Unbound Medicine and Johns Hopkins Publishing Point-of-Care Resources

This press release came out a few weeks ago. If you're looking for a way to view and access Johns Hopkins Guides on your smartphone, then look to Unbound Medicine.

Unbound™ Platform Used to Create, Update, and Distribute Johns Hopkins Guides

Charlottesville, VA, April 12, 2011 — Unbound Medicine, a leader in knowledge management solutions for healthcare, has been named today by Johns Hopkins University as the official electronic publisher of the web- and mobile-based versions of Johns Hopkins’ highly regarded Antibiotic (ABX), Diabetes, and HIV POC-IT Guides, clinical decision support tools that bring trusted information to healthcare professionals at the point of care.

Read more »

AvidNurse App Provides New Tools for Patient Care

AvidNurse is a new app that provides nurses in all fields of practice with a quick-reference guide to screening recommendations, BMI conversions, pain scales, and medication calculators.

Austin, TX (PRWEB) April 28, 2011

For most working professionals, smartphone technology has become part of daily life. Nurses are no exception, with apps being developed especially for their diagnostic and healthcare information needs.

In 2009, The American Journal of Nursing reported on how nurses in the U.S. use smartphones at work. The most popular uses included prescription drug reference (50%) and clinical decision support (27%). A larger percentage said that they would like to be able to use their smartphone for clinical decision support.

In its recent survey of 1,100 nurses, the Nurse Oncology Education Program (NOEP) found that over 36% use a smartphone. NOEP's new mobile application, AvidNurse, will allow nurses to access nursing education resources and tools via iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. The app is available for $3.99 through iTunes.

Read more »

Smartphone Strategy for Hospitals (webinar)

3 Steps to Get Your Smartphone Strategy Rolling
Voalté webinar series

What would your hospital do with an additional $4 million?

Research shows that the average hospital is at risk of losing $4 million due to poor communication. That’s why smart hospitals are responding quickly by planning for smartphone integration. But it takes more than just the technology to make it successful - it also takes the proper implementation strategy and a change in workflow.

Join Denis Baker, CIO of Sarasota Memorial Hospital, and Melita Howell, Application Architect of Texas Children’s Hospital as they share steps and secrets to successful mobile integrations.

By attending this complimentary webinar, you will:

• Learn the critical steps involved in developing and executing a mobile strategy
• Gain essential tips on how to successfully implement and roll-out smartphone technology
• Learn how to bridge the gap between IT and clinical
• Be armed with various reference documents such as checklists, white papers, and much more

Who should attend?
Healthcare information technology and nursing executives interested in increasing efficiency, streamlining workflow and improving patient care.

Thursday, May 19, 2011
2 p.m. Eastern/1 p.m. Central/12 p.m. Mountain/11 a.m. Pacific

Register here.

Google Docs for Android

If you're an Android smartphone user, you won't want to miss this. You can now get a native Google Docs app for your Android device. At some point, this app will probably get integrated into the Android OS. I'm glad that it's finally here. I use Google Docs all the time for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and more.

Presentations from the 3rd mHealth Networking Conference

Presentations from the 3rd mHealth Networking Conference, held in March in Chicago, are now available for viewing. Topics include:

• The Information Society and Healthcare
• mHealth by and for Women
• The Future of mHealth
• Engaging the Patient with Text, Email, and Social Media
• Helping Patients Make Health Decisions
• Managing Health Information on Mobile Devices 
• And many more 

To view these presentations, visit the mHealth Conference Library. There is an access fee for those who did not register for the 3rd mHealth Networking Conference.

Browsing with blazing 4G speeds

I am sitting at the airport browsing with blazing 4G speeds. When I am using my HTC ThunderBolt on 4G mode, I make sure to carry a spare battery supply. I like having the option to switch between 3G and 4G so that I can conserve battery life.

Eventually, I am sure that we will find a way to improve battery life when we are connected on a 4G network. Until that happens, I will use my external battery charger.

iTriage: symptom checker, doctor finder, medical reference tool

iTriage: built by doctors to help you make better healthcare decisions.

iTriage was created by two emergency room physicians to help people answer health questions such as "What do I have?" and "Where do I go for treatment?".

You can use iTriage as a symptom checker, doctor finder, or as a medical reference tool. iTriage helps you figure out what is ailing you, what type of doctor you should visit, and shows you the closest appropriate healthcare providers to your current location or any location you choose.

Read more »

White iPhone 4--It's real?

Author: Riley Alexander, MD, MBA

The white iPhone 4 has been something of a running joke ever since it was announced last June that it would release alongside the standard black iPhone 4. Well, almost 10 months later, it looks like it's finally going to arrive...or may actually already have in some places.

