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Tuesday, 10 November, 2009

The 7 best medical smartphone apps

There’s revolution in the air, and it's called Wi-Fi. Wireless-internet-equipped smartphones like iPhones, BlackBerrys and Palms are more than just new variations on your trusty pager or your cell: smartphones are changing the way some physicians practice.

"Times have changed in the PDA world,” says Dr Paul Arnold, a Toronto emergency physician who used to edit the Medical Palm Review. The difference now? On-the-go internet access via Wi-Fi or 3G networking.

"It definitely has changed the way we do medicine," says Vancouver family medicine resident Jessica Otte. "I can get the information I need right away."

How are these plugged-in doctors using their smartphones in clinical settings to save time and improve patient care? Parkhurst Exchange spoke to clinicians from across Canada and overseas to find the best applications.

1. Epocrates. Without equal among mobile pharmacopeias, and by consensus the most useful app around, Epocrates provides detailed prescribing information at your fingertips. Even though it doesn’t list some Canadian formulations and is missing a few OTC drugs, it puts a library’s-worth of reliable, constantly updated drug information right in your pocket. (www.epocrates.com; all platforms; basic version free, expanded version US$159/year)

Click here to read the rest of this article on the Parkhurst Exchange website.

Image: Osirix

Posted by David Elkins and others at 12:00 AM

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5 comments:

  1. Looking over some of the "Rx R US" ethic of Venture Capital partners ( e.g. Interwest with Epocrates)
    ........versus ..........
    a pure "research the illness" ethic ........
    we see a narrowing in the "scope" of the physician...
    .and a broadening in the "scale" of the pharmaceutical industry.

    These are not "diagnostic tools" at an investigative level .
    These are diagnostic and treatment tools at an informative level .

    The thrust is not discover. The thrust is apply.

    In the TMT executive mix I see there are economists at partnering levels ... a discipline who now have their own "blooming" season of "pop"ular economics as related to business in the paperback world.

    e.g The wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

    paste of review

    If four basic conditions are met, a crowd's "collective intelligence" will produce better outcomes than a small group of experts, Surowiecki says, even if members of the crowd don't know all the facts or choose, individually, to act irrationally. "Wise crowds" need
    (1) diversity of opinion; brings in different information
    (2) independence of members from one another; keeps people from being swayed by a single opinion leader
    (3)decentralization; and
    (4)a good method for aggregating opinions.; people's errors balance each other out; and including all opinions guarantees that the results are "smarter" than if a single expert had been in charge.

    end of review
    ( hmmmmm...could a classroom be a crowd? could a smartphone app be the opposite?)

    Are these "apps" evidence of the broadening of the collective ownership" ( of seelcted information ) movement touted by economist David McMullen?:

    Bright Future: Abundance and Progress in the 21st Century (Paperback)

    excerpt of review:

    Bright Future offers three reasons for being positive about the 21st century:

    1. Human ingenuity and modest growth rates will bring affluence to most of the world by the end of the century.

    2. Environmental catastrophes will continue to not happen. Nature is remarkably resilient. And, as we get richer and smarter we will get better at remedying or adapting to natural adversity.

    3. A switch to collective ownership will become the obvious choice as automation eliminates most of the jobs that are not their own reward. Such a change would unleash the creative energies of the individual and free the economy from the distorting effects of sectional interests. This would be real free enterprise.

    end of review

    [+ note how " ingenuity" has replaced " innovation" as we have surrendered the hope for finding a new way....to accepting creative input on fixing what we already have.

    +note how the environmental message may only be true because of the economic advantage of carbon trading

    + note the recognition of " a job not being it's own reward" and sectional interests being removed is now defined by who the "collaborators" are..... versus interdisciplinary alliances

    Don't you find this " settling"..... unsettling ? :( ]

    As for me I remain a fan of the broad and varied strength of the "learning" process.... not just the "teaching" linkage of a private goal with a ?public interest.
    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for including me in this, Sam. It will be interesting to see how medical education and practice evolves in the context of our increasingly useful second (smartphone) brains.
    ReplyDelete
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