iPhone Security Risks and How to Protect Your Data

Feb 11, 2010 by
News
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The iPhone and iPod Touch platforms have gained huge popularity with medical providers, with Epocrates saying over 100,000 physicians are actively using the medical reference app on their iPhone – and this was back in July of 2009.

Many healthcare providers feel comfortable with the iPhone because of its fluid operating system, and the extra functionality it offers, in the form of games and a variety of other apps.  This added functionality is missing with more enterprise-based smart phones, such as the Blackberry platform.  However, this added functionality comes with a price, and exposes the iPhone to security risks.

Nicolas Seriot, a researcher from the Swiss University of Applied Sciences, has found some alarming design flaws in the iPhone operating system that allow rouge apps to access sensitive information on your phone. (read more)

USMLE and MCAT apps from Kaplan and ScrollMotion set to arrive for the iPhone this month

Feb 11, 2010 by
News
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Today Kaplan Publishing and ScrollMotion announced they will be bringing an extensive suite of USMLE and MCAT apps to the iPhone, with hints of a broader use for the iPad.  Currently Kaplan has some USMLE apps already in the App Store, such as the USMLE Disease Deck, an app we weren’t too impressed with.

However, these apps seem poised to bring a different user experience to medical and premed students because of their new partnership.  This partnership with ScrollMotion, the maker of the popular Iceberg e-book reader, seems like a smart idea – and some of the following mentioned features leave room for excitement. (read more)

Epocrates Essentials App Review for the iPhone – Does the legendary medical app live up to the hype?

Feb 09, 2010 by
App Review
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The first app I downloaded on my iPhone was Epocrates. I didn’t think twice about it, and in a way I assumed it was my obligation to do so before I saw patients in the hospital.  Such high regard for this medical app elicits thoughts of a deep history, but it really burst onto the scene in the late 90s on the classic palm PDA platform.  Epocrates quickly gained market share because it offered key functions for free, unlike its competitors.  This tactic of offering some functionality for free has not changed over the years.

Unlike its arrival to the Palm PDA platform, Epocrates is considered the first medical application for the iPhone and iPod Touch platforms.  The free version of the application is one of the most heavily downloaded medical apps in the App Store.

There are four different versions of Epocrates you can have on your iPhone or iPod Touch.  Each version offers different features and subscription fees.  The default application in the App Store is free, but in order to get the premium versions you can upgrade either online or through the app.

  • Epocrates Rx (Free)
  • Epocrates Rx Pro ($99 per year)
  • Epocrates Essentials ($159 per year)
  • Epocrates Essentials Deluxe ($199 per year)

In this article, I’ll review Epocrates – Essentials, the second premium level offered, and also go through the key features offered in each level of subscription.  This is the largest medical app we’ve reviewed to date, content wise – so there will be lots of pictures! (read more)

AT&T’s Strained 3G Network, If not Improved, Will Limit the iPad’s Opportunities in the Medical Community – FCC voices concerns

Feb 08, 2010 by
News
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When I was handed my first pager, I was stunned. It looked like the beeper that Will Smith used to flash on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air (and not even the later seasons, I’m talking about the early, crazy outfit seasons!). So I asked why I couldn’t simply use my phone or, for that matter, why we didn’t all use phones. The answer was simple – reliability. The paging system, of which this rather archaic looking item was part, was very reliable. But was that enough? No. The hospital also maintains it overhead paging system just in case. And if that goes down – yep, there’s a back up there too. In health information technology, reliability is everything. And for the iPad, that could prove to be a major barrier to adoption in the medical community as it faces off with other medical tablets, at least if the FCC’s recently voiced concerns prove to be true. (read more)

Motion Computing – One of the iPad’s Competitors in the Medical Tablet World

Feb 07, 2010 by
News
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When I first entered the clinical world, physician order entry and electronic medical records were just concepts to me. As I learned how to navigate the hospital, diagnose everything from the mundane to the incredibly rare (my first patient was a baby with an idiopathic subdural venous thrombosis), and figure out how to treat the sick, I also had to learn how to use those two systems as a prerequisite to doing everything else. The four hours of class didn’t seem to cut it, so I probably spent at least a month trying to get my bearings on how to manage these IT systems. So for anyone who is already familiar with some form of healthcare technology, in this case a tablet, I suspect the adoption cost is far higher than just the price tag. You may be surprised how highly some medical students and residents weigh the notion of learning a new system in their career decisions. And because of what seems to be a particularly high barrier to adopting new information technology in healthcare, anyone interested in whether the iPad will succeed in healthcare should first ask who the competition is. (read more)

