If you’re a physician, medical student, or in any other health care related field, trying to find the best free medical apps for the iPhone is a hassle.  Apps such as “Dream Meanings”, “Relax Ocean waves”, and “Stool Scanner Lite” dominate the Top Free Medical Apps list in the App Store.  Our top 10 iPhone medical apps list contains no such app, and this isn’t a re-hash of the top downloaded free medical apps either.  Rather, this list contains the top 10 free iPhone medical apps health care professionals and students can actually use on a day to day basis.

1) Medscape

We mentioned this app when it was released in the summer of 2009.  At the time I doubt many thought it would ever eclipse Epocrates in the top free medical apps section of the App Store, but with significant recent updates it’s accomplished this feat.

This app always had a great drug reference section, with over 6,000 generic, brand, and OTC drugs, along with a drug interaction checker.  But with recent updates, Medscape now has a Diseases and Conditions section, along with a Clinical Procedures section.  These added sections aren’t just fluff, they actually contain concise and useful information, with videos and pictures to boot.  We plan on doing a full review in the near future.

Links: iMedicalApps Review, Website, iTunes
Cost: Free

2) Epocrates

The free version of Medscape might be ranked higher on our list, and in the App Store, but I guarantee almost every medical professional still has at least the free version of Epocrates.  My peers and I often joke about how Epocrates is the “most trusted name in Medicine” – because it’s the one app med schools and medical institutions aren’t afraid of pushing.  We recently did a full review of Epocrates.

The free version, called Epocrates Rx, includes: Drug interactions, Pill Identifier, Drug Info, and Medical Calculator. Surprisingly, Medscape doesn’t have a medical calculator, you would think this added functionality would be easy to do.  In our review of Epocrates, we go over all the different versions in details, along with pricing – we were definitely impressed.

Links: iMedicalApps Review, Website, iTunes
Cost: Free

3) iRadiology

This app is a must download if you’re a resident or a medical student.  Even if you’re not in that category, you might want to download this app just for fun. iRadiology has a catalog of over 500 radiology cases designed to help medical students and residents improve their plain film, CT, and MRI reading skills.  We did a full review of this app recently.

The cases are derived from Dr. Gillian Lieberman, who is currently the Director of Harvard Medical Student training and Associate Director of the Residency Program at Beth Israel Medical Center.  We interviewed her when iRadiology was released – and she provided some great insight into the inspiration for the app.

Links: iMedicalApps Review, Website, iTunes
Cost: Free

4) MedPage Today Mobile

What’s not to like about MedPage Today?  The website is a fantastic resource for medical professionals, and a lot of the content is in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine – further securing its academic credentials.  Their motto is, “Putting Breaking Medical News Into Practice”, and this app helps you with this cause via mobile access.

In addition, you can get audio and video through this app, allowing you to get CME credits while using MedPage Today mobile. With the most recent update, MedPage Today mobile now allows you to do a full text search of all articles published on their website since 1/1/07, definitely a welcome addition.

Links: iMedicalApps Review, Website, iTunes
Cost: Free

5) Medical Radio

This is a product of ReachMD, probably most famous for its XM Satellite Radio broadcast feeds  (XM 160) of medical information – and these feeds are available live through this app.  MedicalRadio allows you to keep up to date with changing clinical guidelines, and I’ve found the medical talks to be informative and useful.

We haven’t done a full review of this app, but the original iteration of this app, ReachMD CME, made it into our old top medical apps list.

Links: iMedicalApps Review (old version of app), Website, iTunes
Cost: Free

Related Posts:

1. Three Free Useful iPhone Medical Apps [Recently Released]
2. The Best and Most Useful Medical Apps for the iPhone or iPod Touch
3. Top 5 Medical Apps for the Upcoming iPad [Health Care Professionals Edition]

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.

Some background on Dan Woolley’s story per CNN:

“I had an app that had pre-downloaded all this information about treating wounds. So I looked up excessive bleeding and I looked up compound fracture,” Woolley told CNN.

The application on his iPhone is filled with information about first aid and CPR from the American Heart Association. “So I knew I wasn’t making mistakes,” Woolley said. “That gave me confidence to treat my wounds properly.”

Trapped in the ruins of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, he used his shirt to bandage his leg, and tied his belt around the wound. To stop the bleeding on his head, he firmly pressed a sock to it.

Navigation:

When you open the app you’re presented with a screen that shows you acute conditions.  This isn’t a long list, and the app covers the most common acute conditions someone would encounter, such as CPR, choking, burns, and more.  There’s also a tab to input your personal medical information, where you can enter medications, blood type, emergency contacts, physicians, allergies, and insurance information.

The overall user interface of the app is clean and simple, and could possible be used in acute settings.  The text information usually doesn’t take up more space than the screen of the iPhone.  The information is short, concise, and to the point.  The app also contains pictures and videos.  This multimedia will take up a healthy 80.5 MB of space on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Dan Woolley used this app to treat a compound fracture he suffered to his leg.  He most likely went to the “Bone, Joint and Muscles” section, then chose the “Sprains and Fractures” option.  After clicking through two pages of basic information, you’re shown a page with red hyperlinks.  These hyperlinks will guide you to key information if it pertains to you.

For his example, the two key hyperlinks are “signs of shock”, and “open wound”.  The open wound section takes you to a page containing quick hitting measures you should perform if you’re bleeding.  There’s also a great video showing you how to to stop the bleeding.

