The American Heart Association (AHA) is one of the most respected organizations on the planet. They have spearheaded efforts to increase patient and provider education on coronary artery disease and stroke among other risk factors. The AHA guidelines for Basic and Advanced Life Support are followed all over the world and have saved countless lives. Founded in 1926 by six cardiologists, the AHA continues to work to decrease mortality from our number one killer—cardiovascular disease. They have released guidelines alone and jointly with organizations such as the American College of Cardiology on topics ranging from exercise to cholesterol.

The AHA has just released a new app called AHA Guidelines On-the-Go. The purpose of the app is to put the AHA guidelines as well as medical calculators and patient education materials in one app for point-of-care use. This sounds amazing in theory, but so far the app lacks content. As of the initial release, the app only contains one of many AHA guidelines, 3 medical calculators, and limited patient education materials (heart attack only).

Video Review

Evidence based medicine

AHA Guidelines On-the-Go contains only ONE guideline: management of patients with non-ST-elevation ACS. The guideline is a combination of evidence and expert-based opinion. Additionally, the app contains 3 cardiac calculators including the older Framingham CAD risk score and not the more recent AHA-ACC pooled equations calculator. Overall, we are disappointed with the amount of evidence-based content in the app currently.

Who would benefit from this App?

Any providers who care for adult patients at risk for heart disease.

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

  • Price
    • Free
    • Content from an authoritative and respected source.
    • Links to well-designed patient handouts on various cardiac-related topics.   
    • Includes guidelines, calculators, news and patient education resources in one app.
    • Available for Android.
  • Dislikes
    • Lack of content—only one guideline and 3 calculators.  
    • AHA News and Continuing Education sections link to AHA website.
    • Included guideline is difficult to navigate.
    • Limited patient education content.
  • Overall

    AHA Guidelines On-the-Go is a disappointment in its current incarnation. Hampered primarily by a lack of content and substandard interface, the app is not recommended currently.  Hopefully, the AHA will update the app with many of their other guidelines and more useful calculators.

  • Overall Score
  • User Interface

    Simple interface hampered by difficult to navigate ACS guideline and patient education sections.

  • Multimedia Usage

    Links to excellent patient education handouts. Links to News and Continuing Education sections are not optimized for mobile and are simply to the AHA main website.

  • Price

    App is free.

  • Real World Applicability

    Currently, there is little in this app to use at the point of care that cannot be found in other resources such as the ACC Guidelines app or any medical calculator app. Until this app is updated with more content, we cannot recommend it highly to providers.

  • Device Used For Review

    iPhone 6S running iOS 10.1

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