My Health Checklist 2012 app contains evidence based preventative health advice for patients
Review of the My Health Checklist 2012 App from Proven Health Ways, Inc.
Tag Archives: iPad
My Health Checklist 2012 app contains evidence based preventative health advice for patients
Review of the My Health Checklist 2012 App from Proven Health Ways, Inc.
First interactive medical iPad iBook arrives in Apple’s bookstore, free to download
When Apple announced iBooks 2 and iBooks author, there was much excitement amongst the medical tech community about the possibility of physicians creating their own interactive textbooks.
Last Friday saw the release of the first interactive medical textbook, created by Dr. Ed Wallitt, Founder of Podmedics.com.
We recently reviewed PodMedics, a UK based site which offers a range of medical podcasts for medical students and junior doctors alike.
The iBook entitled, The Podmedics Do Surgery, is a free medical textbook designed for medical students. It combines text, interactive images, video lectures and questions in one place and is a first for medical education.
iMedicalApps was able to exclusively catch up with Dr. Wallitt and find out more about the creation process including his experiences using iBooks Author.
Why did you pick the iBooks format?
Dr. Wallitt: The new iBooks format provides the opportunity to provide a wide range of different types of learning materials in one integrated textbook. It goes beyond just simple text, allowing you to insert interactive images, videos and review questions. This is perfect for us at Podmedics because we have been using these materials on our website.
Secondly, we saw the opportunity to be at the cutting edge of this brand-new and exciting technological advance in medical education.
What was your experience of using iBooks author?
Dr. Wallitt: On the whole, very positive. If you have any experience with using applications from iWorks such as Keynote, Pages or Numbers it is very easy to pick up. Myself, Stevan Wing and Bernard Ho managed to put together the whole iBook within a couple of weeks, working on it on the odd evening and weekend.
Saying that, there are still a number of issues within the program. This mainly has to do with crafting the flow of your document so that it displays well in both portrait and landscape mode on the iPad. We had to do a number of revisions because of this problem, and it cost us a significant amount of time.
Many authors have voiced concerns about the user agreement. What is your opinion of this?
Dr. Wallitt: It is easy to understand why people might be upset with having to hand over their work to Apple for approval. However, this is not really different to the state of play within the App Store and is fairly consistent across the whole industry. Most companies that provide creative tools that allow users to create content for their platforms have a similar end user agreement.
At Podmedics we did not spend a long time looking at this because we wanted to produce a free textbook and the user agreement is therefore not as punitive towards us compared with paid books.
Could you elaborate on the overall difficulty of textbook creation from a technical viewpoint?
Dr. Wallitt: From a technical perspective it was incredibly easy to create. In the past, to create a similar textbook would have required a detailed knowledge of Xcode, Objective-C and Cocoa touch. However with iBooks author, Apple have created a gateway for anyone with any word processing ability to create compelling and high-quality content.
What were the major problems encountered in the process?
Dr. Wallitt: The biggest issue for us has been managing to get the completed iBook uploaded and published on the iBook store. The textbook iBook store is currently not available in the UK, but UK authors of iBooks can still publish them on the US store. However, we have still not even been able to successfully upload the iBook, and Apple doesn’t provide any helpful suggestions about why this is occurring. I’m sure these are just teething problems, but looking at the Apple support forums there seem to be a lot of other very frustrated people having the same problem.
We have, however, made a direct link to our iBook available for people to download, and this seems to work quite well.
In your opinion, do you think ordinary physicians would be able to create decent textbooks using this setup?
Dr. Wallitt: Yes absolutely. From a technical perspective it is very easy. I suspect the issue for ordinary physicians will be access to open source medical images and videos to create variety and compelling content for their textbooks.
Do you have any plans to create more iBooks?
Dr. Wallitt: Yes, we are planning to produce a whole series of iBooks covering topics throughout medicine, surgery, and the clinical specialties. In addition to that, we are planning to expand upon our current iBook, ‘The Podmedics do Surgery’, by adding more chapters.
Were there any further interesting issues encountered during the publishing process?
Dr. Wallitt: We have had great difficulties in getting our iBook published. This is not because Apple have not approved the content, but because the process of uploading iBooks to the iBook store seems to be broken at the moment. Additionally, Apple is not currently providing any useful support to authors of iBooks to resolve the problems that they seem to be having. Saying that, iBooks author and its publishing infrastructure is only a few weeks old, so I’m sure these issues will eventually be ironed out.