What I liked about this app:

• This app was made in conjunction with the American Heart Association(AHA), the venerable organization in charge of coming up with the standard of care for CPR and other acute health issues.  Those of us in the medical field get our ACLS training through the AHA as well.
• Nice user interface, application is easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing.
• Depending on comfort of use, could be used in acute setting.
• Pictures and Videos are very useful.

What I didn’t like so much and improvements that could be made:

• Don’t see the point of the personal health information section.  Granted, this is optional, but without a security lock on the phone anyone could have your key personal health information if your phone gets lost.  Obviously, putting a lock on this info would render the feature useless, but I don’t think many emergency departments (ER) will be going through your phone looking for your First Aid app.



• Would have liked to see more pictures and videos.  When we’re taught ACLS in the medical field we get a chance to see the great breath of multimedia the AHA has on acute care training.  Granted, additional multimedia would have made the application size, 80.5 MB, larger.

Conclusion:

If you want an app that you could possibly use in acute health situations, Pocket First Aid & CPR is the one to have.  You never know when such an app can be useful, as seen with this app’s remarkable use in Haiti.

The best part of this app is it’s backed by the American Heart Association.  The App Store doesn’t have any medical standards when it comes to healthcare or medical apps, resulting in a litany of poorly made applications with inaccurate content.  Going with the trusted American Heart Association makes having the Pocket First Aid & CPR app even easier.

View Customer Reviews on iTunes »

Download Now on iTunes for $3.99 »

Visit the App Website »

Additional Pictures:

Related Posts:

1. The American Heart Association offering Fist Aid/CPR app
2. iPhone Medical App Used to Survive Earthquake: Survivor Treated an Open Leg Fracture and Head Laceration Successfully
3. Pocket Heart App: More Than Just a Good Looking Medical App [App Review]

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.

Clearance

This is a quick and easy calculator for creatinine clearance.  Although there are other medical calculators that can do this calculation and GFR rates, having a dedicated app for this can be key, especially if you’re on your renal month.  Remember, the Cockroft – Gault formula doesn’t require height, so you don’t have to convert your patients height to centimeters(cumbersome), and can leave this part of the input blank.

Website
iTunes Link

AsthmaMD

This app was created by a physician, Dr. Sam Pejham, and is one you could consider recommending to your patients.  It has a nice user interface, along with many input options.  Patients can put in their medications, symptoms, triggers, and peek flow measures. You can even email-out reports to yourself, eventually sending the report to your physician if they accept such information electronically.  There is one caveat to remember with this app, in the iTunes description the developers state the application is free as of now, but they could eventually end up charging $9.99 to help cover the developmental costs. An app with such a beautiful user interface and loads of functionality definitely won’t stay free for too long.

Website
iTunes Link

Case Hx: General Medical History

This is a free and simple Medical history taking app.  It could be useful to first and second year med students learning how to take histories.  The app itself is extremely bare boned, but I actually liked its user interface and the tabs on the left side.

Website
iTunes Link

Related Posts:

1. Three Free Useful iPhone Medical Apps [Recently Released]
2. Top 10 Free iPhone Medical Apps for Health care Professionals
3. Notable iPhone and iPad medical apps released this past week

Now that Apple’s bombshell has finally been dropped and the world has met the iPad, its finally time to begin separating fact from fiction. Will the iPad boast the same outstanding user interface as the iPhone and iPod Touch? Yes. Will the iPad solve world hunger? Probably not. Will the iPad be a useful tool in medicine, perhaps even transform the way healthcare is delivered or electronic medical records organized? The jury is still out on that one but, admittedly, I am skeptical. Here are a few of the reasons why.

1) For a healthcare provider’s day-to-day use, the iPad doesn’t do anything better than an iPhone or a laptop/desktop.

In considering whether to invest in an iPad, my question is simple – how does this device help me do my job better? The iPhone answered this question by enabling me to put a wealth of medical resources into a small mobile format. In certain health systems, I can even check on new labs or radiology reports from anywhere in the hospital via my iPhone. I’m less convinced the iPad offers similar benefits, at least beyond the iPhone or iPod Touch. Improved graphics or a higher resolution screen don’t really matter much for reading text or looking at numbers. And when it comes to looking at CT, MRI, Echo, or other kinds of imaging where resolution does matter, I’m going to use the 25’’ high-resolution monitors that are available in the hospital. While I agree that this would all be much “cooler” on the iPad (it’d be fun to scroll through a high resolution CT on a larger screen in the cafeteria), the fact is that specialists, such as radiologists, are the ones who really degree of resolution and their screens are already better than the iPad. The iPad certainly does it all, but I have yet to see how it’s a significant improvement over the iPhone in this type of day to day use.

2) Big hurdles face development of peripherals for more advanced healthcare functions

The mobility of the iPad certainly offers some opportunities for the more procedural tasks of hospital care. For example, there would certainly be value to a peripheral that measured blood pressure, heart rate, and other vital signs and then uploaded them to the inpatient electronic medical record. Or for a peripheral adapter that allowed connection to fiber optic cameras or ultrasounds, allowing me to view or record the images from my iPad to the electronic medical record. These are all intriguing possibilities. However, the big obstacle here are the entrenched powers currently in control. Medical devices are a big money game, and companies like Stryker, who make a number of such devices, including fiberoptic cameras, will likely not want to cede the user interface of their platforms to Apple, let alone standardize connectivity options with other device manufacturers.

