ReachMD CME is an app that allows you to get CME (continued medical education) credits by listening to discussions and then taking a short exam afterwards, all through your iPhone or itouch.  This app is free and in this review we’ll discuss how to best utilize the features of this application.

Advantages:
  • Good discussions on evidence based medicine from knowledgeable doctors.
  • Discussions are mostly about primary care related topics.
  • Does not require you to have read the studies prior to the discussion
  • Quick and easy to load, only 30 minutes long, and enable you to make a car drive more productive
  • Can take the short test built into the program, which allows you to get CME credit, ranging from .25 to 1.0 (AMA) credits depending on the topic.
Improvements that could be made:
  • Better organization of the list of discussions. It would be nice if the discussions were organized by specalties.
  • More discussions. There are a limited number of discussions (<50)
  • App has not been updated for some time.
Who this app would be great for:
  • Doctors / PA / 3rd or 4th year medical student
  • Each of the above could use this app in a different way. Doctors and PAs could actually use this for CME credit. Medical students, especially 3rd and 4th years would find the discussions useful for the wards.
Conclusion:

Overall I’d recommend this app to the above people if you want something to listen to in the car besides the same music, or if NPR is playing its eclectic music, unless of course, you’re into that type of thing. I feel that this app has more potential, and it would be great if they could add more discussion links within the app. Currently this app has 3 /5 starts, which I’d agree with. If you’re interested, you can find it here, ReachMD CME.

Further Review:

ReachMD actually has a XM radio channel (160), where these discussions happen, and my assumption is they take those talks and transfer them to the app. You can also get the talks through podcasts that ReachMD offers.

The content of the discussions are organized well. There get 2 to 3 MD’s who talk about a particular topic. Some examples are in the picture above, and they range from asthma to diabetes. Most of the topics that the app has are heavy on primary care. The discussions are almost all 30 minutes long, with CME credit varying from .25 to 1.0 credits.

The speakers usually have backgrounds from academic institutions and the program does a good job of giving full disclosure before the discussion. Relevant conflicts are fully identified. The speakers usually do a good job of sumarizing new and relevant studies that are related to the current topic. They give their own personal recomendations but do a good job of presenting the actual data from the studies. An example is the “steming the tide of type 2 diabetes” discussions. They did a great job of presenting the ACCORD data in a brief amount of time. This isn’t like journal club where if you haven’t read the study you’re going to feel completely lost.

The fact that you can access these discussions on your phone is key. I found myself using this app on long drives and it was resonably entertaining, in bit of a nerdy manner though. The app does a decent job of loading on EDGE, although 3G is ideal. Wifi works great as well.

In order to use this app you need to register your email address, and they will start sending you weekly emails, although you can unsubscribe. To take the brief test at the end you have to register extra user information, such as your address and license. However, this information isn’t required if you just want to listen to the lectures. Your specality / occupation are also asked, but that information isn’t used to organize your discussion.

There is also a search feature built within the app that isn’t too useful. There are a little under 50 discussions posted right now, and I haven’t seen any get added over the last few months. This might be an issue in the future as the students being mentioned might become a bit outdated.

[itunes]

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