Given that it is still possible to export completed iBooks manually, and publish them independently I would still encourage anyone who had an interest in creating an iBook to do so. We certainly have had great fun!
Price: Free
Summary:
-Combination of interactive features offer insight into potential future of medical education
-This textbook, while relatively basic, shows how engaging users with interactive learning can be beneficial. Hopefully, we will see more interactive textbooks created by physicians arriving in the Apple Bookstore.
-Check out this thread in the forum for more information related to physician-led iBook development
iTunes link: Currently in Apple approval process. However, you can download it here (~90MB) – http://podmedics-do-surgery.s3.amazonaws.com/ThePodmedicsDoSurgery.ibooks
To add it to your iPad (with iBooks 2) you need to:
-Click the link above with your iPad (it will take some time to download) and then choose the option to ‘Open in iBooks’ OR
-Download the book from the link above on your home computer, and then drag it into iTunes. You should then be able to sync it to your iPad in the usual fashion.
First interactive medical iPad iBook arrives in Apple’s bookstore, free to download
When Apple announced iBooks 2 and iBooks author, there was much excitement amongst the medical tech community about the possibility of physicians creating their own interactive textbooks.
Last Friday saw the release of the first interactive medical textbook, created by Dr. Ed Wallitt, Founder of Podmedics.com.
We recently reviewed PodMedics, a UK based site which offers a range of medical podcasts for medical students and junior doctors alike.
The iBook entitled, The Podmedics Do Surgery, is a free medical textbook designed for medical students. It combines text, interactive images, video lectures and questions in one place and is a first for medical education.
iMedicalApps was able to exclusively catch up with Dr. Wallitt and find out more about the creation process including his experiences using iBooks Author.
Why did you pick the iBooks format?
Dr. Wallitt: The new iBooks format provides the opportunity to provide a wide range of different types of learning materials in one integrated textbook. It goes beyond just simple text, allowing you to insert interactive images, videos and review questions. This is perfect for us at Podmedics because we have been using these materials on our website.
Secondly, we saw the opportunity to be at the cutting edge of this brand-new and exciting technological advance in medical education.
What was your experience of using iBooks author?
Dr. Wallitt: On the whole, very positive. If you have any experience with using applications from iWorks such as Keynote, Pages or Numbers it is very easy to pick up. Myself, Stevan Wing and Bernard Ho managed to put together the whole iBook within a couple of weeks, working on it on the odd evening and weekend.
Saying that, there are still a number of issues within the program. This mainly has to do with crafting the flow of your document so that it displays well in both portrait and landscape mode on the iPad. We had to do a number of revisions because of this problem, and it cost us a significant amount of time.
Many authors have voiced concerns about the user agreement. What is your opinion of this?
Dr. Wallitt: It is easy to understand why people might be upset with having to hand over their work to Apple for approval. However, this is not really different to the state of play within the App Store and is fairly consistent across the whole industry. Most companies that provide creative tools that allow users to create content for their platforms have a similar end user agreement.
At Podmedics we did not spend a long time looking at this because we wanted to produce a free textbook and the user agreement is therefore not as punitive towards us compared with paid books.
Could you elaborate on the overall difficulty of textbook creation from a technical viewpoint?
Dr. Wallitt: From a technical perspective it was incredibly easy to create. In the past, to create a similar textbook would have required a detailed knowledge of Xcode, Objective-C and Cocoa touch. However with iBooks author, Apple have created a gateway for anyone with any word processing ability to create compelling and high-quality content.
What were the major problems encountered in the process?
Dr. Wallitt: The biggest issue for us has been managing to get the completed iBook uploaded and published on the iBook store. The textbook iBook store is currently not available in the UK, but UK authors of iBooks can still publish them on the US store. However, we have still not even been able to successfully upload the iBook, and Apple doesn’t provide any helpful suggestions about why this is occurring. I’m sure these are just teething problems, but looking at the Apple support forums there seem to be a lot of other very frustrated people having the same problem.
We have, however, made a direct link to our iBook available for people to download, and this seems to work quite well.
In your opinion, do you think ordinary physicians would be able to create decent textbooks using this setup?