3) Safety

I mean this in two ways. First, patient safety. Infection control is a paramount concern in hospitals today. You don’t want to know the number of protective layers I had to wear at the height of H1N1 (or the cost of this extra protection). If the iPad is going to do more than be an EMR portal for writing patients notes and reading their records, then it has to be strong enough to withstand disinfection procedures. Second, property safety. Desktops are hard to steal, laptops are easier, and an iPad would be a breeze. If patient information is stored or accessible on the iPad, the hospital’s lawyers will demand a pretty high level of security.

With that said, Apple has had discussions with with Epic, a major electronic medical record developer, on iPhone OS integration. I’m sure the parties involved in these discussions have thought about the potential the iPad has for EMR use. And I do think there is potential in healthcare, particularly in niches where tablets are already used (such as emergency medical services). There is a case to be made that this is the first tablet that’s easy and fun to use and it will succeed where prior tablets have failed. And while we at iMedicalApps have some differing opinions about the possibilities of the iPad, we’re excited to see what happens once developers start making medical apps for the iPad.

And by the way, while the iPad is certainly the coolest kid on the block, at least one competitor (Freescale) may offer customized tablets running open-source operating systems like Android for as little as $200.

Related Posts:

1. Apple iPad and Electronic Medical Records – Could it Replace the Physician’s Clipboard?
2. Microsoft Potentially Moving to Major Healthcare Partnership Related to Electronic Medical Records – Apple and Google Beware!
3. iPad 3G Arrives: Should the Medical World Care? Yes!

I was introduced to Harrison’s Manual of Medicine via Access Medicine back in my first year of medical school (most academic centers have a subscription to Access Medicine).  I needed to find a good resource for my PBL(Problem Based Learning) small group sessions and it seemed the easiest to read for a kid fresh out of undergrad.  Later on I found resources such as UpToDate and eventually developed the ability to actually understood research papers, but Harrison’s Manual of Medicine was great to read early on.  Not only is it great to use in Medical School, but It’s a textbook you’ll often find in the clinic setting and is read and referenced by practicing providers.

It would then only seem natural to have the full text or even the online version (via Access Medicine), translated to a mobile application.  When you search for Harrison’s in the App Store you’re presented with 3 Apps!  Inherently, I thought I’d only have one option.  There is a version by Unbound Medicine, Skyscape, and MedHand.  The price to access/download each is $59.99, the key difference is that the MedHand version does not require a yearly subscription.  You pay the flat rate of $59.99.  Also, the MedHand version is a stand alone application, not requiring you to access the internet, unlike the others.  Because of these advantages, the MedHand version was chosen for a full review of Harrison’s Manual of Medicine(17th edition).

When you open up the application you are presented with a list of common topics, ranging from organ systems, such as Cardiology, to topics such as Care of the Hospitalized Patient.  I can’t imagine anyone thumbing through these individual topics, and the best method to proceed is to use the search option provided.

The search function is the highlight of this application.  For the purpose of this review, I’ll be looking up endocarditis.  You are given a list of pertinent articles based on your search.  However, the beauty of the search function is you are given a tab to narrow your search down based on what you’re looking for, e.g., you can refine the search based on image, tables, and treatment options.  I found this to be extremely useful because finding key tables, in this case, the Duke Criteria related to Infective endocarditis, can be very useful.

Once you’ve found what you’re looking for you can click on your topic of choice, and you’re given an abridged version of the content you would find using Access Medicine or the actual textbook (the disappointment in this will be explained later)

What I liked:

• No Subscription required
• Stand Alone application! Does not require a connection to the internet
• Search feature is robust and the highlight of this application
• Ability to Bookmark topics, and a History section is present
• You’re given instructions on exactly where to find more detailed info within the full Harrison’s manual at the end of sections

What I didn’t like so much, and what could be improved upon:

• You have to go into your settings menu on the iPhone to change text size! And even then, you’re only given 3 options, Small, Normal, Large. There is no ability to change text size within the application.  When using this app you have to use it with a small text size, otherwise you’ll find yourself scrolling entirely too much.
• Overall User Interface is not clean and seamless, especially when compared to other applications, such as the Merck Manual series.  Icons and navigation menus are gaudy and not clear at times.
• The biggest knock on this application is it doesn’t include the full text that you can find using Access Medicine.

Conclusion:

Overall, the team at MedHand did a decent job of bringing the abridged version of Harrison’s Manual of Medicine to mobile form.  The User Interface and navigation needs to be made more seamless.  With all the aesthetically pleasing medical applications out right now, you would hope this application would follow suite soon.

The biggest knock on this application was mentioned above, the lack of full text (look at the pictures in this section to see the difference in content size).  I don’t know if MedHand wasn’t able to bring the full because of contract rules, but I found this to be bothersome.  The reason many medical professionals read Harrison’s Manual is for a detailed explanation of etiology, pathologies, and treatment options.  Harrison’s Manual is not the first thing you turn to if you want to look up a topic you can read quickly.  For that you use UpToDate or Epocrates.  Rather, Harrison’s has traditionally been great because of the detailed knowledge it provides.

This being said, if you want an abridged version of Harrison’s Manual, that has a great search feature built in, than you can try this application.  This application is unique in the App Store because it doesn’t require a subscription, like the other Harrison’s Manuals in the App Store, and is stand-alone(not requiring an internet connection).  But if you want the full text, like most would, than your best option is to use the mobile form of Access Medicine when you’re at your academic center or practice.  Also, the Merck Manual – Professional Edition is a fantastic alternative reference application that offers the same set of features as well, just not the iconic name of “Harrison’s”.

