iPad
VisualDx Mobile for the iPad is now in the app store [iPad App Review]
One of the better examples of a mobile medical app that provides useful point-of-care information is VisualDx Mobile. This iPhone application (iTunes link) is powered by a rich database of high quality, carefully tagged images of dermatological conditions that can be efficiently searched by one or multiple keywords.
To learn more about the app, check out our iMedicalApps review here . To get a glimpse of the design philosophy behind VisualDx, check out our interview with the CMIO of Logical Images, Art Papier, MD.
The quality of the images and reliance on visual to make a diagnosis made the iPhone app a natural fit for the iPad. In fact, we had predicted the potential shortly after the iPad was announced and had counted VisualDx as on of the Top 5 iPad medical apps that we were eagerly awaiting.
UC Irvine School of Medicine joins the party – giving incoming med students iPads with their white coats
During UC Irvine School of Medicine’s white coat ceremony, all incoming medical students will find a nice surprise inside – an iPad loaded with their curriculum. Â We just recently reported how Stanford is doing the same thing, and UC Irvine is joining the party. Â UC Irvine appears to have a more comprehensive plan for the utilization of the iPad in medicine, as detailed in their press release.
The wireless, 16-gigabyte, 3G iPad features hundreds of medical applications; note-taking and recording capabilities; and many other tools to complement various learning styles. Students will be able to view short, topical lectures via podcast prior to meeting for small-group discussion. Not only do archived lectures make better use of faculty members’ time, they also facilitate interactive and self-directed learning.
Additional content includes course outlines and handouts, slide presentations and essential first-year textbooks in a digital format that allows highlighting and notation. Students will have access to audio and video libraries as well as podcasts. And technological advances such as digital stethoscopes and handheld ultrasound units are currently being configured.
What’s interesting is students will be given the 3G version of the iPad, not just the Wi-Fi version. The school has planned a wide range of uses for the iPad in medicine. They have plans to sync the iPad with stethoscopes and even ultrasound machines! Â For my white coat ceremony I was given a book – how things have changed in just a few years. Continue on for the rest of the press release.
How the Documents To Go app can be used in medicine [iPhone]
By: Darwin Wan, B.Sc, MS2
Business users have long enjoyed the company of their Microsoft Office documents at all times in the form of the preloaded Documents To Go software on their Blackberries. Now, this venerable application looks to be acquainted with medical students.
While it’s not strictly a medical application, the universal (iPhone/iPad compatible) Documents To Go app ($9.99) gives mobile devices a very fundamental ability: the ability to view, edit and create Word and Excel files, the ability to view PDF, Powerpoint, and iWork files and the ability to sync the device with folders on a computer. The premium edition ($14.99) also includes Powerpoint editing, Google Docs, Dropbox, Box.net, iDisk & SugarSync support.
Frog Dissection lets you see the insides of a frog while keeping your iPad clean
We could not miss the chance to highlight the first (we believe) animal dissection app for the iPad. Frog Dissection by Punflay shows you, in about a dozen quick steps, how to open up the abdomen and chest of a frog and see what the various organs are.
The app has already garnered the PETA Mark Twain Ethical Science award. We are not sure if this will start a new venue of competition among medical app developers but it certainly shows off the different ways in which medical education and a tablet device could converge.
Blio Reader is poised to be the e-book of choice for medical textbook publishers – Part 2
In part one of this series, we reviewed the Blio business model and how Blio has strategically catered to the needs of book publishers as well as readers. In this post, we will review what we know about the technology and functionality of Blio Reader and how it might enhance digital textbooks to move closer towards their potential as a interactive teaching tools.
Excerpt from part 1 of this series:
Blio reader is a fascinating digital publication platform which appears poised to grow rapidly across multiple devices. Since medical textbooks are such a prime target for digital publishing, one can almost guarantee that Blio reader will be how a significant proportion of tomorrow’s medical students and health professionals will be reading.
Test driving the iPad in the hospital Operating Room [Part-1]
Many, including ourselves at iMedicalApps, have speculated on the possible uses of the iPad in various healthcare settings. So we decided to test the iPad in the operating room. The first question we had was: “Will the iPad work properly in the sterile environment of the operating room?”
The short answer to that question is yes – but in the process we had some interesting findings on how the iPad’s capacitive screen works with gloves and sterile enclosures – potentially affecting how the iPad will be used in the healthcare setting.
Side effects of multi-touch screens on the iPhone, iPad, and other devices being studied by Arizona State researchers
One of the main reasons Apple changed the phone industry was with their roll out of a multi-touch capacitive touch screen phone, the iPhone 2G. The multi-touch display on the iPhone and iPad allows users to use pinch to zoom functionality, along with a whole host of other gestures. Basically, when you see someone “flicking” their iPhone or iPad screen – thank the muti-touch display for enabling this.
Other companies have quickly followed suit with multi-touch displays, and currently there are tens of millions of devices that utilize them. Over time, the use of these gestures adds up – and yet with millions of multi-touch users, no one knows the musculoskeletal side effects these gestures could potentially produce. A team of researchers hopes to change this lack of knowledge.
Dr. Kanav Kahol, an assistant professor in ASU’s Department of Biomedical Informatics, is leading a team of researchers from Arizona State and Harvard with the goal of studying potential side effects of multi-touch displays, and how these systems can be designed to cause the least amount of musculoskeletal harm. They have a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation for their research.
The First Electronic Health Record Customized For The iPad Has Arrived [First Impressions]
The iPad has been out for almost a month and we now have the first electronic medical record app customized to take advantage of its features. The Dr. Chrono EMR app is the first of its kind to hit the scenes. Technically, MacPractice has already put their electronic medical record on the iPad, but you need a VNC connection, and they don’t have a customized iPad app yet.
The Dr. Chrono EMR app enables you to sync your iPad with the online practice management platform provided on the Dr. Chrono website. The electronic health record produced by Dr. Chrono is intended for smaller practices, similar to the model Epocrates is takings with it EHR. On initial impressions, the app definitely has potential, but you can tell there are kinks that need to be worked out.
California Hospital ordering iPads for healthcare use
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.
