FAIR Health Healthcare Cost Estimator mobile app

How much does it cost to get a total knee replacement? How about receiving treatment for hepatitis C? Health care costs in this country are not standardized, nor are they available to consumers in a transparent, easy-to-use fashion.

The FAIR Health Consumer Cost Lookup website can help patients roughly estimate their health care costs and now there's a mobile app that provides that same information to patients. Patients now have another resource that can help them estimate their potential out-of-pocket payments while discussing treatment and test options with their doctors and dentists during visits.

FAIR Health is a national independent, not-for-profit corporation whose mission is to bring transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through comprehensive data products, consumer resources and support of health services research. FAIR Health uses its database of billions of billed medical and dental services to power an award-winning free website (fairhealthconsumer.org) and mobile application that enables consumers to estimate and plan their medical and dental expenditures. The website also offers clear, unbiased educational articles and videos about the healthcare insurance reimbursement system.

Most pain apps (mobile) are developed without input from doctors

An interesting article in Rheumatology News caught my eye the other day. It was titled, "Most pain apps lack physician input." An evaluation of 222 pain-related smartphone apps showed that many were developed without the input of a health professional, some had inaccurate information, and some of their features weren’t as robust as they could be. "Many of them were giving advice and offering coping strategies, but we don’t know if they’re effective," said Lorraine S. Wallace, Ph.D., who led the study. In addition, the apps could potentially be dangerous for users if the coping strategy – for instance, exercise – isn’t right for them, she said.  Read the full story here.

Smartphone Medication Adherence Apps

Looking to recommend some mobile apps for your patients? The Journal of the American Pharmacists Association has an article titled, "Smartphone medication adherence apps: Potential benefits to patients and providers."

Here are some brief snippets from the abstract:

Practice innovation:  Using smartphone adherence apps represents a novel approach to improving adherence. This readily available technology offers many features that can be designed to help patients and health care providers improve medication-taking behavior.

Results:  160 adherence apps were identified and ranked. These apps were most prevalent for the Android OS. Adherence apps with advanced functionality were more prevalent on the Apple iPhone OS. Among all apps, MyMedSchedule, MyMeds, and RxmindMe rated the highest because of their basic medication reminder features coupled with their enhanced levels of functionality.

J Am Pharm Assoc. 2013;53(2):172-181.

American College of Physicians releases ACP Clinical Guidelines mobile app

Clinical practice guidelines are used by physicians and healthcare professionals when they make treatment decision. The ACP has just released a mobile app that contains ACP guidelines.

Internal medicine physicians and other clinicians can now access the evidence-based clinical recommendations from the American College of Physicians (ACP) through the ACP Clinical Guidelines mobile app.

Available for free on iPhone, iPad, and Android, the ACP Clinical Guidelines app includes recommendations from ACP’s clinical practice guidelines and guidance statements. Users can conveniently access clinical recommendations and rationale, summary tables, algorithms, and high value care advice for all currently active guidelines in an easy-to-read and interactive mobile format.

“The ACP Clinical Guidelines app continues ACP’s goal to improve health care quality by disseminating evidence-based clinical recommendations through innovative web and mobile applications,” said Amir Qaseem, MD, PhD, MHA, FACP, Director, Clinical Policy, ACP. “And the app will help save busy clinicians one of their most valued assets -- time.”

TrialX Wins NCI’s Developer Challenge for Cancer App

Health IT Startup TrialX Wins NCI’s Developer Challenge for Cancer App

TrialX, an NYC based health IT company was declared a winner of a developer challenge organized by the National Cancer Institute for its application, Ask Dory. Ask Dory helps cancer patients find and connect with clinical trials near them effortlessly.

New York, NY, January 25, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Applied Informatics (TrialX), a New York based Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) startup was adjudged as a winner of the developer challenge on "Using Public Data for Cancer Prevention" sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. The challenge was organized by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) of HIT and managed by Health2.0 (see official HHS press release, http://1.usa.gov/AskDory). TrialX won the competition for its innovative application, "Ask Dory" that enables health consumers to find clinical trials near them and connect with trial investigators. The application was presented last week at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2012 in Maui, Hawaii.

"Ask Dory" uses an intelligent entropy based decision tree algorithm to narrow down the possible matches by leading patients through a step-by-step question answering system. “It is designed to be intuitive and easy for patients to use, unlike many other systems that require patients to fill long forms," explained Dr. Chintan Patel, the lead developer of the application.

