Developers for some of our favorite medical apps have been working at a fever pitch to have their apps utilize the extra functionality and screen space offered by the iPad.  Just to be clear, all your iPhone medical apps will run on your iPad.  But, some developers have made “iPad versions” of their medical apps.  The following are some of our favorite medical apps that have done this conversion, and screenshots of how they have utilized the extra space and features afforded by the iPad.

We actually mentioned Papers in our recent “Top 5 medical apps for the upcoming iPad” post.  This is a fantastic app for organizing your medical literature.  You can basically store your whole medical literature library on this, and use native search engines to add to your collection.  One of the most difficult things to do on the iPhone is to read PDFs – and when you’re in the medical professional, that’s essential.

So far, from screen shots we’ve seen of the the iPad version of this app, it looks extremely exciting.  PDFs will obviously be significantly easier to read on the iPad platform – dare I say I’m really excited to read literature now because of the iPad?

Link: Papers iPhone Review
Price: $9.99

Grays Anatomy Premium

Gray’s Anatomy for the iPad doesn’t appear to utilize new menu screens or aesthetic features offered by the iPad.  However, one of our biggest complaints when using this app on the iPhone was the difficulty in viewing some of the images with text.  The images on the iPad will definitely look significantly nicer.  Also, this app is for the iPad only, so if you have Grays Anatomy Deluxe for the iPhone you’ll have to purchase this separately.  At a mere $1.99, it’s not going to set you back too much and a great buy for anatomy studying.

Link: Grays Anatomy iPhone Review
Price: $1.99

MD on Call

MD on Call has always been one of our favorite apps to use.  It’s a simple application that contains essential information for medical students and residents on call.  The iPad version of the app utilizes the extra screen space nicely to display algorithms in a more reader friendly fashion.  Personally, I’d think the iPhone version of this app would be more useful at the point of care, but if you brought your iPad into the call room to read your medical texts, this might be useful.

Link: MD on Call iPhone Review
Price: $3.99

Nuance – Dragon Dictation

This isn’t the medical dictation app, but a preview of how the medical dictation software app will most likely look.  When we spoke to Nuance recently, they told us to expect Mobile Medical Dragon Dictation to roll out in the late summer this year.  We have video of the iPhone version of the app in action.

Link: Nuance – Dragon Dictation Hands on
Price: Free

Wikipanion

Technically this isn’t a medical app, but we recently crowned Wikipanion our favorite free Wikipedia app to use when searching for medical literature papers.  The screen shots of this app in action on the iPad look fantastic.

Link: Wikipanion Review
Price: Free

Remember, other than Grays Anatomy Premium, if you’ve already bought the app via your iPhone or iPod Touch, you won’t need to purchase it again.  When you use the iPad for these apps, the custom iPad versions should automatically load. Although these apps are exciting, we’re still on the hunt for a legitimate medical health record customized for the iPad.

MD on Call is a medical app aimed at interns, residents, and 3rd/4th year medical students. It’s a great app geared to help you with those 4am calls you get from nurses and is also a great reference for patient care in general. We did a full review of this app a few days back and were definitely impressed. MD on Call is available for $5.99 in the App Store.

The app’s creator, Marc-Emile Plourde was gracious enough to give our readers ten promo codes along with an exclusive interview. This is the first interview we’ve done and we hope to make it a more constant thing. It’s always interesting to see the creative minds behind some of these great medical apps. A note to our readers, due to the popularity of the site, we’ll be re-launching with a new layout and a new name, iMedicalapps.com. This transition will most likely occur at the start of next week. We’ll give you more details later this week.

The promo codes will be given out on a first come basis. Continue on for the interview and the 10 promo codes.

Interview:

Marc-Emile Plourde is a second year resident in Kingston, Ontario and the creator of the medical app, MD on Call.

What was the inspiration of this application? How long did it take to develop this app, and what were the biggest challenges you faced?

Marc-Emile Plourde: When I started residency (no internship in Canada; it’s med school year 4 to R1), There were quite a few situations where I found myself wondering “there must be an easier way” i.e. the patient is in stable rapid aFib and NPO: you know you should start a BB, but which one? what is considered a “normal starting dose”? During the day, it’s easy to find those answers (either you ask a senior or you spend a few minutes on Up-to-Date), but at night, 1-you usually don’t have the time because you’re running all over the place 2-your senior is at home and you don’t want to wake him up to ask him about metoprolol for a stable patient 3-you’re way too tired to read through one or two Up-to-Date topics.

After a year of doing calls, I thought I could put some of the things I’ve learned into an app that could actually be useful to med students, interns and junior residents going through the same thing. I wanted it to be like having a more senior resident helping you out.

