New Epocrates Bugs + Drugs mobile app

Download the new Epocrates Bugs + Drugs to find out. This free app is an antimicrobial susceptibility reference that provides geolocated bacterial resistance data to support your clinical decision-making at the point of care. Bugs + Drugs helps clinicians identify superbugs in areas their patients live because it incorporates lab data from more than 15 million patient records sourced from athenahealth's cloud-based EHR.

The CDC recently reported that every year more than 2 million people in the U.S. contract infections that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die as a result. Epocrates and athenahealth understand the growing superbug threat and developed Bugs + Drugs to equip clinicians with the information they need to:

• Identify superbugs in the area their patients live
• Select an antibiotic based on bacterial susceptibility
• Prescribe with confidence using content from the Epocrates Rx® application

Quickly find bacteria observed in your area 

One-tap access to a visual listing of bacteria observed in your location, whenever you need it. For added specificity, filter your listing by specimen type (i.e., urine, blood, skin) or change your location to a specific zip code.

TremorCheck - an iPhone app that measures the strength and frequency of tremors

Here's a novel iPhone app that may be useful if you're evaluating a patient who has a tremor:

TremorCheck
By DocCheck Medical Services GmbH

TremorCheck applies a clinically and scientifically proven method to measure and analyze human shaking, the so-called tremor. Measurements are made with the iPhone which has a very sensible 3-dimensional sensor measuring acceleration, recording the values of all three directions in space.

TremorCheck calculates a number of values from the measured data:

• Dominant frequencies in Hertz: Number of vibration of the hands per second
• Performance / strength in mWatt: The strength of the shaking
• Amplitude: The maximum deviation of the tremor
• Synchronization: "Steepness" of the peak of dominant frequency

FDA issues an inquiry letter to mobile medical app uChek urine analyzer

uChek by Biosense Technologies Pvt is a mobile medical app for the iPhone. Originally designed and used in India, Dr Abhishek Sen from the Biosense team said, "If it can work in India, it can work anywhere"

uChek urine analyzer is designed to use the iPhone camera to read urine test strips and analyze the urine for glucose, urobilinogen, pH, ketone, blood, protein, bilirubin, nitrite, leukocyte, and specific gravity.

According to the FDA: The uChek Urine analyzer appears to meet the definition of a device as that term is defined in section 201(h) of the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act.

The FDA recently issued an inquiry letter to Biosense Technologies Private Limited, saying:

We have conducted a review of our files, and have been unable to identify any Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance number for the uChek Urine analyzer. We request that you provide us with the FDA clearance number for the uChek Urine analyzer. If you do not believe that you are required to obtain FDA clearance for the uChek Urine analyzer, please provide us with the basis for that determination. Please provide the requested information within thirty (30) business days.

This may be the first example of the FDA issuing a letter regarding a mobile medical app/device. Will we see other examples in 2013?

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.”

SNOMED browser for iPhone

Familiar with SNOMED? Then you may want to get this app for your iPhone:

Dataline Launches New iPhone App for Healthcare Professionals

Dataline Software is proud to announce version 2.0 of Snomobile, the first SNOMED browser for handheld devices. The new version released in January introduces support for the NHS UK extensions, plus enhancement to its search engine.

Brighton, United Kingdom, January 24, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Dataline Software is proud to announce version 2.0 of Snomobile, the first SNOMED browser for handheld devices. This innovative iPhone/iPad App is designed to aid healthcare professionals find and organise SNOMED and CTV3 codes - and provides a variety of techniques to search, sort and retrieve clinical terms. The new version released in January introduces support for the NHS UK extensions, plus enhancement to its search engine.

SNOMED Clinical Terms (CT) is the most comprehensive, multilingual clinical healthcare terminology in the world. It enables Electronic Healthcare Record software to record clinical information in a standard format that allows meaning-based retrieval - providing effective access to information for decision support and consistent reporting and analysis. This facilitates better communication, leading to improvements in the quality of care.