2011 mHealthcon Conference

The 2011 mHealthcon Conference®: Focused on mobile health apps

The new mHealthcon Mobile Health Conference® is the first healthcare gathering of its kind – an accessible marketplace with a single-minded focused on next-generation mhealth apps.

mHealth Conference on Mobile Apps in Medicine
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 8:30 AM (ET)
New Brunswick, NJ

The conference features C-level speakers, and workshop leaders that will equip industry players with the tools to identify pivotal market opportunities and uncover sustainable mhealth business models.

$100k Challenge to Develop Health Care App

FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES $100,000 DEVELOPER CHALLENGE

Winning software developers will receive cash awards to create apps enabling people to easily access information comparing the quality of care provided by local doctors and hospitals

Princeton, N.J. – The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has announced an Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) $100,000 “app challenge” – a competition among technology developers to create easy-to-use online tools that help consumers find information on the quality of their local physicians and hospitals.

Endomondo Sports Tracker Raises $2.3 Million from SEED Capital

Endomondo Raises $2.3 Million and Reaches Five Million Downloads of Motivating, Fun and Social Fitness App

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – September 26, 2011 – Endomondo Sports Tracker (http://www.endomondo.com), the fitness app that turns the mobile phone into a full-fledged personal trainer and training partner, announced today that it has raised $2.3 million in funding from SEED Capital.

The company also reached the milestone of five million downloads of its fitness app that uses the motivational factors of fun and positive social peer pressure to help users improve their fitness and health.

Endomondo will apply the funding towards increasing staff needs, especially on the development team; expanding its presence in the U.S. by adding an office in the San Francisco Bay area; and creating scalable revenue channels to secure profitability by year end 2012.

iPhone App Relieves Insomnia and Dulls Snoring

SleepPhones introduces iPhone App with soothing sound tracks that induce sleep and dull annoying noises like snoring.

Bellefonte, PA, September 07, 2011 --(PR.com)-- AcousticSheep, LLC has developed a free iPhone soothing sounds app that is the perfect companion for SleepPhones®, the unique headphones designed specifically for falling asleep to music or other sounds.

The app is called “SleepPhones” and is available in the Apple App Store in the Lifestyle category. It offers four different soothing sound tracks designed to lull the SleepPhones user to sleep. The 30 minute tracks play on a loop all night long and include “A Minor Thing” (relaxing piano), “Newport Waves” (ocean waves), “Noise” (white noise), and “Pentatonic Waves” (piano with background sounds). You can listen to it with an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

iPhone app Nexercise rewards users for exercise

Author:  Thuc Huynh, MD

Nexercise Inc. introduces their free iPhone app Nexercise to encourage people to exercise by giving them real-world rewards. The app can track various physical activities from running to yard work, and offers users free and discounted items in an attempt to make users adopt long-term exercise habits.

Users can earn points for the length of their workout as well as other positive physical behaviors. Users can also earn bonus points for certain positive exercise routines like working out with a friend or exercising during a rainy day.

To earn points, the workout length should be at least 15 minutes. The real-world rewards are offered through a lottery system where the more in-app points a user earns, the higher the probability of winning. Users that have achieved higher rankings can avail of much more expensive merchandise.

A mobile health app for Windows Phone 7: TrackMyShots

We don't seem to be seeing many mobile health or medical apps for the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 operating system. There are plenty of apps for iOS and Android. There are even medical apps for BlackBerry. For many years, I was a loyal Windows Mobile user. Now, I'm mainly using Android and iOS.

There's a new app called TrackMyShots. Developed by Linxter, Inc., a software development company in Cooper City, Florida, the app was created to help a family friend with multiple sclerosis, said company CEO and founder Jason Milgram.

A free smartphone app, TrackMyShots, is now available to help ease the log-keeping of patients with multiple sclerosis, diabetes and other conditions requiring frequent injections.

The app eliminates the need for bulky log books by allowing the user to record each injection, track injection sites and monitor adverse reactions. Users can set up an ongoing schedule for their injections and get email alerts when it is time for their next shot.

Learn more here: http://trackmyshots.com

WebLib Launches Free HealthMash iPhone and Android Apps

HealthMash, the advanced semantic health search engine developed by WebLib, is now available as a free application for iPhone and Android users, providing access to more than a million health topics from trusted sources.

Bethesda, MD, July 07, 2011 --(PR.com)-- WebLib LLC (http://weblib.com), a company specializing in search technologies and natural language processing tools, has released new versions of its consumer health search engine HealthMash for users of iPhone and Android mobile phones. These free applications allow users to find relevant health information from a wide variety of trusted medical sources. The apps work as full-scale, portable versions of the HealthMash website.

HealthMash combines universal search and discovery technology with semantic web solutions to find relevant health information about diseases, symptoms, treatments, drugs and alternative medicine approaches, from reliable sources on the Web. HealthMash fuses its own high quality vertical search results with mash-ups of images, videos, news, blogs and tweets from the World Wide Web.

