Coronary stents, available in both bare-metal and drug-eluting varieties, are widely used by cardiologists to treat the lesions of coronary artery disease.
Internal medicine, family medicine, and emergency medicine physicians as well as surgeons treat cardiac patients for whom they must make decisions regarding the management of these coronary stents after placement, especially when it comes to appropriate anti-coagulation to maintain stent patency(preventing in-stent re-thrombosis).
The Oxford American Pocket Notes (OAPN) Coronary Stenting App, developed by MedHand International, seeks to concisely address questions regarding coronary stent management for healthcare professionals. With a logo adorned by a bottle of medication, the heart and great vessels, a telemetry waveform, and a stethoscope, the OAPN Coronary Stenting App strives to make this cornerstone of cardiology comprehensible to non-cardiology healthcare professionals.
MedHand International has brought a plethora of medical titles from reputed publishers such as McGraw-Hill, Wiley-Blackwell, and Oxford University Press to the iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile platforms.
Read below to learn how the OAPN Coronary Stenting App can help you manage patients with coronary stents.
The home screen features the content of the app organized logically by section, although the inclusion of the app’s logo precludes visualization of all the app’s sections on one screen.
The OAPN Coronary Stenting App’s sections include the following:
- Preliminary Material
- Introduction
- Stent Classification
- Indications for Coronary Stenting
- Precatheterization Assessment
- Stent Delivery
- Complications of Coronary Stenting
- Medical Therapy
- Perioperative Management (a section of great interest to surgeons and proceduralists)
- Stent Surveillance
- Future Developments
- Patient and Provider Resources
- References
- Appendix
Here, we take a look at the section exploring stent classification, which features well-organized topics on stent characteristics, bare metal stents, and drug-eluting stents.
The information in the app is very concise, but features ample in-text references (but without embedded links to bring up the associated abstracts).
Moreover, the app features multiple tables and figures. Here is a table outlining the manufacturers and compositions of selected bare metal stents.
Here is an example of a figure from the app depicting a normal coronary angiogram, with the coronary vessels labeled. The figures and tables can zoomed and panned, and the screen turned horizontally, as well.
The References section features the information for the 80 peer-reviewed and high-quality published articles referenced throughout the app, but, as noted above, lacks links to the associated abstracts.
Another strength of the OAPN Coronary Stenting App is its robust search function, which features the ability to search dynamically either by title (section) or, with more utility, by text (which includes both references as well as sub-topics within the app).
Finally, the app allows for users to designate bookmarks for quick reference, and also keeps track of user history, with the most recently visited topics on top.
The in-app navigation, as seen above, can be somewhat difficult, as users must resort to the backward/forward arrows on the top of the screen, while the small icons in the top left are meant for users to move back to the parent section or home screen.
Pricing:
- The OAPN Coronary Stenting App costs $9.99 at the iTunes store.
Likes:
- Concise, well-written information appropriate for non-cardiologists regarding coronary stents
- 80 high-quality studies referenced throughout the app
- Robust and dynamic search function for either titles or text (includes references)
Concerns:
- The price may be steep for a topic as specific as coronary stenting
- Navigating from section-to-section can be a bit cumbersome
- Although the number and quality of in-text references are a major plus, the ability to link to reference abstracts would be appreciated in future editions
Conclusion:
- The OAPN Coronary Stenting App is best suited to assist generalists (internal medicine, family medicine, and emergency medicine physicians) and surgeons who manage cardiac patients with coronary stents
- Cardiologists and cardiology fellows should already be familiar with the content of this app.