Dr. Wallitt: Yes absolutely. From a technical perspective it is very easy. I suspect the issue for ordinary physicians will be access to open source medical images and videos to create variety and compelling content for their textbooks.
Do you have any plans to create more iBooks?
Dr. Wallitt: Yes, we are planning to produce a whole series of iBooks covering topics throughout medicine, surgery, and the clinical specialties. In addition to that, we are planning to expand upon our current iBook, ‘The Podmedics do Surgery’, by adding more chapters.
Were there any further interesting issues encountered during the publishing process?
Dr. Wallitt: We have had great difficulties in getting our iBook published. This is not because Apple have not approved the content, but because the process of uploading iBooks to the iBook store seems to be broken at the moment. Additionally, Apple is not currently providing any useful support to authors of iBooks to resolve the problems that they seem to be having. Saying that, iBooks author and its publishing infrastructure is only a few weeks old, so I’m sure these issues will eventually be ironed out.
Given that it is still possible to export completed iBooks manually, and publish them independently I would still encourage anyone who had an interest in creating an iBook to do so. We certainly have had great fun!
Price: Free
Summary:
-Combination of interactive features offer insight into potential future of medical education
-This textbook, while relatively basic, shows how engaging users with interactive learning can be beneficial. Hopefully, we will see more interactive textbooks created by physicians arriving in the Apple Bookstore.
-Check out this thread in the forum for more information related to physician-led iBook development
iTunes link: Currently in Apple approval process. However, you can download it here (~90MB) – http://podmedics-do-surgery.s3.amazonaws.com/ThePodmedicsDoSurgery.ibooks
To add it to your iPad (with iBooks 2) you need to:
-Click the link above with your iPad (it will take some time to download) and then choose the option to ‘Open in iBooks’ OR
-Download the book from the link above on your home computer, and then drag it into iTunes. You should then be able to sync it to your iPad in the usual fashion.
First interactive medical iPad iBook arrives in Apple’s bookstore, free to download
When Apple announced iBooks 2 and iBooks author, there was much excitement amongst the medical tech community about the possibility of physicians creating their own interactive textbooks.
Last Friday saw the release of the first interactive medical textbook, created by Dr. Ed Wallitt, Founder of Podmedics.com.
We recently reviewed PodMedics, a UK based site which offers a range of medical podcasts for medical students and junior doctors alike.
The iBook entitled, The Podmedics Do Surgery, is a free medical textbook designed for medical students. It combines text, interactive images, video lectures and questions in one place and is a first for medical education.
iMedicalApps was able to exclusively catch up with Dr. Wallitt and find out more about the creation process including his experiences using iBooks Author.
Why did you pick the iBooks format?
Dr. Wallitt: The new iBooks format provides the opportunity to provide a wide range of different types of learning materials in one integrated textbook. It goes beyond just simple text, allowing you to insert interactive images, videos and review questions. This is perfect for us at Podmedics because we have been using these materials on our website.
Secondly, we saw the opportunity to be at the cutting edge of this brand-new and exciting technological advance in medical education.
What was your experience of using iBooks author?
Dr. Wallitt: On the whole, very positive. If you have any experience with using applications from iWorks such as Keynote, Pages or Numbers it is very easy to pick up. Myself, Stevan Wing and Bernard Ho managed to put together the whole iBook within a couple of weeks, working on it on the odd evening and weekend.
Saying that, there are still a number of issues within the program. This mainly has to do with crafting the flow of your document so that it displays well in both portrait and landscape mode on the iPad. We had to do a number of revisions because of this problem, and it cost us a significant amount of time.
Many authors have voiced concerns about the user agreement. What is your opinion of this?
Dr. Wallitt: It is easy to understand why people might be upset with having to hand over their work to Apple for approval. However, this is not really different to the state of play within the App Store and is fairly consistent across the whole industry. Most companies that provide creative tools that allow users to create content for their platforms have a similar end user agreement.
At Podmedics we did not spend a long time looking at this because we wanted to produce a free textbook and the user agreement is therefore not as punitive towards us compared with paid books.
Could you elaborate on the overall difficulty of textbook creation from a technical viewpoint?
Dr. Wallitt: From a technical perspective it was incredibly easy to create. In the past, to create a similar textbook would have required a detailed knowledge of Xcode, Objective-C and Cocoa touch. However with iBooks author, Apple have created a gateway for anyone with any word processing ability to create compelling and high-quality content.