It took me over 5 months to design the app, to write the vignettes and to learn html so that I could “present” the information in the way I wanted: lots of thoughts have been put on spacing, colours, fonts… the goal was to make it useful at the bedside, not to turn a book or a website into an app…

Biggest challenges… I expected to do something way more basic than what the app ended up being. Also, small things, such as the list of the acronyms being used in the app and creating metadata for the search function all ended up taking a lot of time compared to its apparent usefulness. So I guess overall time ended up being the biggest challenge (However, I’ll point out that I didn’t do the coding for the app, one of my friend did — the guy that did the speed bones, muscle and angio series)

How do you see this application being used in the clinic and hospital setting?

Marc-Emile Plourde: The app is meant to be used, you guessed it, when on call. However, different sections can be used thought the day, especially when a patient deteriorates.

Who was the target audience you were going for in this application?

Marc-Emile Plourde: As mentioned before, senior med students, interns and junior residents. Even though a lot of people will “outgrow” the app during residency (and I kinda hope they will), I think it can still be a good one to keep on your iPhone for those rarer situations, or to have those ECG values everyone tends to forget nearby.

What are some updates our readers can expect in the future for this application?

Marc-Emile Plourde: We are working on adding support for landscape mode and a few additions to the vignettes. Also, version 1.0.1 recently added a quick link to the “management” section (by taping on the vignette’s heading) — it’ll save you a good 2 seconds of scrolling!!!

Are you developing any other apps we should be on the lookout for in the future? If so, can you at least give us a hint on what the app might be about?

Marc-Emile Plourde: Nothing for the near future: I’m trying to put residency higher on my priority list

MD on Call App Giveaway, promo codes:

Remember to leave a comment letting others know which promo code you used! In order to redeem the code on your iPhone or iPod touch, open up the App Store. Go to the “Featured” section icon in the lower left of the screen. Scroll down, and you’ll see a “Redeem” option. Also, I believe these codes are only redeemable in the U.S. app store.

1. PW6X3N6XE976

2. 6ETP33XT4A4L

3. MANTLLF6FHYW

4. WYTHJ7L4AKJA

5. R3MNWY6YXRJF

6. 64LREK6JXPW3

7. TP4AN76AT4EH

8. LH34FYR4376E

9. WK3JXANT7HRP

10. 66LH6W3L6MRM

Our full review of the application can be found here.

The iTunes link of the application can be here.

The developers website.

-iMedical Apps Team

Please note: We were not able to upload the comments from this original post from our old website.  Needless to say, all the promo codes were used up pretty quickly.

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.

What is it?

MD on Call is a simple repository of 17 typical, bread-and-butter issues that can arise on call, quick advice on how to evaluate the problems and quick management suggestions. The app also contains sections devoted to abnormal lab findings, ECG pathologies, and ‘hardware’ (discussing common problems with central lines, NG tubes, etc.).

The Good

From an ergonomic standpoint, the application is extremely easy to use. Each section is alphabetically organized and searchable by keyword (although the search feature does not handle synonyms or phrases well). The sections on ECG and laboratory findings are particularly complete for any acute abnormality that required immediate action.

If, for example, your patient is hypocalcemic, the application reminds you to double check the patient’s Phosphate and consider other confounding factors, tells you what physical exam findings are commonly seen, and ways to correct the serum Calcium based on the severity. The information is correct and mostly complete: striking a good balance with its easy to read bullet points without being too verbose.

The application states the obvious, but also assumes at least a respectable level of medical knowledge as well. In the above hypocalcemic example, the application states that Chvostek’s and Trousseau’s signs are traditional physical exam findings without wasting space stating how they can be elicited. In the management section, it provides sound medication and dosing advice as well.

My first reaction to the 17 issues discussed by the application was doubt. Only 17? Surely that could not cover the wide variety and sheer quantity of ‘On-call’ issues that can arise. Once I put this put this assumption to the test, however, it was clear that I was wrong. This application is only meant to be a guide for when a patient has an acute change in status; most calls are patient specific medication changes or order related and are not meant for an application such as this.

The Not So Good

As I stated before, the issues covered are ‘bread-and-butter.’ As a result, the application is not perpetually useful. Either you already know what to do when you receive a call, or you quickly learn how to handle the situation and cease to need the application for reference. House officers or residents with substantial experience will not find this application very useful.

I did note a few instances where the information provided by MD On Call was lacking, but these tended to be very specific and minor. For example, the discussion of ‘Fever’ did not include any advice for a patient who was neutropenic, and the app did not offer any advice when documenting a patient’s cause of death and instead focused on the interaction with family when pronouncing death.

A few minor complaints about the interface should be noted as well. The font is very small and can be hard on the eyes when viewing on the run or after long hours on call and the application does not support the iPhone’s position sensor and will not rotate (no landscape mode).

Conclusion

In the field with this application, the section dealing with abnormal lab values has proven to be the most useful while on call and is much faster than trying to locate or sift through dense Up-to-Date chapters or case files.

This is a simple application that contains accurate and concise information for students and new interns. Seasoned residents with more experience will not find a huge benefit with this app. However, if you have ever needed a quick reference to learn on the fly or been stumped by a late night call while cross-covering and you are willing to spend a few dollars to avoid that feeling, you should consider this app.

[itunes]

[website]