Now, the most important part of this announcement is that it seems to confirm the rumors circulating over the last couple of weeks that the iPhone 5 will not make it's usual June unveiling and will be pushed back to September. If Apple was actually set to unveil the iPhone 5 at WWDC in June, it is very unlikely they would even go to the trouble to release the white iPhone 4. They don't really want anymore negativity associated with the white iPhone 4.

Read more »

Dr. Joseph Kim quoted in this Philadelphia Inquirer smartphone story

I was at the Health Journalism conference last week and a staff writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer included quotes from our panel discussion in this smartphone story.

The Health Journalism 2011 panel discussion was titled: "Going mobile: The new telemedicine."

The presenters include:
• Mohit Kaushal, M.D., M.B.A., executive vice president of business development and chief strategy officer, West Wireless Institute
• Joseph Kim, M.D., M.P.H., vice president of medical affairs and technology, Medical Communications Media Inc.
• John C. Kairys, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University
• Hemang Patel, market development manager, Microsoft Corp., Healthcare and Life Sciences
• Moderator: Eric Whitney, health reporter, Colorado Public Radio

The Dangers of Texting and Driving

Author: Brittany Chan

Imagine this scenario: You’re driving to meet a friend for lunch in the middle of your busy day. Suddenly, you hear your phone beep from inside your pocket. Traffic is fairly slow, so you dig your phone out. It’s a text from your friend: "Where r u?" You look up at the road; the vehicle in front of you is still a few car lengths ahead. "Coming," you type, stopping to glance up every few seconds. You send the message, drop the phone in your lap, and continue safely on your way.

Except some people aren’t so lucky. They look up, mid-"LOL," to see a pedestrian's panicked eyes right before he hits the windshield. Or hear the frightened screams of the other passengers as the car careens over the median into opposing traffic.

We love technology. We love being connected, we love our smart phones, our emails, our instant communications. It’s easy to think that one text sent on the way to work is relatively harmless and can even save time in our hectic schedules. But texting and driving has become a major public safety issue, and has resulted in many tragic deaths and senseless injuries. Not surprisingly, teens are the most common victims.

Here are a couple unsettling statistics from The National Safety Council (taken from the Cell Phone Crash Estimate Fact Sheet):

- Texting and other cell-phone use (both handheld and hands-free) contributes to 28% of traffic accidents.
- You are 8 to 23 times more likely to get into a crash if you’re text messaging while driving.

Read more »

AT&T blocks the BlackBerry Bridge App

If the BlackBerry Bridge application sounded like a nice option to let you work on your larger PlayBook, then you're out of luck if you're on AT&T. AT&T has blocked the BlackBerry Bridge App.

BlackBerry® Bridge™ mirrors the existing email, PIM and browser apps that are running on your BlackBerry® Smartphone, allowing you to view those apps on the BlackBerry® PlayBook's™ larger display

BlackBerry Bridge isn't really tethering. It will allow you to get online on your PlayBook through your BlackBerry smartphone so that you can access your email and browse the web, but that's because it's mirroring the apps on your smartphone.

Apple iPhone 5 may be coming this September

There are a number of rumors that the Apple iPhone 5 may be coming this September. What will this new iPhone have? A new design? Faster processor? Larger screen? Improved antenna? Higher-resolution camera? Longer battery life?

Right Now Smartphone Apps Offer A Window Of Opportunity For M-Health Service Providers

Source: research2guidance

The potential revenue that could be made in the mobile healthcare app market is just a fraction of the total integrated healthcare market. Service providers within the healthcare market have a window of opportunity with the possibilities that the mobile apps market offers right now.

The benefits of integrated electronic and mobile healthcare solutions are evident. At the moment there is a lot of potential for companies to scale up their services and learn how to adapt to the changing market. But they have to act quickly to seize the moment. In the last few years those solutions either remained as isolated pilots or struggled with all kinds of barriers from healthcare stakeholders, with only a few exceptions.

As it is not clear when integrated solutions will become widely accepted around the globe, more and more e-health and m-health service provides are rethinking their strategy. They are turning away from complex and integrated solutions that need acceptance of all national healthcare stakeholders to more simple patient centric services.

Read more »

Verizon MiFi 4510L 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot

The first 4G Mobile Hotspot on the Verizon network is the MiFi 4510L 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot.

4G is up to 10X Faster than 3G!