Apple or Google? The Answer is Both – What the Future Holds for their Competing Mobile Platforms

Feb 05, 2010 by
News
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Over the last few months, a great deal of time has been expended on the “hot competition” between Apple and Google in relation to smart phones. Much of this interest probably had to do with a partially imagined story of a once close friendship between Apple and Google, founded on their mutual enmity of Microsoft, now fractured on the rocks of competition and greed. While the truth probably isn’t as dramatic, whatever conflict exists is much less interesting than where they may overlap – especially when imagining where medical technology could go and how it would affect medical professionals. As most readers are undoubtedly aware, much of the recent discussion in the blogosphere on this topic (at least before January 27) was about the rapid ascent of the Android platform. The emergent themes were that the open and mutable nature of the Android operating system, the entry of multiple handset makers, and the absence of any restriction on software publishing will inevitably make Android the dominant smart phone platform of the future. The historical analogy given was desktop computing, where commodity hardware and a minimally restrictive operating system made Microsoft Windows the de facto standard, despite many obvious flaws. But, it seems this analogy is flawed and here’s why.
(read more)

Apple iPad and Electronic Medical Records – Could it Replace the Physician’s Clipboard?

Feb 04, 2010 by
News
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Having had the opportunity to visit nearly a dozen academic medical centers in the past few weeks, I saw quite the spectrum of IT systems – from simple order entry to fully-integrated decision support systems. And for programs with the former, that revelation was quickly followed by the timeline for the coming upgrade. But what’s next for the most IT-savvy institutions? Well, Steve Jobs thinks he has an answer. Rumors abound that Apple is already pitching the iPad in LA-area hospitals as the replacement for the old physician clipboard. For outpatient practices already running a Mac-based EMR, MacPractice has already announced development plans for an iPad interface. According to their press release, they plan to develop apps that will allow patients to fill out registration, medical history, and other forms on the iPad. For physicians, it will integrate with the MacPractice EMR to manage schedules, view patient records, and even enter clinical notes. So could the iPad become the new best friend of healthcare providers? Well, there are a few challenges that need to be overcome first but the opportunities are exciting. (read more)

Pocket First Aid & CPR App Used to Save Life – In Depth Look at App [App Review]

Feb 04, 2010 by
App Review
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By now many have heard the amazing story of how Dan Woolley, a Colorado man in Haiti, used the Pocket First Aid & CPR app to help survive severe injuries he sustained in the earthquake.  We highlighted this story last week when it broke, and we’ve always thought Pocket First Aid & CPR was a great app when it was first introduced in the summer of last year, and we even wrote about it back then.

At that time we put it in our “Apps for Patients” category not only because of the useful information it provides, but because it’s backed by the American Heart Association, the organization that sets the standard of care on first aid procedures. This app review will focus on the features of the app that helped Dan Woolley survive the injuries he sustained during the earthquake. (read more)

iPad Medical Textbooks (E-books) on the Way With Key Partnerships Announced: Why the Healthcare Community Should Be Excited

Feb 03, 2010 by
News
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It was only a matter of time before partnerships between medical textbook publishers and the iPad development community emerged. One key partnership the Wall Street Journal just announced is between ScrollMotion (app developer) and McGraw-Hill’s Education division, with the purpose of developing e-books for the iPad.  And why does this matter? Because if you’re a medical professional, you most certainly have read or own a medical text from McGraw-Hill.

McGraw-Hill is the publisher of Harrison’s Internal Medicine, Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery, the Case-File series and many more medical texts.  They acquired Apple and Lange Inc in 2007, further expanding their vast medical library.  Many of us know of McGraw-Hill via Access Medicine, the online portal to their large collection of medical texts that is available in almost every academic institution in the country.

