who the best surgeon, surgery center, or rehab facility is. (read more)
We posted an article a few weeks ago detailing how a form of Adobe’s flash player, the ubiquitous platform used to stream videos and play games, was coming to the iPhone operating system. We were excited about this because many electronic health record (EHR) vendors developing web-based (“Saas”) EHRs, including Practice Fusion, Hello Health, and Care Cloud have relied on Adobe Flash technology for portions of the user interface. [Check out our video of Care Cloud’s EHR in action – using flash]
But with the upcoming release of the Apple iPhone Operating System 4.0, the hopes of having some semblance of flash on Apple’s mobile platforms is gone.
Dr. Felasfa Wodajo, a senior writer on this site, explained the how and why on his blog:
*********************************************
While this may seem like a repeat story, there was actually a little jewel buried in the “terms of service” for developers adopting version 4 of the iPhone OS, as they discovered last week. (read more)
MultiTasking: iPhone OS 4.0 and what it means for the healthcare industry and medical users – Part 1
This is part one of a two part series focused on the iPhone 4.0 Operating System (OS) recently announced by Apple.
Last Thursday’s announcement of the upcoming release of version 4 of the iPhone OS platform was billed by Apple as the biggest release yet for its operating system (OS). This operating system powers the iPhone, iPod Touch and now the iPad. The announcement refers to 1500 new APIs (application programming interface) that will be available for developers, giving them access to a multitude of new features and deeper access to hardware features that were previously only available to Apple.
Although the fine details are available only to developers, the presentation given by Steve Jobs and colleagues was a good overview of the most important new features. An excellent summary of the features was also done by Gizmodo and Engadget.
MultiTasking
The announcement most widely reported, of course, was multitasking. Many in the medical community have suggested the ability of third party applications to run in the background is a necessary feature for wider adoption of the iPhone and iPad in health IT – we haven’t always agreed. While good application design can at least partially obviate this restriction, there is clearly an advantage to an application retaining its exact state every time it’s re-entered. Furthermore, some applications may need to generate alerts or messages, even while not in the foreground. (read more)
![Post image for iPhone Medical App helps with patient communication – Xprompt Multilingual Assistance [App Review]](http://cdn.imedicalapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/xprompt1_thumb.jpg)
Every physician or clinical medical student has interacted with a patient who doesn’t speak their language. Frequently, interpreters need to be called for emergency department or inpatient encounters or outpatient clinic visits, and the delays can be frustrating and even hazardous to patient care.
Families of patients are often used by healthcare providers, but there are situations where using family members to translate may not represent an ideal choice – family doesn’t speak the provider’s language, no family present, delivering bad news to a patient, or emotionally difficult decisions.
Here we review the Xprompt multilingual assistance app from Blue Owl Software, a promising program that seeks to overcome the language barrier so often present in the healthcare setting. (read more)
A Surgeon is already finding uses for his iPad in the OR.
“Look, I’m looking at a spine here and I can zoom in to where the disc is herniated. I can pull it up and exactly measure what the canal size is, for herniation at,” Palma said.
The story is being reported by WMBFnew.com, an NBC news affiliate, about Dr. Claudio Palma.
Dr. Palma could be using one of the DICOM apps to view the images on his iPad, possibly OsiriX.
Pretty soon he’ll be able to use Dragon Mobile Dictate to transcribe his surgeries right after he’s done. It’s interesting to see how early adaptors of the iPad in healthcare continue to make use of the versatile device.
Other news: Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School have received a $15 million dollar grant for health information technology – the grant is for a four year project to create an “iPhone-like” health IT application. They hope to create an “iTunes App Store for health”.