Features

• 4G LTE Mobile Broadband and Mobile Broadband capable
• LTE: Typical download speeds of 5–12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2–5 Mbps.
• Connect up to 5 Wi–Fi® enabled devices at one time
• MiFi 4510L does NOT support VZAccess® Manager
• Chipset: MDM9600
• 4G SIM Card compatible
• Slim, Compact size
• Integrated External Status Display
• User–Friendly Web UI: No Software to install
• High performance internal antenna
• Multi–color service state LED
• External Antenna Connector (External antenna sold separately)
• VPN Capability
• Auto–Connect
• Global Data roaming is set to ON by default

Battery Times: Usage–Up to 5hrs.

Apple Sues Samsung

Apple is suing Samsung saying that they copied the iPad, iPod and iPhone with its Galaxy Tab and Galaxy handsets.

Apple's lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court of Northern California, alleges that Samsung copied the look, product design, packaging and user interface of its products, violating its patents and trademarks.

Read more here.

Mobile Startups Showcase at the MIT Museum

If you're in the Boston area, you won't want to miss this Mobile Monday event on May 9:

MoMo Boston May 9: Mobile Startups Showcase at the MIT Museum

Mobile Monday Boston is coming back to the MIT Museum for a night of mobile exhibitions, drinks, snacks, and networking on May 9th. We’ll have dozens of mobile demo booths and multiple cash bars within the museum exhibit halls. Come see the coolest mobile companies and meet new people at the hottest industry.

Date: May 9th, 2011 — 6.30pm to 9:00pm

Location:MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA (Building N51, 265 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge).

Transportation: Red Line Kendall Square. Parking info.

Cost: FREE! Register Here

More information here.

I'm in Philadelphia today speaking at Health Journalism 2011 about mobile health (mHealth)

Today, I'm in Philadelphia speaking at the Health Journalism 2011 conference. I'm on a panel discussion and the title of the session is: "Going mobile: The new telemedicine."

Friday
April 15
4:40 pm EDT

The presenters include:
• Mohit Kaushal, M.D., M.B.A., executive vice president of business development and chief strategy officer, West Wireless Institute
• Joseph Kim, M.D., M.P.H., vice president of medical affairs and technology, Medical Communications Media Inc.
• Hemang Patel, market development manager, Microsoft Corp., Healthcare and Life Sciences
• Moderator: Eric Whitney, health reporter, Colorado Public Radio

Physician Mobile Use Grows 45%; Apple® Dominates Android™ and Blackberry®

Bulletin Healthcare behavioral data indicates that 90% of mobile opens for physicians accessing news briefings occur on iPhone® and iPad®

Reston, Va., April 14, 2011 -- Android devices may have a market-share edge among consumers, but among physicians and other healthcare providers, Apple’s iPhone and iPad still hold a commanding lead over all competing platforms, including Android, RIM® and Palm®, according to a new analysis by Bulletin Healthcare.

The analysis, based on the reading habits of more than 550,000 healthcare providers, including more than 400,000 physicians who subscribe to Bulletin Healthcare’s daily email briefings, focused on mobile device usage between June 1, 2010 and February 28, 2011. Reaching the members of two-dozen leading medical associations each day, with a combined audience of roughly half of the practicing physicians in the U.S., Bulletin Healthcare is in a unique position to gauge how physicians access electronically delivered medical information.

Read more »

The dangers and risks of using mobile health apps

This Friday, I'll be speaking at the Health Journalism 2011 conference about mobile health and I'll be sharing my thoughts about some of the potential dangers and risks of using mobile health apps. Of course, I'll also mention many of the positives, especially as we look into the future.

Given that the current state of mobile apps remains largely unregulated, it should be an interesting discussion. Regulation is coming soon from the FDA since these mobile health devices + apps are often used to "diagnose and treat" medical conditions.

I hope you'll join me at Health Journalism 2011.

T-Mobile 4G Mobile Hotspot now in stores

You can now get the T-Mobile 4G Mobile Hotspot in stores. 

Create your own personal hotspot on the go with the T-Mobile 4G Mobile Hotspot—get high-speed Internet on up to five Wi-Fi devices, using a single mobile broadband connection.

• High-speed Internet for up to 5 Wi-Fi devices (gaming consoles, laptops, more)
•Compact & light weight for easy portability
• 4G-capable for blazing-fast speeds on America’s Largest 4G Network™

T-Mobile’s HSPA+ 4G network not available everywhere.