View Customer Reviews on iTunes »

Download Now on iTunes for $59.99 »

Visit the App Website »

Addendum:

One of our commenters made a great point that I was unaware of. There are two versions of Harrison’s: Principles and Manual. Its odd because the edition numbers are the same, and the branding method seems odd and confusing. Nevertheless, this app is Harrison’s Manual, which is an abridged version of Harrison’s Principles. The overall review pointed out the app is an abridged version of the text you find via Access Medicine, which still holds true.

Related Posts:

1. Evidence Central App – Evidence Based Medicine Guidelines Instantly Available in Mobile Form [App Review]
2. The Merck Manual Professional Edition Medical App is the First Encyclopedia of Medicine that Fits in Your Pocket [App Review]
3. Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics via Skyscape – The “Bible of the medical wards” on your iPhone [App Review]

The medical apps section on the iPhone and iPod Touch has a lot to offer, this is apparent from the medical app reviews we’ve done on this site.  When I think about my most heavily used medical apps, one that comes to mind has to be my Wikipedia app.  Obviously, Wikipedia is no complete substitute for reference applications such as Epocrates, or the Merck Manual Professional Edition.  But if used properly, it provides a great service.

The problem is finding a suitable Wikipedia app to use.  I’ve tried a number of free Wikipedia applications and have found one that really helps me find the medical information I’m looking for the best.

Its no secret that Wikipedia has been used extensively by those in the medical community to look up medical information and understand topics better.  I use it most when I begin researching a topic or if I need to find the mechanism of action for a drug.  The reference section is my favorite part of Wikipedia.  It’s a great way to find excellent journal articles and other medical resources.  The best way to utilize Wikipedia is to read up on the legitimate reference articles provided.  Clearly, you don’t want to use Wikipedia for actual clinical decision making, rather as a portal to finding articles from reputed sources.

There are three main Wikipedia apps that are free.  Wikipedia Mobile, Wikiamo, and Wikipanion.  Wikipedia Mobile is actually made by the Wikipedia people so one would think they would do a better job than these other two apps, but not so.  I’ve tried all these Wikipedia apps extensively, but my favorite Wikipedia application has to be Wikipanion. Many of the other free Wikipedia apps offer the same features as Wikipanion, but Wikipanion’s fluid user interface is why it’s the best.

Key features that I use the most:

• Ability to to E-mail out current article, Search Within the Page, Bookmark, and other comprehensive choices for each Wikipedia entry. Often I’ll bookmark key articles to view later when I’m out of the hospital or clinic.
• Application opens to the last screen you were viewing before you close the app.
• The Contents page provides a great summary of the Wikipedia entry, making it significantly easier to navigate and get directly to where you want to go.  In this case, looking up the mechanism of action via the Pharmacology section.
• No advertisements
• The references are properly linked within the article, and clicking them opens up safari, often providing you a peer reviewed source of data.  In this case, a paper on the side affects of Statins.

This layout of Wikipedia is somewhat emulated by UpToDate.com, often considered a legitimate medical source.  Just a word of caution, UpToDate is almost always on point, but sometimes the references they use can be from questionable articles, so just like any source, make sure the information you’re using is synthesized from a reputable article or book.

That said, UpToDate is a great source for medical providers and I’ve definitely used it plenty of times in clinic and in the hospital. You can use it on your iPhone or iPod touch via mobile form if your academic institution or private practice has a subscription. They’ve done an excellent job of making their site compatible with the Safari browser in the iPhone OS.  At the end of the day though, its fair to say we’re all waiting for a legitimate UpToDate app, much like the Wikipedia apps for the iPhone that have been mentioned above.

The development team at Wikipanion also offers Wikipanion plus, for $4.99.  This version allows you to download entries directly to your iPhone and other features.  Although these add ons are nice, I’ve found the free version to be sufficient for everyday use.

WikiPanion Website

Related Posts:

1. Bing Health’s new additions make it a legitimate alternative to WebMD and Wikipedia for healthcare
2. Finding the Best Medical App for Lab Values, We Check Out the Top Four [App Review]
3. Need to do a Quick Survey of the Medical Literature? PubMed Mobile is Your Solution [Android Medical App Review]

So you’re a practicing provider or you’re in medical school.  You’ve seen some interesting medical applications out there and you’re wondering if you should get an iPhone or an iPod Touch.  This is a scenario that is often e-mailed to our site from providers and students.  In order to answer this question, I’ll first talk about the differences between the two devices and how the user experience will vary from a medical standpoint.

The iPod Touch runs the same operating system as the iPhone, called the iPhone Operating System.  However, the iPod touch has key hardware limitations that differentiate it from the iPhone.

The major difference between the two is obvious.  The iPod Touch doesn’t have any cellular capabilities.  So in order to use the internet, you must be connected to WiFi (wireless internet).  This is key to note because there are certain applications that require you to have an internet connection.  Two that come to mind are the Blausen Human Atlas and the Clinical Orthopedic Exam Apps.  These apps can function without a dedicated internet connection, but you aren’t able to use them to their full potential.  Both apps require you to stream videos that are not built into the applications.

