QuantiaMD allows busy clinicians access to quick and informative presentations on the go

By Ravi Nerella, MBBS, MD

Mobile platforms are great resources for clinical tools at the point-of-care. But their utility to providers does not end when we leave the bedside, particularly as more and more resources appear aimed at providing continuing education to providers.

QuantiaMD is a free resource for physicians, midlevels, residents and medical students available both online and on your smartphone. It provides access to quick, short, narrated power point presentations that are thought provoking and sometimes even fun.

These presentations are categorized by topics and allow users to earn CME credits, certificates or redeemable Q points. What is great about QuantiaMD is that anyone can submit a presentation and if accepted, it is posted for users to view. You can leave comments on presentations and participate in discussions. All in all, its a unique collaborative resource. Read on for the full review.

QuantiaMD’s app is available on iOS, Android and Blackberry devices, so busy clinicians can have access to the presentations on the go. On the iPad, the app launches into landscape mode which makes full use of the screens real estate and user has a much better experience compared to the iPhone version.

Setting up an account is quick and easy. Once confirmed as a clinician, you will be able to redeem Q points (see below), comment on presentations and participate in discussion. Even if you cannot be confirmed (medical students), you still have access to the presentations and challenges, only you won’t be able to redeem your Q points and cannot get CME credit.

Q points

Q-Points is a system of rewards available to all QuantiaMD members. Q-Points can be redeemed for electronic Amazon.com Gift Cards.

Q-Points are available on certain activities including:

• Completing the Monthly General Medicine Challenge (10 Q-Points)
• Participating in select content (Q-Points amount varies)
• Referring colleagues to QuantiaMD (10 Q-Points)

App Layout and Features

At the very top is a banner that has four buttons.

• A back button
• A home button
• A saved button, that allows users to save presentations that can be viewed later even without access to the Internet
• Finally, the Topics button allows access to various topics and specialties.

Topics

The topics section is divided into the following categories: Clinical, Practice Management, Quality, Cases, Tools and Patient Resources. Each has relevant sub categories. It is here you can choose the topics you are most interested in and this then drives the suggestions that you see on your home page.

On your home screen you have three columns:

• Your Achievements
• Suggestions for You Today
• The third column has various items such as a search field, tabs with recently completely/started presentations and below that are the monthly medical challenges and specialty challenges.

Your Achievements

This column keeps track of how many Q points you have accumulated and gives you a ranking based on other fellow QuantiaMD users. I suspect it is to encourage those that are more competitive in nature. Below that is the number of presentations completed, certificates earned, CME credits again ranked with fellow users. At the very bottom it also monitors your Q points based on referrals you have made to your colleagues and if they accept your referral you get even more Q points.

Suggestions for you Today

This column starts off with a suggestion to earn Q points. These are usually in the form of a quick survey or sometimes a Cartoon caption contest. Below that are the Earn a Certificate, Earn CME and, Learn from an Expert sections. Suggestions are based on your interests in various topics that you opt to receive.

The final column groups presentations by Recently Started, Completed, Medical and specialty challenges. It also has a search field that allows users to search for presentations by name or by presenter.

The General Medical challenges are available through out a given month and are a mixture of case presentations and challenges called “Are you an Expert”, or “What the Heck is This?”. They range from being relatively simple to being quite difficult and are quite stimulating. The links to the challenges overlay a medical image that is progressively revealed through the month as you complete the challenges. The final challenge of that month is to identify the image.

Another nice feature of the presentations and challenges is the ability to participate by answering questions. When you move to the next slide you get the answer and also see how others responded to the same question.

You have the ability to introduce others to QuantiaMD by sharing a referral link. If anyone uses this link and signs up, you will receive Q point credits.

Other Resources on QuantiaMD

You have the option to subscribe to other public communities such as DICON, NCCN, ER Link, Pri-Med and Today’s Hospitalist. This is a nice feature that allows to have access to related topics in one place and reduces the need to navigate to different sites. There are additional resources available online at QuantiaMD.com in the form of downloadable PDF documents related to various topics that users may find useful, such as white papers, guidelines and articles.

QuantiaMD also provides clinical decision tools in the form of calculators. However, they cover only four topics currently and in my opinion are not very robust as they are simple calculators some of which are included in more comprehensive clinical calculator apps.

Likes

• Free
• Easy to use
• Nice user interface
• Very good range of topics
• Short quick presentations
• Free CME
• Q points that are redeemable on Amazon.com
• Excellent customer service

Dislikes

• Clinical tools not very robust or extensive
• Inability to access PDF document resources on app

Conclusion

• QuantiaMD iPad app is an excellent resource, that is very well laid out and user friendly.
• With the practice improvement modules, I strongly recommend this app to residents and recent graduate physicians so as to get up to speed with the current healthcare environment.
• QuantiaMD is a great resource for all busy clinicians to access relevant clinical cases and presentations that are short, informative, thought provoking, and of high caliber.