What were the major problems encountered in the process?
Dr. Wallitt: The biggest issue for us has been managing to get the completed iBook uploaded and published on the iBook store. The textbook iBook store is currently not available in the UK, but UK authors of iBooks can still publish them on the US store. However, we have still not even been able to successfully upload the iBook, and Apple doesn’t provide any helpful suggestions about why this is occurring. I’m sure these are just teething problems, but looking at the Apple support forums there seem to be a lot of other very frustrated people having the same problem.
We have, however, made a direct link to our iBook available for people to download, and this seems to work quite well.
In your opinion, do you think ordinary physicians would be able to create decent textbooks using this setup?
Dr. Wallitt: Yes absolutely. From a technical perspective it is very easy. I suspect the issue for ordinary physicians will be access to open source medical images and videos to create variety and compelling content for their textbooks.
Do you have any plans to create more iBooks?
Dr. Wallitt: Yes, we are planning to produce a whole series of iBooks covering topics throughout medicine, surgery, and the clinical specialties. In addition to that, we are planning to expand upon our current iBook, ‘The Podmedics do Surgery’, by adding more chapters.
Were there any further interesting issues encountered during the publishing process?
Dr. Wallitt: We have had great difficulties in getting our iBook published. This is not because Apple have not approved the content, but because the process of uploading iBooks to the iBook store seems to be broken at the moment. Additionally, Apple is not currently providing any useful support to authors of iBooks to resolve the problems that they seem to be having. Saying that, iBooks author and its publishing infrastructure is only a few weeks old, so I’m sure these issues will eventually be ironed out.
Given that it is still possible to export completed iBooks manually, and publish them independently I would still encourage anyone who had an interest in creating an iBook to do so. We certainly have had great fun!
Price: Free
Summary:
-Combination of interactive features offer insight into potential future of medical education
-This textbook, while relatively basic, shows how engaging users with interactive learning can be beneficial. Hopefully, we will see more interactive textbooks created by physicians arriving in the Apple Bookstore.
-Check out this thread in the forum for more information related to physician-led iBook development
iTunes link: Currently in Apple approval process. However, you can download it here (~90MB) – http://podmedics-do-surgery.s3.amazonaws.com/ThePodmedicsDoSurgery.ibooks
To add it to your iPad (with iBooks 2) you need to:
-Click the link above with your iPad (it will take some time to download) and then choose the option to ‘Open in iBooks’ OR
-Download the book from the link above on your home computer, and then drag it into iTunes. You should then be able to sync it to your iPad in the usual fashion.
Apple’s top five iPhone & iPad medical apps of 2011
The end of the year is always marked with reflection over what has occurred the past 12 months.
Apple, like many companies, has produced a list of its top apps in many categories found in iTunes called Apple Rewind 2011.
While the criteria for picking the winners is probably loosely based on the amount of downloads and the overall popularity, the picks are still solely chosen by Apple’s editorial staff, and thus there is probably an element of bias in the choices. You might remember the criticism we levied at Apple recently about their “Apps for Healthcare Section” — a section in iTunes that made an attempt at categorizing the medical category. Although we personally wouldn’t rank these apps as the top 5, they do list some great medical apps.
Today we will look at the five winners based on Apple in the medical category. We have provided the iTunes links at the end of the article. Not surprisingly, some of the winners in the medical category are FDA approved apps, and we’ve done extensive commentary and reviews on all the apps mentioned.
AirStrip Cardiology, the cardiac patient monitoring solution from AirStrip Technologies Inc., has been named one of the best US medical application for the iOS platform by the Apple Editorial Staff. Airstrip Cardiology combines wireless mobile transmission of ECGs, digital visual enhancement and touch screen capabilities as well as automatic access to historical data, enabling more informed and timely decisions by cardiologists. The app is FDA approved and HIPAA compliant.
We actually got a sneak peak at AirStrip Cardiology before it came out at HIMSS 2010 — make sure to check out the video.
Dr. Shaival Kapadia, a Cardiologist at St. Francis Medical Center, a Bon Secours facility in Virginia, explains why the app is so popular.