If you hospital has a dedicated WiFi connection and your iPod Touch can connect to this WiFi connection easily, then this difference will not affect you.  But if your hospital does not have a dedicated WiFi connection, or if it’s difficult for you to connect to the internet, than the iPhone would be a better option if you want to use applications such as these to their maximum potential.  Remember though, if you aren’t getting reception in the hospital, often the case with AT&T, than your iPhone won’t be able to connect to the internet unless you turn the WiFi on. 

My suggestion would be to contact your hospital’s IT department to see if they can connect your iPhone or iPod Touch to the wireless internet.  In order to use the WiFi in my hospital you have to go through a login screen, which can be extremely painful and annoying.  Luckily, the IT department is great and they were able to change the wireless setting on my iPhone so I didn’t have to go through the normal login screen anymore and and now my iPhone is always connected to WiFi. 

To be honest, for medical professionals, this is the main key difference between the two devices.  The medical apps we’ve run across don’t really utilize the added functionality of the iPhone, such as Push-notification, GPS, and the camera.  Medical Apps such as Epocrates, Merck Manual Professional, and other reference apps don’t require this added functionality and will run just fine on your iPod Touch. 

If you’re always in the hospital, and are easily able to connect to WiFi, then I’d recommend you stick to the iPod Touch and save yourself from having to pay the extra monthly data fee that comes with the iPhone.  Plus, if you’re a resident you’re working 24/7 anyways and you probably won’t even that that much of a chance to use the extra functionality. 

If you’re a medical student, all the study applications we’ve reviewed, such as the USMLE question banks and anatomy apps, will work just fine on an iPod Touch. 

There are also some minor differences, such as the lack of an extra “zoom” feature that the iPhone has.  I highlighted this in the iRadiology review.  This feature can be useful when looking at detailed radiology, however, it’s not that big of a deal.

Now if you want to get the iPhone because you want a dedicated smart phone, than by all means, it’s a great device.  I went with the iPhone because I need to always be connected to the internet so I can respond to e-mails.  I use the push-button notification,push-email, and GPS functionality constantly, but I’m fully aware that many healthcare professionals don’t. 

In our reviews, if a medical app has limitations on the iPod Touch, we almost always comment on it.  If you still aren’t sure though, feel free to comment on this post or a particular review before you buy a medical app and your question will get answered.

Related Posts:

1. How to sync the right user with the right medical app for their iPhone, iPod Touch, and the upcoming iPad
2. The Best and Most Useful Medical Apps for the iPhone or iPod Touch
3. Optimizing Your Medical Practice Experience with the iPod Touch

The challenge of identifying and absorbing relevant medical literature will not abate anytime soon and the proliferation of services that purport to simplify or eliminate this problem for physicians is itself now becoming a distraction. The rapid adoption of web-enabled smart phones by physicians, such as the iPhone, is driving this dilemma from the theoretical realm directly to the bedside. The hope is that if relevant medical literature is immediately available at the point of care, physicians would be more inclined to use it.

At the same time, the mantra of practicing medicine that is evidence-based is ringing ever louder. Thus far, it seems to this reviewer that most physicians apply it most strenuously when criticizing other physicians’ decisions rather than applying it to their own practice. Nevertheless, large well-respected compilations like the Cochrane Abstracts are available and widely used.  They offer well constructed summaries of evidence-based diagnostic and treatment guidelines for thousands of pathologies.  It is into this nexus that the “Evidence Central” app enters.  This review will cover the features of this recently released medical application, which is technically “free” in the App Store, but requires a paid subscription of $79.95 in order to actually use.

Wiley-Blackwell, the venerable scientific publisher (“knowledge for generations” is their tagline) offers subscription web based access to the Cochrane database as well as other partially overlapping databases of clinical literature such as Evidence Based Medical Guidelines and Essential Evidence Plus. Unbound Medicine is a multi-platform mobile medical application developer. The two have partnered to port these databases into the Evidence Central App, available on the iPhone and Android devices.

Unbound Medicine has a long list of prominent electronic offerings including the Merck Manual (reviewed previously), the Oxford Handbook, and Harrison’s Manual.  The Evidence Central application is a mirror of a web portal to the three Wiley web databases mentioned above as well as partial web access to four well known journals, American Family Physician, Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA and NEJM.

While the depth and breadth of information available through these databases is truly impressive, the application unfortunately also propagates the corresponding dilemma. Namely, it does not attempt to solve the problem of parallel entryways into the separate databases nor the multiplicity of similar sounding titles and topics.  It does not explain to the user how each database is different and, unlike the corresponding website, does not offer a global search across the databases.

What I liked about this app:

• The quality and breadth of the the abstracted information available in the three database families is impressive. Having it quickly available on your mobile device is a fundamental improvement from having one’s medical library taking up shelf space.
• The application is quite responsive as most of the content is apparently locally stored

What I didn’t like as much:

• There is no guidance available to the user as to where to search for information nor any ready description of the qualities of each database (to be fair, this information is hard to glean from the actual web databases themselves)
• There are some rough spots in the application’s user interface with the bottom navigation bar appearing and disappearing unpredictably, as well as the text search box

What I would like to see in future versions:

• A global search across the databases, akin to the website (perhaps this was omitted due to technical limitations of the platform)
• A more refined search experience, with more explicit guidance as to where to ask a particular question

(below picture is a screen clipping when using evidence central via your computer browser)

Conclusion:

The dilemma of the practicing physician basing complex decisions on incomplete information will undoubtedly remain inseparable in the future from the practice of medicine. However, closing the gap between available evidence based literature and the clinical question at hand is at least partially addressable with improving technology. In this case, Unbound Medicine’s “Evidence Central” assembles a highly potent collection of clinical evidence aimed directly at the practicing physician. Access to the Cochrane Abstracts alone might well justify the price of subscription.