Take Travel Med with you this summer

Travel Med is an application that describes common and uncommon medical issues that can arise before, during, or after traveling. This application was created with the non-medical professional in mind. Travel Med will guide travelers through pre-travel preparation, in-travel emergencies, and post-travel health and medical problems when immediate access to medical care may not be available. Details are provided for travel risks to all countries and continents. Immediate management of common and uncommon illness and injury that might occur while traveling or vacationing is described. Indications, dosing and side effects of commonly used medications are described. Contacts and weblinks for medical resources and travel assistance are provided. Links to government requirements for vaccines, passports, and visas, and World Health Organization and Center for Disease Control sites that describe current health issues within each region and country are provided.

What you’ll learn from Travel Med:

* Where to find the documents, visas, licenses and vaccinations required to travel internationally
* Common diseases in every continent and every country
* How to know which foods and beverages are safe while traveling
* How to sterilize water
* When it is safe for children and pregnant women to travel
* How to PREVENT dangerous illnesses: high altitude sickness, bites & stings from bugs, mosquitoes, snakes, ticks, and animals, hypothermia (cold weather injury), traveler’s diarrhea, diving & decompression illness, malaria, meningitis, heat related illness (e.g. heat stroke), influenzae, SARS, tuberculosis, and a multitude of different types of infections
* Commonly used medication information: Indications, Dosing, Use during Pregnancy and for Children, and Side Effects

More information here.

Munch 5-a-Day

Munch 5-a-Day is a delicious FREE iPhone app which helps you eat more fruit and vegetables, and maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

Munch 5-a-Day helps users build healthy eating habits. Here's how it works:

• Record your daily intake of fruits and vegetables, set personal goals, generate graphs to monitor your progress.
• Share your progress with friends and family to receive extra encouragement and motivation.
• Earn badges for consistently achieving your goals and munching your way towards a healthier lifestyle!

More details here: http://www.meyouhealth.com/munch-5-a-day/

My wife will need this mobile app any day now...

The BabyTime Contraction Timer is an app that helps you time your contractions.

Just tap the start button to begin timing; tap it again to stop. The app records duration and time between each contraction.

Other features:
-Call your provider with one tap
-A GPS map with directions from where you are to the Vanderbilt labor/delivery entrance
-A contact list to notify family and friends
-FAQs for what to do if your water breaks, if you're having false labor, what to bring with you to the hospital, and more

The BabyTime Contraction Timer is by Vanderbilt University. You can find it on the iTunes app store here.

Has Your Doctor Prescribed a Mobile Health App?

There's an interesting conversation over at WEGO Health about physicians who prescribe mobile health apps for patients. The discussion is titled, "Has Your Doctor Prescribed a Mobile Health App?"

Does your doctor know which mobile apps could help you with disease self management? Does your doctor know which mobile apps you should be using? Whether you have migraines or diabetes, perhaps there are mobile apps that can help you manage your health condition.

Physicians and other health care professionals should be familiar with mobile apps that patients may be using. After all, there could be an app that has misleading or incorrect health information.

Medco Pharmacy mobile app

Verizon Wireless and Medco teamed up on a healthcare app.

This announcement of the “Medco Pharmacy mobile app” available on V CAST, is significant as it brings mobile healthcare a step closer to being user friendly.

How many times have you been to the doctor and they ask, what medications are you/your family taking? What is your ID and group number? Are you allergic to any medications? The list goes on. This app has a wealth of information for both the consumer and physician.

One area where it aids is in cost savings. The app recommends generics and also points out medication conflicts.

· More than 20% of Americans are Medco customers
· 500,000 prescriptions are written daily by doctors, that could be cheaper in cost if they go to a generic

Note – this app is available on Verizon Wireless Android and Blackberry devices. It is not available on the iPhone, but Medco says it could be in the future.

ASCO Launches Mobile App for Patient Information in Oncology (Cancer.Net Mobile Application)

ASCO recently launched a mobile app for Apple smart technology (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) based on its patient information website, Cancer.Net. 

The Cancer.Net mobile app will serve as an oncologist-approved mobile companion for patients to stay educated and informed about cancer type(s) and issues of interest, and organize important personal data often needed for doctor's visits.  The Cancer.Net app includes up-to-date guides on 120 types of cancer, with information about treating cancer, managing side effects, managing the cost of care, and living with cancer.  Interactive tools help keep track of questions to ask doctors and record voice answers, save information about prescribed medications, including photos of labels and bottles (on camera-enabled devices), and track the time and severity of symptoms and side effects.

Learn more here.

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.

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).