“Even if you’re not at home, you can quickly pick up your phone, view the EKG, and take care of patients remotely. AirStrips makes it seamless. The nurse runs the EKG, processes it, and instantly it’s pushed to your phone. That’s huge because that determines whether I rush to the hospital to take care of this patient, or whether it’s something that the ER can handle.”
A review from the imedicalapps team of Airstrip OB is going to be released next week.
Another top choice from Apple’s editorial staff is the Skeletal System Pro II – (NOVA Series). This app allows users to manipulate the entire skeletal system — allowing you to stop at various angles with a simple click or tap. Additionally, the app not only gives the standard anatomical views, but allows user to view bones from different angles such as anterior, lateral, posterior, medial, (and inferior and superior when available).
We reviewed a sister app of Skeletal Systems Pro, called Muscle System Pro — an app that offers similar types of functionality, but for the muscle system.
EyeDecide MD was also chosen as a best app from the medical category. Orca MD has developed a series of anatomically precise mobile apps to help clinicians explain to their patients various anatomy based on the diseases they are treating. The iMedicalApps team has previously reviewed other Orca MD apps, KneeDecide and ShoulderDecide, which offer similar functionality to EyeDecide. The app allows patients to view the eye in 360 degrees. You have the ability to explore the eye’s anatomy and rotate, expand, shrink, annotate, and move the eye in any direction. Users can also see common eye conditions and available treatment options.
Mobile MIM, another FDA approved app, also received the distinction of one of the best medical apps for the iOS platform. The Mobile MIM platform is used for the viewing, registration, fusion, and/or display for diagnosis of medical images from the following modalities: SPECT, PET, CT, MRI, X-ray and, as was recently reported, Ultrasound. It has an extensive toolkit for viewing/manipulating images, local and cloud storage capabilities as well as many other features.
We did an extensive review of Mobile MIM earlier in the year — we even included a hands on video review of the app.
Finally, VueMe was also selected as a top medical app for 2011. VueMe allows patients to store and share their medical images on the cloud, and interfaces with the physician centered Mobile MIM app. VueMe is the patient-centered counterpart to MobileMIM. We previously reported on the ability of this app to empower patients who want some control over viewing their medical data, and we are pleased that it was chosen by Apple.
Overall, the apps that were chosen by Apple’s editorial staff represent quality choices of apps that have real utility.
iTunes Links to Apple’s top medical apps for the iPhone and iPad:
Cory Schultz contributed to this piece.
Apple’s top five iPhone & iPad medical apps of 2011
The end of the year is always marked with reflection over what has occurred the past 12 months.
Apple, like many companies, has produced a list of its top apps in many categories found in iTunes called Apple Rewind 2011.
While the criteria for picking the winners is probably loosely based on the amount of downloads and the overall popularity, the picks are still solely chosen by Apple’s editorial staff, and thus there is probably an element of bias in the choices. You might remember the criticism we levied at Apple recently about their “Apps for Healthcare Section” — a section in iTunes that made an attempt at categorizing the medical category. Although we personally wouldn’t rank these apps as the top 5, they do list some great medical apps.
Today we will look at the five winners based on Apple in the medical category. We have provided the iTunes links at the end of the article. Not surprisingly, some of the winners in the medical category are FDA approved apps, and we’ve done extensive commentary and reviews on all the apps mentioned.
AirStrip Cardiology, the cardiac patient monitoring solution from AirStrip Technologies Inc., has been named one of the best US medical application for the iOS platform by the Apple Editorial Staff. Airstrip Cardiology combines wireless mobile transmission of ECGs, digital visual enhancement and touch screen capabilities as well as automatic access to historical data, enabling more informed and timely decisions by cardiologists. The app is FDA approved and HIPAA compliant.
We actually got a sneak peak at AirStrip Cardiology before it came out at HIMSS 2010 — make sure to check out the video.
Dr. Shaival Kapadia, a Cardiologist at St. Francis Medical Center, a Bon Secours facility in Virginia, explains why the app is so popular.
“Even if you’re not at home, you can quickly pick up your phone, view the EKG, and take care of patients remotely. AirStrips makes it seamless. The nurse runs the EKG, processes it, and instantly it’s pushed to your phone. That’s huge because that determines whether I rush to the hospital to take care of this patient, or whether it’s something that the ER can handle.”
A review from the imedicalapps team of Airstrip OB is going to be released next week.
