Here at iMedicalApps we are big fans of all medical apps that make doctors lives easier by bringing key information to the point of care.

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in the UK have recently released a new app which covers the latest national guidelines on stroke management.

This comprehensive resource covers guidance on the stroke care pathway from acute care and management and onward to more long term treatment solutions.

Stroke is the most common neurological disease and one of the leading causes of death in the developed world. Therefore, it is essential for all clinicians–regardless of specialty–to have a thorough understanding of the  disease process, diagnosis, treatment and management.

The RCP have recently released their national guidelines on stroke in the form of two apps. One app is free and designed for patients and the other is very cheap and designed for clinicians.

The patient & caregiver version  provides guidance on how to care for someone after they have suffered a stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA). It is designed specifically for patients and their caregivers and has been made in collaboration with the Stroke Association.

There are  answers to key questions about stroke care, and advice on how to prevent a further stroke or TIA. One nice feature of the app is that you can telephone support organizations or visit their websites for further advice by simply tapping the number in the app. This is obviously UK specific, but it is nice to see developers including features such as this to enhance the ease of use for patients.

The clinician version contains all of the information contained in the patient version as well as other useful information. The information includes a pathway algorithm and detailed, yet concise, information related to various aspects of stroke diagnosis, care and treatment.

The Index  feature contains a complete list of common terms associated with stroke that appear in the guidelines.

All the information is thoroughly referenced as one would expect; however, the links aren’t clickable so the user has to manually search for it.

One clever feature was the way that topics are initially presented in a concise format which can then be expanded by simply tapping a Full button. This then links to the complete guidelines which is a useful way of managing the large amount of data associated with full guidelines. There is also the ability to save certain sections as ‘favorites’.

One user interface annoyance is that the only way to navigate back through menus is using the small arrow at the top of each page. It would be considerably easier if there was some way to ‘swipe’ left and right to move forward and backward. The search function can be useful to help quickly find information.

For the diehards out there, there is a PDF version of the full guidelines included which can be opened in a number of other apps.

Price

  • Free version for patients, $1.99 for clinician version

Likes

  • Novel method to make guidelines easily accessible
  • Includes management algorithm
  • Lots of relevant patient information

Dislikes

  • Small ‘back’ button
  • Not formatted for iPhone 5 (No iPad version)

Overall

  • This is a useful app for those who come into regular contact with stroke patients and/or their caregivers. It does have a patient education role and could be ‘prescribed’ to help improve patient understanding. Overall, it is quite useful to have the most recent stroke guidelines on your mobile device which practicing physicians, juniors (residents) and medical students will appreciate.

iTunes Link

Rating: (1 to 5 stars): 3/5

  • User interface – 3
  • Multimedia usage – N\A
  • Price – 4
  • Real world applicability – 3