Three Pioneering Projects Win Coveted Vodafone And mHealth Alliance Wireless Innovation Awards

$650,000 Competition Recognizes Projects with Most Potential to Solve Critical Global Challenges

WALNUT CREEK, CA (April 12, 2011) –The Vodafone Americas Foundation and mHealth Alliance today announced the winners of the third annual Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project™ and second annual mHealth Alliance Award. The winning projects include a device to diagnose eye disorders, a wireless system that identifies high-risk pregnancies, and a solar-powered apparatus to monitor patients’ medication and relay the information to their local health workers. The projects will be awarded $650,000 in cash and prizes to further develop their projects for implementation and adoption. Team members from the winning projects will accept their awards together at the Global Philanthropy Forum conference in Redwood City, CA on April 14, 2011.

“It is heartening to see that the caliber of entries continues to grow for the Wireless Innovation Project,” said Peter Barry, President, Vodafone Americas Foundation. “The entries for this year’s competition were very inspiring and extremely competitive.”

Read more »

Extend battery life on the HTC ThunderBolt by switching to 3G (disable 4G LTE)

For the past few weeks, I've been using my HTC ThunderBolt on 3G mode. Disabling 4G LTE and staying on 3G allows me to use the phone call day on a single battery charge (on a standard battery). If you're struggling to keep your ThunderBolt charged up, consider using the "LTE On/Off" app to disable 4G. I don't generally require 4G speeds, but it's nice to occasionally switch the 4G on so that I can download a 50 MB file in just a few seconds. 

I'll be speaking at Health Journalism 2011 about mobile health

This Friday, I'll be speaking at the Health Journalism 2011 conference in Philadelphia, PA. 

The title of the session is: "Going mobile: The new telemedicine."
Friday
April 15 at 4:40 pm

The presenters include:
• Mohit Kaushal, M.D., M.B.A., executive vice president of business development and chief strategy officer, West Wireless Institute
• Joseph Kim, M.D., M.P.H., vice president of medical affairs and technology, Medical Communications Media Inc.
• Hemang Patel, market development manager, Microsoft Corp., Healthcare and Life Sciences
• Moderator: Eric Whitney, health reporter, Colorado Public Radio

I look forward to seeing you there as we discuss mobile health and telemedicine. More information about the conference can be found here.

Simultaneous Release of Medical Research with a Mobile Medical App

April 11, 2011 – Understanding the probability of needing dialysis or a transplant for someone with kidney disease is critical for both patients and their doctors. A powerful predictive model that can help determine this risk has been presented at the World Congress of Nephrology today by Dr. Navdeep Tangri, a physician and researcher from Tufts Medical Center. While most research slowly becomes known to the world medical community over a period of months to years, Tangri is collaborating with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and mobile medical app developer QxMD to enhance knowledge translation and get health care providers using his research right from the first day of presentation.

Designed to coincide with the 11AM PST research presentation at the 2011 World Congress of Nephrology, JAMA has published his article online and QxMD has added his predictive model to medical calculator app “Calculate by QxMD” (http://qx.md/calculate). The article will be online and the mobile app is available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android and BlackBerry.

Read more »

Top mobile apps for health IT students and professionals

Healthcare IT News has a story about the top mobile apps for health IT students and professionals. They interviewed Hertencia Bowe, the national health information management program coordinator for Rasmussen College about mobile apps that can help health IT professionals be "more knowledgeable, prepared and organized when they're on the job."

Here are the top 10 apps that she recommends for health IT students and professionals:

1. Drug Flashcards
2. New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)
3. Awesome Note
4. ToodleDo
5. Living Medical Textbooks
6. Dragon Medical Search
7. mSecure Password Manager
8. Google Fusion Tables and health data
9. ICD 9
10. Skyscape Medical Resources 

To read the entire story on Healthcare IT News, click here.

Personally, I think this is a fair list, but it doesn't include some of the most popular medical apps like Epocrates or Medscape. Then again, health IT students and professionals may not need to access clinical apps as frequently as medical professionals. However, if you're doing to include apps like NEJM and Skyscape in this list, then we shouldn't forget about others like Epocrates, Medscape, Unbound Medicine, PEPID, etc. I realize that it's difficult to limit a list of "top apps" to 10 apps when some of these apps also overlap in terms of content and functionality. 

I was also a bit surprised that Healthcare IT News published this story and this list of apps when it doesn't even include their own Healthcare IT News app! (I suppose they didn't want the story to appear to be too self-promoting. You could include the Fierce Markets app to provide some fair balance).

Physician Mobile Use Grows 45%; Apple Dominates Android and Blackberry

Bulletin Healthcare behavioral data indicates that 90% of mobile opens for physicians accessing news briefings occur on iPhone® and iPad®

Reston, Va., April 6, 2011 -- Android devices may have a market-share edge among consumers, but among physicians and other healthcare providers, Apple’s iPhone and iPad still hold a commanding lead over all competing platforms, including Android, RIM® and Palm®, according to a new analysis by Bulletin Healthcare.