Another top choice from Apple’s editorial staff is the Skeletal System Pro II – (NOVA Series). This app allows users to manipulate the entire skeletal system — allowing you to stop at various angles with a simple click or tap. Additionally, the app not only gives the standard anatomical views, but allows user to view bones from different angles such as anterior, lateral, posterior, medial, (and inferior and superior when available).
We reviewed a sister app of Skeletal Systems Pro, called Muscle System Pro — an app that offers similar types of functionality, but for the muscle system.
EyeDecide MD was also chosen as a best app from the medical category. Orca MD has developed a series of anatomically precise mobile apps to help clinicians explain to their patients various anatomy based on the diseases they are treating. The iMedicalApps team has previously reviewed other Orca MD apps, KneeDecide and ShoulderDecide, which offer similar functionality to EyeDecide. The app allows patients to view the eye in 360 degrees. You have the ability to explore the eye’s anatomy and rotate, expand, shrink, annotate, and move the eye in any direction. Users can also see common eye conditions and available treatment options.
Mobile MIM, another FDA approved app, also received the distinction of one of the best medical apps for the iOS platform. The Mobile MIM platform is used for the viewing, registration, fusion, and/or display for diagnosis of medical images from the following modalities: SPECT, PET, CT, MRI, X-ray and, as was recently reported, Ultrasound. It has an extensive toolkit for viewing/manipulating images, local and cloud storage capabilities as well as many other features.
We did an extensive review of Mobile MIM earlier in the year — we even included a hands on video review of the app.
Finally, VueMe was also selected as a top medical app for 2011. VueMe allows patients to store and share their medical images on the cloud, and interfaces with the physician centered Mobile MIM app. VueMe is the patient-centered counterpart to MobileMIM. We previously reported on the ability of this app to empower patients who want some control over viewing their medical data, and we are pleased that it was chosen by Apple.
Overall, the apps that were chosen by Apple’s editorial staff represent quality choices of apps that have real utility.
iTunes Links to Apple’s top medical apps for the iPhone and iPad:
Cory Schultz contributed to this piece.
Apple’s top five iPhone & iPad medical apps of 2011
The end of the year is always marked with reflection over what has occurred the past 12 months.
Apple, like many companies, has produced a list of its top apps in many categories found in iTunes called Apple Rewind 2011.
While the criteria for picking the winners is probably loosely based on the amount of downloads and the overall popularity, the picks are still solely chosen by Apple’s editorial staff, and thus there is probably an element of bias in the choices. You might remember the criticism we levied at Apple recently about their “Apps for Healthcare Section” — a section in iTunes that made an attempt at categorizing the medical category. Although we personally wouldn’t rank these apps as the top 5, they do list some great medical apps.
Today we will look at the five winners based on Apple in the medical category. We have provided the iTunes links at the end of the article. Not surprisingly, some of the winners in the medical category are FDA approved apps, and we’ve done extensive commentary and reviews on all the apps mentioned.
AirStrip Cardiology, the cardiac patient monitoring solution from AirStrip Technologies Inc., has been named one of the best US medical application for the iOS platform by the Apple Editorial Staff. Airstrip Cardiology combines wireless mobile transmission of ECGs, digital visual enhancement and touch screen capabilities as well as automatic access to historical data, enabling more informed and timely decisions by cardiologists. The app is FDA approved and HIPAA compliant.
We actually got a sneak peak at AirStrip Cardiology before it came out at HIMSS 2010 — make sure to check out the video.
Dr. Shaival Kapadia, a Cardiologist at St. Francis Medical Center, a Bon Secours facility in Virginia, explains why the app is so popular.
“Even if you’re not at home, you can quickly pick up your phone, view the EKG, and take care of patients remotely. AirStrips makes it seamless. The nurse runs the EKG, processes it, and instantly it’s pushed to your phone. That’s huge because that determines whether I rush to the hospital to take care of this patient, or whether it’s something that the ER can handle.”
A review from the imedicalapps team of Airstrip OB is going to be released next week.
Another top choice from Apple’s editorial staff is the Skeletal System Pro II – (NOVA Series). This app allows users to manipulate the entire skeletal system — allowing you to stop at various angles with a simple click or tap. Additionally, the app not only gives the standard anatomical views, but allows user to view bones from different angles such as anterior, lateral, posterior, medial, (and inferior and superior when available).
