Friday, January 08, 2010

Where are all the Android medical apps?

As Android gains popularity among smartphone users, the health care community is asking: "Where are all the Android medical apps?"  Physicians and medical students rely heavily on apps like Epocrates. We know that Epocrates for Android will launch in "early 2010" but what does that mean? Can a physician or medical student effectively use an Android smartphone while waiting for medical apps to get released? I think the answer is "yes," but it also depends on how heavily you rely on certain apps. For instance, my wife (a primary care physician) depends on Epocrates and she would not be able to practice medicine efficiently if she doesn't have Epocrates and access to drug formulary information. So what are you to do?

Speaking of Epocrates, we know that mobilePDR will also be available for Android, but when? They currently advertise that mobilePDR is available for:

Apple   Windows Mobile  Palm  Blackberry  Symbian  Android

There's no doubt that by the end of 2010, we'll see many more apps available on the Android App Store (Market). Can you wait? One of the major drawbacks of being an early adopter is that you may have to wait for some key medical apps. I'm anticipating by the middle of 2010, we'll have so many Android users in the community that you won't be considered an "early adopter" anymore.

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