Calculate (Medical Calculator) by QxMD updated

Calculate (Medical Calculator) by QxMD for iPhone has been updated.

1. Management of Peritoneal Dialysis

As the US government struggles to fund health care at current levels, more attention is being paid to the cost of dialysis services. Home peritoneal dialysis (PD) is recognized as an alternative to hemodialysis that provides excellent patient outcomes, promotes patient independence and does so at remarkably lower costs than hemodialysis. It has recently been estimated that US dialysis expenditures could be cut by >$1 Billion over 5 years simply by increasing the percentage of dialysis patients receiving PD from 8% to 15%.

As the trend to support home peritoneal dialysis continues, physicians and other health care providers will need point-of-care educational resources to support their practice.

The updated version of 'Calculate by QxMD' provides a robust module to support peritoneal dialysis practice. Content includes:

• Access Care and Complications Manual including detailed content on management of PD catethers and infectious peritonitis
• PD Prescription Guide with calculator to assist in determining the PD prescription and extensive manual to learn principles behind PD dose, adequacy and modelling.
• Rapid Access to Clinical Practice Guidelines including CSN PD Adequacy Guidelines and Recommendations 2011, ISPD PD-Related Infections Recommendations 2010 and ISPD Guidelines for Peritoneal Access
• Quick Assessment of PD Candidacy using the MATCH-D tool

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.

Top 5 Android Medical Apps

If you're using an Android smartphone, then you've probably discovered that the list of professional medical apps is relatively short compared to the iPhone, Windows Mobile, and even BlackBerry. This trend will change dramatically this year as more medical app developers and publishers release medical apps for Android.

Here's my current list of "top 5Android medical apps" (this list will probably change in a few months):

1. Epocrates (now available for Android!)
2. UpToDate (via mobile web browser)
3. QuantiaMD (you'll have to try it. it's a great app that provides education and other resources)
4. Skyscape Android Reader (plus, the entire list of books and references)
5. Unbound Medicine (plus, the entire list of books and references) 

When it comes to specific books and references, I would suggest the following:

• 5-Minute Clinical Consult
• Davis's Drug Guide 
• Taber's Medical Dictionary
• Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests 

I realize that we're going to see many new medical apps arriving in the next few months, so stay tuned and make sure to follow this blog for the latest updates. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list, since there is no way I could possibly highlight all the medical Android apps out there (like Lexi-Comp, PEPID, Mediquation, BEIKS Medical Dictionary, and all the other medical Android apps that are being developed). We'll have to revisit this list in a few months to see how the landscape has changed.

Finally, please remember that this is simply my personal "top 5" list based on my personal use experience. This list is likely to change over the next few months as apps evolve and as I try new and different apps. If you're currently developing a medical app for Android and you'd like me to review your app, please make sure to contact me.

Top free medical apps for Android in 2009

This year, we saw Android emerge as a leading smartphone OS. In 2010, we'll see Android begin to dominate the smartphone marketplace (especially among health care professionals such as physicians, medical students, pharmacists, and nurses).

Let me list some of the top free Android medical apps for 2009 and then list my prediction for 2010. Here's the current list for 2009:

• Skyscape Reader: includes RxDrugs, Outlines in Clinical Medicine (OCM), and the Archimedes set of medical calculators.
• QxMD (pregnancy wheel and several different medical calculators)
• QuantiaMD (medical content, CME, medical challenges, and more)
• Mobile MerckMedicus (powered by Unbound Medicine)
• AgileMedCalc (several different medical calculators)

In 2010, you can expect this list to include some additional free resources such as:

• Epocrates
• MobilePDR
• WebMD/Medscape
• Medical encyclopedias
• Medical calculators
• Drug guides
  
• and many more!

So, are you excited about Android? I hope to see many electronic health record (EHR) vendors creating mobile apps for Android. The Apple iPhone continues to gain popularity among medical professionals, but Android will be right up there next to the iPhone in 2010 once we see a larger supply of medical apps for Android. As more medical students and physicians create medical apps for Android, we'll see growing excitement about this OS within the medical community.

Learning how to read ECGs (or EKGs) using the iPhone or iPod touch

When I was a medical student, it was difficult to find a great pocket resource that could help medical students with some of the basics of reading an ECG. Now, the Apple iPhone or iPod touch has become a great resource for students and residents who wish to learn how to read an ECG. There are several great utilities such as Instant ECG by iAnesthesia and the ECG Guide by QxMD. You can find these in the App store on iTunes (they're currently some of the top paid medical apps). Plus, you can pull up ECG images from the Internet.

I'd love to go through medical school again and compare my personal experience with today's modern experience. Students have access to some great multimedia resources literally at their fingertips.

Medical software for the BlackBerry

There are a growing number of medical software solutions for the BlackBerry. Here's a list to get you started:

• Epocrates
  
• Skyscape (they offer a suite a products)
• USBMIS (Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopoeia, Sanford Guide)
  
• mobile MPR (Monthly Prescribing Reference)
  
• Unbound Medicine (like Skyscape, they offer a suite a products)
• PEPID
• Up to Date (via mobile web browser)
• QxMD
• mobilePDR (coming "back" soon)

This is a growing list (and this isn't a comprehensive list either). I simply wanted to highlight some of the more popular options that are out there. Navigation is often quite limited if you don't have a touch screen on your device, regardless of your operating system. The BlackBerry Storm 2 should be coming out soon (and may appear on more networks if rumors are true).