However, what we are also seeing thus far with the first wave of clinically based applications is that more targeted products, e.g. Procedures Consult: Musculoskeletal, are more finely tuned to access via a hand held device.  This appears logical since it is significantly more difficult to synthesize thousands of pages of text and literature and have it instantly reborn on a mobile device, which is partially the huge task Evidence Central tries to accomplish.

In the future, it is inevitable that medical authors and publishers will start to primarily design for smaller form factors and this task will not be left solely to software developers. When this occurs, we should see a better translation of medical literature to mobile applications. Until then, we can certainly enjoy the wealth of knowledge that rich applications such as “Evidence Central” allow us to carry in our pockets.

View Customer Reviews on iTunes »

Download Now on iTunes for Free »

Visit the App Website »

-Dr. Wodajo is a senior writer for iMedical Apps and we feel privileged to have him on board.  He brings an extensive clinical background to the medical app reviews. His blog can be found at http://www.orthoonc.com.

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2. Zynx Health Condenses Vast Amounts of Evidence Based Guidelines into Computerized Order Sets
3. Harrison’s Manual of Medicine App: Translation of Famous Medical Text to Mobile Form [App Review]

Last week we did a feature review of the iRadiology App, a recently released free radiology learning tool.  I thought it was a must have medical application for medical students and residents.  The application provides over 500 radiology cases explained in detail.  I had a quick Q&A with Dr. Lieberman to discuss the direction of this great learning tool and whether or not it will remain free. 

iMedical Apps: What was the inspiration of the app?

Dr. Lieberman: I have been a director of medical education for radiology at Harvard Medical School for 26 years and have dedicated my career to teaching, which has been very fulfilling. I have developed a number of different web-based learning programs, which can be accessed for no charge on my Lieberman’s eRadiology website at http://eradiology.bidmc.harvard.edu   This app is an extension of one of the programs I offer online.

iMedical Apps: How long did it take to develop iRadiology?

Dr. Lieberman: The app is based on Lieberman’s Classics Collection in Radiology, available at http://eradiology.bidmc.harvard.edu/Classics/ which has taken two years to develop and is continuously being expanded – we are adding an extensive cardiovascular section with CT and MRI multiplanar imaging this month.

iMedical Apps: Will the app stay free in the app store?

Dr. Lieberman: Our hope is to keep the app free in the app

store.

A special thanks to Dr. Lieberman for providing such a great resource for those learning how to read various imaging.  We look forward to seeing the additions to the application and I encourage everyone to use the online resources Dr. Lieberman mentioned as well.  I wish I had known about this earlier in my clinical years and it’s definitely a source I’ll use for residency. 

Link to the full review of the iRadiology medical app, available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Related Posts:

1. iRadiology App Provides Massive Amounts of Radiology Content, and its Free [App Review]
2. App Giveaway and Interview With Creator of MD on Call app
3. Top 10 Free iPhone Medical Apps for Health care Professionals

MedPage Today’s motto is, “Putting Breaking Medical News Into Practice”.  I’ve been a fan of the website, medpagetoday.com for a few years now because they provide great medical commentary in a short, concise manner.  I call it “high-yield” reading.  Their articles often highlight key papers from the New England Journal or other reputed journals.  Another reason I’m a fan is because of their partnership with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine to provide Continuing Medical Education(CME).  A partnership with a well respected academic institution definitely gives me greater respect for their articles.

All the content from their website has now been brought to the iPhone platform, and the app is free!  Although the application was released awhile back, it was recently updated with some nice additions.  In this review of the MedPage Today Mobile App I’ll cover how to best utilize the features this free application provides.

When you open up the application you’re asked to register, although you don’t need to provide any personal identifying information if you don’t want to, just your specialty and what type of topics you’re interested in.  In the settings menu you can change your specialty information and topics of interest.  You can also set up the twitter client you want to use if you plan on tweeting stories you read through the application.

Per your specialty and topics of interest, you’re shown different categories, such as Cardiovascular, Heme/Onc, etc.  After selecting a particular specialty, you’re presented with the latest related articles.  These articles deliver information through video, audio, or text.  Almost all the articles contain CME credit opportunities.  After reading, hearing, or viewing the information in an article, you can take a post test at the end to get CME credit.

What I liked:

• Ability to get CME credit in the palm of your hand
• You can tweet and e-mail the article your just read
• Once you load articles they are saved on your device and you can access them in “off-line” mode.
• One of my favorite categories is the default “Latest News” category.  Often this section correlates with the front page of MedPageToday.  It’s basically akin to CNN headlines made for healthcare providers
• Nice user interface
• Don’t need to register with username or password if you only want to read the articles

What I didn’t like so much:

I like to listen to the videos and audio when I have my iPhone hooked up to my car.  When the phone goes into sleep mode the audio and video stop, and the same thing happens when I click the hold button.  Hopefully this is a bug that will be worked out in the next edition.

What I’d like to see in future updates:

• more access to all the information on the website.  I find a lot of the commentary interesting, and instead of only one default category, “latest news”, it would be nice to add more specific categories of news and commentary.
• When you want to take the post test for CME credit you are linked to safari.  It would be nice to have the ability to take the test within the application.
• Ability to Bookmark your favorite articles
• Ability to share articles via Facebook.