The analysis, based on the reading habits of more than 550,000 healthcare providers, including more than 400,000 physicians who subscribe to Bulletin Healthcare’s daily email briefings, focused on mobile device usage between June 1, 2010 and February 28, 2011. Reaching the members of two-dozen leading medical associations each day, with a combined audience of roughly half of the practicing physicians in the U.S., Bulletin Healthcare is in a unique position to gauge how physicians access electronically delivered medical information.

Read more »

Mobile Health 2011 Conference at Stanford University

Mobile Health 2011 Conference
May 4-5, 2011 - Stanford University

Come learn how mobile technologies are improving the health of everyday people. The emphasis is what works in mobile health to change behavior, right now.

Executive Director: BJ Fogg, Ph.D., Stanford
Managing Director: Tanna Drapkin, Stanford
Co-managing Director: Diane Brodalski, CDC

Scheduled speakers include:

Jennifer Dyer, M.D., M.P.H., Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Ida Sim, M.D., Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco

More information here.

Epocrates Essentials for Android (video demo)

Here's a video that demos Epocrates Essentials on an Android smartphone:



Epocrates Essentials is our most popular drug and disease reference with content and features, including disease information, pill and disease images, over-the-counter drug and alternative medicine databases, and a lab interpretation reference.

Read more »

Free cardiology mobile apps from Skyscape at #ACC11

Make sure to visit the Skyscape Mobile App Center at the ACC Central Booth. Skyscape in collaboration with American College of Cardiology is offering a 3 month subscription to a select collection of cardiology resources.

Bonus Cardiology package* includes:

a. DrDrugs(r): Drug Guide for Physicians
b. The Washington Manual Cardiology Subspecialty Consult
c. Cochrane Reviews in Heart
d. Cochrane Reviews in Vascular Disease
e. The Johns Hopkins POC-IT(r) ABX Guide
f. Labs 360
g. Archimedes 360

You can get some free cardiology mobile apps by visiting: www.skyscape.com/acc11

Free Echocardiography Atlas app from Epocrates at #ACC11

I'm here at ACC 2011 and it's great to see the attention mobile apps are receiving at the ACC Central booth. I saw Epocrates, Skyscape, and other mobile app providers speaking with cardiologists about mobile apps.

This week, Epocrates is giving away the Echocardiography Atlas for free. You can download this app for free from April 2nd to April 10th. This app is available for iOS.

If you swing by the ACC Central booth, you can pick up a free 1-year subscription to Epocrates Essentials for cardiologists.

Medscape App for iPhone® and iPod® touch: March 2011 updates

Medscape App for iPhone® and iPod® touch gets updated March 2011

Tables & Protocols Updates >
Now 100+ widely-used tables & protocols

21 new tables added, including:
• NIH Stroke Scale, Karnofsky Performance Status Scale, Modified Rankin Scale, Glasgow Coma Scale, and more.

10 new infectious disease treatment tables added, including:
• Empiric and organism-specific therapy for influenza, bacterial meningitis, pericarditis, and more.

Read more »

Switch between 3G (EVDO) and 4G (LTE) on the HTC ThunderBolt

It would be nice if the HTC ThunderBolt had a widget or an app that would easily let you toggle between 3G and 4G. When I'm on 4G, my battery drains really quickly, even if I'm not actively using the phone. I could stop all my background processes, but that doesn't seem like it's the best option for me.

Here's how you can manually switch between 3G and 4G on your ThunderBolt:

Open the phone dialer
Dial: *#*#4636#*#*
You'll see a menu titled "Testing"
Go to "Phone information"
Scroll down until you see "CDMA + LTE/EvDo auto"

To set your ThunderBolt to stay on 3G, select: "CDMA auto (PRL)"

Then, when you want to go back to 4G, select: "CDMA + LTE/EvDo auto"

Read more »

Epocrates updated for Android

If you're using Epocrates on your Android powered smartphone, make sure to update your app. You'll find a host of new and updated features.

Epocrates Essentials provides:

• Drug monographs, health plan formularies
• Drug interaction checker, medical calculators
• Pill identifier, pill pictures
• Content updates and medical news
• Hundreds of brand name OTC drug products
• Infectious disease treatment guide
• Over 600 alternative (herbal) medicines
• Hundreds of disease monographs
• High-resolution disease images
• Hundreds of diagnostic and laboratory tests

To learn more about Epocrates for Android, click here.