We reviewed a sister app of Skeletal Systems Pro, called Muscle System Pro — an app that offers similar types of functionality, but for the muscle system.
EyeDecide MD was also chosen as a best app from the medical category. Orca MD has developed a series of anatomically precise mobile apps to help clinicians explain to their patients various anatomy based on the diseases they are treating. The iMedicalApps team has previously reviewed other Orca MD apps, KneeDecide and ShoulderDecide, which offer similar functionality to EyeDecide. The app allows patients to view the eye in 360 degrees. You have the ability to explore the eye’s anatomy and rotate, expand, shrink, annotate, and move the eye in any direction. Users can also see common eye conditions and available treatment options.
Mobile MIM, another FDA approved app, also received the distinction of one of the best medical apps for the iOS platform. The Mobile MIM platform is used for the viewing, registration, fusion, and/or display for diagnosis of medical images from the following modalities: SPECT, PET, CT, MRI, X-ray and, as was recently reported, Ultrasound. It has an extensive toolkit for viewing/manipulating images, local and cloud storage capabilities as well as many other features.
We did an extensive review of Mobile MIM earlier in the year — we even included a hands on video review of the app.
Finally, VueMe was also selected as a top medical app for 2011. VueMe allows patients to store and share their medical images on the cloud, and interfaces with the physician centered Mobile MIM app. VueMe is the patient-centered counterpart to MobileMIM. We previously reported on the ability of this app to empower patients who want some control over viewing their medical data, and we are pleased that it was chosen by Apple.
Overall, the apps that were chosen by Apple’s editorial staff represent quality choices of apps that have real utility.
iTunes Links to Apple’s top medical apps for the iPhone and iPad:
Cory Schultz contributed to this piece.
Medical App that replaces the reference cards in your white coat, Wards 101 i-pocketcards review
In the bygone years prior to the dawn of mobile devices, students and residents were sent into the intellectual battlefields that are the wards of the hospital, armed with little more than a stethoscope as their weapon, and a white coat as their armour.
While white coats don’t offer much protection against the sting of a preceptor’s difficult “pimp” questions or the weariness of frequent electrolyte abnormality pages, they do offer trainees a valuable commodity: pocket space.
Though we are now able to cram a virtually unlimited amount of information into our pockets via our mobile devices, just a few short years ago, pocket books and pocket cards were the weapons of choice. There were few weapons more efficient than a well-designed set of pocket cards; they were a potent combination of critical information presented in a compact package available for extremely quick reference.
But times change, and white coat real estate is increasingly occupied by mobile technology. I admittedly do find pocket cards to be quicker in terms of looking up critical information at times, but as one begins carrying multiple pocket cards, this speed advantage is lost. There is only a finite space available, and mobile devices are increasingly being tapped to fulfill this role.
In a bid to stay on top of trends, Borm Bruckmeier has translated their Wards 101 Essentials Pocketcard Set, which covers common emergency, internal medicine, and ICU topics, to the iPhone and iPad via a universal iOS app.
The Wards 101 i-pocketcards app is a straight digital conversion of the physical cards. There is a “classic view” available for users to view the cards in their original white coat form. The iPad is naturally better suited to displaying the cards in classic view, while the iPhone version will necessitate cumbersome zooming in and out to achieve a legible image size.
All 10 faces of the pocket card set are present in the app.
Luckily, the app doesn’t stop at just being a glorified pdf version of the original cards. The developers have broken down the information into categories that one can browse in the “table of contents” section. Selecting a section will display the information in a screen-optimized format that eliminates the need for cumbersome zooming, even on an iPhone screen.
While pocketcards are by nature largely not particularly interactive, the developers have tried to increase the functionality of the app by adding buttons to the SLUMS exam, so that one can administer the exam while inputting the scores while the app calculates a total score.
Overall, Wards 101 i-pocketcards is a good digital conversion of the physical set of reference cards. All the critical information found in the physical cards is present and accounted for.
However, the problems that plague the conversion of handbooks to electronic form still exist here. As addressed by us in previous reviews and commentary, these include issues about the relatively small amount of information in these apps compared to the amount of information that can possibly be packed into the digital format.