Conclusion:

The ability to attain CME credits from the palm of your hand is definitely a huge service this application provides, but I feel the ability to get current medical news is just as beneficial.  Even if you aren’t interested in getting CME credits, the CME articles are extremely informative and concise. You can read and listen to them on the go in order to stay up to date with hot button topics related to medicine.  The app is useful for not only providers, but medical students and residents as well and would definitely be helpful in the wards when getting grilled by attendings on updated medical guidelines.

In the future, I’d love to see this application expand even more to include all the rich content included on the MedPage Today website, but overall, this is a great medical application and a must have for healthcare providers and students.

Also, MedPage Today has another app, CME store[iTunes Link], that bundles together CME articles related specifically to your specialty.  We’re working on a review of this app and will release it soon.

View Customer Reviews on iTunes »

Download Now on iTunes for Free »

Visit the App Website »

Update:

There actually is a save/bookmark button, contrary to what I said above.  My apologies on the oversight and thanks to the MedPage Today team for catching this.

Related Posts:

1. Medical Spanish App adds Audio in Latest Update, and We’re Definitely Smitten [App Review]
2. Harrison’s Manual of Medicine App: Translation of Famous Medical Text to Mobile Form [App Review]
3. Papers App Puts Your Medical Library in your Pocket [App Review]

Merry Christmas everyone! The iMedical Apps Team has been busy with holiday traveling and festivities, so our apologies on the infrequent updates this past week.  In the Christmas spirit, we’re giving away 10 promo codes each for two USMLE study apps.

Continue on for promo codes for these USMLE study apps.

The developer for USMLE Buzz and Step 1 iBank has kindly given us promo codes for each of their apps.  We’ve reviewed USMLE Buzz before on this site and were huge fans of the application.  The Step 1 iBank app is new and we are in the process of reviewing it right now.  I’ve used it some already and it seems very promising.  Unlike the quick hitting questions of USMLE Buzz, USMLE iBank has full length questions with detailed answers. 

If you use a promo code make sure to leave a comment letting others know which one you used, and let us know what you think of the medical app.

USMLE Step 1 iBank:

1. RF467KXFR6TP
2. EEYY3HLMKRAJ
3. 9XJEHWP3LRY9
4. 77JML7PF9XTM
5. MATWAFFXNRLE
6. 47L747HRK7YK
7. YA9EJY6JAWPE
8. NHFWT7R4TL73
9. PLHPRAEXAW7E
10. XYNPFF6NAPWH

USMLE Buzz:

1. AYYYLFPP9JEL
2. L3XHP474XMAP
3. YNAMLE4HTXTP
4. PNWMLLYRRYM7
5. 3XPFY3RE6YNE
6. NEPLT463EH7L
7. R4FY4M43EFJK
8. LFKATKNJ7WMY
9. LPPAK9F9NF47
10. 994YJWFAAJMM
11. XYPPWP7LFX3J
12. MN4XHJ6FJJTM

iTunes Links to the Applications: Step 1 iBank, USMLE Buzz

Related Posts:

1. App Giveaway, USMLE Buzz Flashcards
2. USMLE Step 1 iBank App: Lowest Cost Question Bank for the iPhone [App Review]
3. Kaplan’s Free iPhone App Contains a 25% off Coupon Code for their USMLE Step 1 Qbank

A new radiology learning tool was just released in the App Store, the iRadiology App.  This app has a catalog of over 500 radiology cases designed to help medical students and residents improve their plain film,CT, and MRI reading skills.  The cases are derived from Dr. Gillian Lieberman, who is the currently Director of Harvard Medical Student training and Associate Director of the Residency Program at Beth Israel Medical Center.  This legitimizes the content of the application.  In this review we’ll discuss the application further and also show you how to turn on the “Zoom” feature built into the iPhone that will enable you to improve the utility of this medical app.

When you open up this application you are presented with the above screen.  With the search feature, you can search for various cases based on certain key words, such as cardiovascular, chest, or actual pathologies.  I didn’t find the Search function to be very helpful, but the topics section was great for navigating with the application.

Activating the “Zoom” feature on your iPhone:

Before writing about this application further, I’ll quickly show you how to turn on the native “Zoom” function of your iPhone.  While this app allows you to zoom into pictures,  you can’t zoom in as close as you’d like sometimes, but when you turn on the native “Zoom” function in your iPhone, you can get significantly closer, making these images even more useful.

Go to Settings, tap General, then Accessibility.  Once you tapped on Accessibility, tap Zoom, and slide the Zoom feature to the On position.  The instructions for how to use the extra Zoom feature are shown on the same page.  Make sure you know how to manipulate the “To change zoom” portion correctly.  Below is an example:

This feature will also be useful for other medical applications that require you to read detailed images.  Now back to iRadiology.  For the purpose of this review, I’ll select “Chest” from the Topics section, and then in the subcategory I’ll select Lungs.

Within the Lungs section there are further subcategories, showing the great diversity of cases this application possess.  I’ll select Sarcoidosis and go from there.

When you tap on Labels, you are presented with the above picture, revealing key areas of the image. 

If you have the Zoom feature turned on, as explained at the beginning, you can zoom in ridiculously close and get a better picture of these films.  I wasn’t able to include the pictures where I used the “Zoom” feature because the iPhone doesn’t take screen shots of these pictures.