Many pundits feel the iPad’s use of an LED screen verse E-ink (think Kindle) will dissuade readers from purchasing the iPad for reading purposes.  The principle argument is the LED screen will cause more eye strain after prolonged use, but the medical community should embrace e-books on the iPad because we read textbooks in a different way than traditional readers. (read more)

Free Useful iPhone Medical Apps [Recently Released] – Part Two

Feb 02, 2010 by
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This is the second part in a series we’re doing on iMedicalApps. On a daily basis, there are plenty of free medical applications released for the iPhone and iPod Touch and most of them aren’t useful, hence the “free” tag.  Some of these free medical apps actually do provide key functionality.  This app review will cover four apps that meet the above criteria.  Remember, some of these apps are only free for a limited time. (read more)

How to sync the right user with the right medical app for their iPhone, iPod Touch, and the upcoming iPad

Jan 31, 2010 by
News
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With over 100,000 apps available for the iPhone/iPod Touch and billions of downloads since the App Store opened just under two years ago, the market is clearly hot. And with the release of the iPad, expect a new flood of apps into the market.  However, a recent article in the New York Times suggests that even with the wealth of options, people generally use only five apps despite having downloaded far more.

The average iPhone or iPod Touch owner uses 5 to 10 apps regularly, according to Flurry, a research firm that studies mobile trends. This despite the surfeit of available apps: some 140,000 and counting.

Another finding that the article notes is that even thought hundreds of thousands of apps are available, the entire user group is generally exposed to the same few thousand apps.

A survey of iPhones, iPod Touch and Android users conducted in July 2009 by AdMob, an advertising network that helps people promote their applications on smartphones, found that people discover apps most often by browsing app stores. And even though the iTunes store is bloated with offerings, people tend to gravitate to the most popular….

“…The top apps featured at the store do change out,” Mr. Putney said. “But most users will never see more than 1 percent of the total apps available.”

These findings are important for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad users, app developers, and even us here at iMedicalApps, and here’s why. For users, this means that finding the best apps requires some work – a conscious effort to search the app store for things that interest you. That includes looking beyond the most popular medical apps. For developers, this means that reaching potential customers requires finding ways to climb that popularity ladder. For the Malcolm Gladwell enthusiasts, this means finding the Mavens, Connectors, and Salesman (from Tipping Point) – basically the people with large social (or professional) networks who are most likely to adopt early and spread the message about your great app. And for us here at iMedicalApps, it means actively looking for that diamond in the rough, languishing at the bottom of the popularity rankings, and helping our readers discover useful apps they wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

iPad could support “Handwriting Keyboard” – A requirement for medical point of care use in health care

Jan 30, 2010 by
News
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Ever tried using your iPhone medical apps with gloves?  Doesn’t work too well.  Although, if you’ve got gloves on you probably shouldn’t be using your iPhone anyways.  The iPad is being touted by many, including us, as a device that could be used with patients at the point of care.  Translation:  Could be used in hospital rooms and procedure rooms that require you to be gloved up.

Since the iPad has a capacitive touch screen your gloves won’t work, and that plastic stylus from your old Palm PDA won’t work either.  There’s a solution to this, the Pogo Sketch, featured in the picture.

The Pogo Sketch becomes an extension of your fingers and works on a capacitive touch screen.  No longer making the iPad or your iPhone inoperable when you have gloves on.  But what if you have to type information on the iPad or the iPhone?  Since your gloved fingers won’t work, using a stylus to peck each letter on the pop up keyboard would be a huge ordeal.

To counter this, iPhone OS version 3.2, the operating system that will be running on the iPad, is rumored to have support for a “handwriting keyboard”, via Engadget.

….and, most interestingly, prototype support for a “handwriting keyboard.” Maybe we’ll see some stylus action on this thing after all.

The above revelation would be significant for the medical community, especially for health care providers who need the ability to write text efficiently with gloved hands or while standing up.  I can imagine myself using this capability to type short notes or even prescriptions for patients while in a standing position in the hospital room.  The alternative would be to use the external keyboard connected to the iPad, definitely more cumbersome, and this would require you to sit down and have desk space.  And as most know, desk space isn’t exactly present in a hospital room.

I’m assuming Apple will not reserve this type of functionality for just the iPad, and will bring it to the iPhone and iPod Touch devices as well.  If they want to make waves in healthcare IT, they would be wise to.