Other issues include the downward pressure on App Store prices and Apple’s 30% cut on every transaction, affecting every publisher’s bottom line. To the developers’ credit, they have priced the app at $5.99, which is cheaper than what I have seen in stores ($14.99).
The information presented in this app is nice and condensed; I could definitely imagine myself carrying it with me on an internal medicine, emergency or critical care rotation. The choice between the physical or digital version is solely up to personal preference, there are distinct advantages and disadvantages of both.
If in doubt, a visit to a medical bookstore allows one to skim over all the charts, formulae and content contained within the app, and also helps one to decide whether a physical or digital version is best suited to one’s individual needs.
Likes:
- Concise collection of important information needed on the wards
- Priced below that of the physical reference cards
Dislikes:
- While the presented content is very important, its scope is limited to that of the physical reference cards
Price:
- $5.99
Conclusion:
- Wards 101 i-pocketcards is a digital conversion of the physical reference cards; choice of a version will depend on individual preference.
Medical App that replaces the reference cards in your white coat, Wards 101 i-pocketcards review
In the bygone years prior to the dawn of mobile devices, students and residents were sent into the intellectual battlefields that are the wards of the hospital, armed with little more than a stethoscope as their weapon, and a white coat as their armour.
While white coats don’t offer much protection against the sting of a preceptor’s difficult “pimp” questions or the weariness of frequent electrolyte abnormality pages, they do offer trainees a valuable commodity: pocket space.
Though we are now able to cram a virtually unlimited amount of information into our pockets via our mobile devices, just a few short years ago, pocket books and pocket cards were the weapons of choice. There were few weapons more efficient than a well-designed set of pocket cards; they were a potent combination of critical information presented in a compact package available for extremely quick reference.
But times change, and white coat real estate is increasingly occupied by mobile technology. I admittedly do find pocket cards to be quicker in terms of looking up critical information at times, but as one begins carrying multiple pocket cards, this speed advantage is lost. There is only a finite space available, and mobile devices are increasingly being tapped to fulfill this role.
In a bid to stay on top of trends, Borm Bruckmeier has translated their Wards 101 Essentials Pocketcard Set, which covers common emergency, internal medicine, and ICU topics, to the iPhone and iPad via a universal iOS app.
The Wards 101 i-pocketcards app is a straight digital conversion of the physical cards. There is a “classic view” available for users to view the cards in their original white coat form. The iPad is naturally better suited to displaying the cards in classic view, while the iPhone version will necessitate cumbersome zooming in and out to achieve a legible image size.
All 10 faces of the pocket card set are present in the app.
Luckily, the app doesn’t stop at just being a glorified pdf version of the original cards. The developers have broken down the information into categories that one can browse in the “table of contents” section. Selecting a section will display the information in a screen-optimized format that eliminates the need for cumbersome zooming, even on an iPhone screen.
While pocketcards are by nature largely not particularly interactive, the developers have tried to increase the functionality of the app by adding buttons to the SLUMS exam, so that one can administer the exam while inputting the scores while the app calculates a total score.
Overall, Wards 101 i-pocketcards is a good digital conversion of the physical set of reference cards. All the critical information found in the physical cards is present and accounted for.
However, the problems that plague the conversion of handbooks to electronic form still exist here. As addressed by us in previous reviews and commentary, these include issues about the relatively small amount of information in these apps compared to the amount of information that can possibly be packed into the digital format.
Other issues include the downward pressure on App Store prices and Apple’s 30% cut on every transaction, affecting every publisher’s bottom line. To the developers’ credit, they have priced the app at $5.99, which is cheaper than what I have seen in stores ($14.99).
The information presented in this app is nice and condensed; I could definitely imagine myself carrying it with me on an internal medicine, emergency or critical care rotation. The choice between the physical or digital version is solely up to personal preference, there are distinct advantages and disadvantages of both.
If in doubt, a visit to a medical bookstore allows one to skim over all the charts, formulae and content contained within the app, and also helps one to decide whether a physical or digital version is best suited to one’s individual needs.
Likes:
- Concise collection of important information needed on the wards
- Priced below that of the physical reference cards
Dislikes:
- While the presented content is very important, its scope is limited to that of the physical reference cards
Price:
- $5.99
Conclusion:
- Wards 101 i-pocketcards is a digital conversion of the physical reference cards; choice of a version will depend on individual preference.