When you tap on Findings, you are presented with further information about the radiology case at hand, in this case, sarcoidosis.  I found this section to include a great deal of high yield information that is often asked on the USMLE step 1 and step 2 exams.

What I liked:

• Great wealth of knowledge, over 500 radiology cases
• Labels section does a great job of showing the pathology of interest
• Great diversity in the cases present
• Legitimate source for the pictures and cases provided in the application
• Great explanations of the radiology pathology presented in the application
• It’s FREE

What I didn’t like so much:

• Zoom feature, using the traditional pinch motion, could be more robust, although the iPhone’s new native “Zoom” feature can be used
• Supports landscape mode, but the Findings section can only be viewed in vertical screen.

What I’d like to see in future updates:

• Quiz Mode
• Bookmarking of favorite cases to review
• Built in link to Wikipedia for more information about the radiologic case at hand

Conclusion:

We’ve reviewed other radiology related applications before, such as iAnatomy, and the Joslin Chest Atlas.  iAnatomy did a great job of providing cross sectional CT images for anatomy learning, but did not provide pictures of various disease pathologies.  Joslin’s Chest Atlas provided some great plain chest film images, but the amount of content is limited with less than 100 images.  The beauty with iRadiology is in the huge amount of content provided, with over 500 radiology cases, and these cases are high yield as well.  The majority of these cases are ones I’ve seen in the hospital or have learned about.  Oh by the way, this app included plain film x-rays, CT scans, AND MRIs.

This application has the full package and I’d definitely recommend it to medical students, residents, or any other health care providers who want to improve their radiology reading skills.  With the price tag of “free” this app is a no brainer to download.

View Customer Reviews on iTunes »

Download Now on iTunes for Free »

Visit the App Website »

This app is 137 mb, so make sure you’re connected to a dedicated WiFi connection when downloading.

Also, special thanks to one of our readers in Taiwan for alerting us of this application.  Remember, many of our post ideas come from you, our readers.

Related Posts:

1. New England Journal of Medicine releases an iPhone app – free access to content for a limited time only! [App Review]
2. Interview with Dr. Lieberman, creator of the iRadiology App
3. Human Body 3D Anatomy App Might be Useful for Patient Education, But Not Much Else [App Review]

To our readers:

We will be providing commentary and short reviews to medpagetoday.com two or three times a month.  We feel honored to be included in their short list of talented and well respected bloggers.  The following is a little clip from our first post titled, Optimizing Your Medical Practice Experience with the iPod Touch. Rest assured, we’ll keep the frequency of our posts and reviews the same on our site.

There has been a great deal of commentary profiling medical applications that are useful for healthcare providers. However, there hasn’t been much talk about how mobile medical applications can enhance the doctor-patient experience and in turn, help optimize your practice’s overall experience. In future posts, we’ll focus more on applications for medical providers, but this post will discuss applications centered around the physician-patient relationship.   

 

We all know how busy clinic can be, and this leads to increased waiting times for patients.   Understandably, patients often complain that this is the most frustrating time for them, and none of us likes walking in excessively late on an angry patient because we had to deal with another patient’s medical emergency. So how can this downtime be made more bearable and productive at the same time? 

 

Here is where the iPod Touch comes in.  It runs basically the same operating system as the iPhone, and the applications I’ll discuss work for both devices. 

 

During a patient’s waiting time in the waiting room or exam room, you could give them an iPod Touch with some of the following applications pre-loaded. 

No related posts.

FDA Drugs is an iPhone application that functions as a mobile drug database. The user selects a drug and the application exposes brand and generic equivalent drug information, with the added twist of being able to display the actual FDA approval document.

The name is unfortunate as it implies that the application was developed by the FDA, which it is not. Rather, the developers draw on publicly available FDA data stores to display the label information for thousands of FDA approved prescription and over-the-counter drugs. When the label information is not stored inside the application, it displays a NIH website (“Daily Med”) where the user can search for FDA label information.

While seeing the original FDA document is of some satisfying curiosity, what is not immediately apparent to this reviewer is the additional benefit this application provides compared to other, more mature drug database applications, such as Epocrates or Medscape.

What I liked about this app:

• the ability search by active ingredient to find equivalent brand and generic drugs is nice

What I did not like about this app:

• there are some user interface quirks which are confusing, for example the “Legend” tab does not seem to do anything except simply redirect to the other 3 application tabs
• the large icons in the “Drug” view are distracting, more so since clicking on the majority of them results in no action
• for drugs where there is no stored labeling information, the application  simply opens to the home page of the website “DailyMed” after which the user has to again enter the drug name

What I would like to see in future versions:

• bug and UI fixes

Conclusion:

While the ability to quickly look up information on prescription and over-the-counter medications is of great utility for physicians, other mobile applications provide a richer interface to publicly available information  when compared to FDA drugs. For example, ePocrates not only provides prescribing information and drug interactions, but goes as far as providing the ability to identify a drug by the shape and color of the pill. These are very useful features for a prescribing physician. Thus, it would seem to this physician that the availability of a publicly available database led to the creation of this application, rather than an identified real user need.

View Customer Reviews on iTunes »

Download Now on iTunes for $2.99 »

Visit the App Website »

Related Posts:

1. PediDoser App Helps You Prescribe Pediatric Drugs [App Review]
2. Clinical Pharmacology Mobile – A mobile web app compatible on all smart phones [Review]
3. Evidence Central App – Evidence Based Medicine Guidelines Instantly Available in Mobile Form [App Review]