Mayo Clinic released the "Anxiety Coach" mobile app

Mayo Clinic released the "Anxiety Coach" mobile app. Here's the description from iTunes:

Mayo Clinic Anxiety Coach is a comprehensive self-help tool for reducing a wide variety of fears and worries from extreme shyness to obsessions and compulsions. Anxiety Coach helps you make a list of feared activities and then guides you through mastering them one by one. Through this experience you can increase your confidence as you become less fearful and worried.

Anxiety Coach was developed by two clinical psychologists recognized as experts in the treatment of anxiety disorders. Dr. Stephen P. H. Whiteside is the director of the Pediatric Anxiety Disorders Program at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Jonathan Abramowitz is an internationally known expert on adult anxiety disorders at the University of North Carolina.

The strategies used in Anxiety Coach are based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the most effective psychotherapy for fears and worries. In CBT people increase their confidence by gradually confronting situations that they have avoided out of fear. Research has demonstrated that CBT is more effective for anxiety than other approaches that rely on teaching people to relax.

With Mayo Clinic Anxiety Coach you can:
•Take a short self-test to measure the severity of your fears and worries
•Make a personal plan to target your individual fears and worries
•Browse a library of over 500 activities that other people have found help to master a wide variety of fears and worries including:
osocial anxiety, obsessions and compulsions, specific fears, separation anxiety, panic attacks, trauma related anxiety, and general worries.
•Track your anxiety while you’re challenging your fears and worries in real-life situations
•Record and view your progress
•Learn about when anxiety becomes a problem and how to seek treatment

Learn more about this app here.

This mobile app measures your heart rate by looking at you

Research from the MIT Media Lab has led to this mobile app called Cardiio - Touchless Camera Pulse Sensor.

Cardiio uses your phone’s front camera to analyze the amount of light reflected off of your face; it accurately measures your pulse without any extra hardware. Just hold your phone and look straight into the camera to get your reading, then check out the dashboard to see how it changes over time.

You can learn more here.

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.

The popHealth Tool Development Challenge

Want to create an app and enter a contest by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology? Build something for popHealth.

Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, eligible health care professionals and hospitals can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments when they adopt certified EHR technology and use it to achieve specified objectives. These "Meaningful Use" objectives include measureable benchmarks providers must meet to qualify for the incentive payments. popHealth is an open source software service developed under the guidance of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) that automates the reporting of the Stage 1 Meaningful Use clinical quality measures. popHealth integrates with a healthcare provider’s electronic health record (EHR) system using continuity of care records. It streamlines the automated generation of summary quality measure reports on the provider’s patient population.

AFib Educator

To help healthcare providers explain AFib to patients, their families and caregivers, AF Stat has developed the AFib Educator.

This iPhone app and desktop widget provides healthcare professionals with an interactive resource to help illustrate how AFib can affect the heart; visually demonstrate the symptoms, risks and management strategies of atrial fibrillation (AFib); and where patients can learn more.

New features

• AFib management animations: demonstrates the effects of different management strategies for a heart in AFib, including:
oRate control
oRhythm control
• AFib risk animations:
oStroke risk animation:shows an AFib-related stroke to illustrate that a blood clot can travel from the heart to the brain as a result of AFib
oRemodeling process animation: depicts the remodeling process,
which is a result of untreated AFib that affects the shape and size of the heart

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

Lunch with one of the founders of MediBabble Translator

Earlier this month, I was at Stanford for the Medicine 2.0 conference and I had the opportunity to have lunch with Dr. Alex Blau, one of the founders of MediBabble Translator. He's currently working for Doximity as a medical director, but he's also keeping himself busy with MediBabble Translator.

MediBabble is a free, professional-grade medical translation tool. MediBabble is a robust history-taking and examination application designed to improve the safety, efficiency, and overall quality of care for non-English speaking patients.

MediBabble Translator was featured in this UCSF news story.

The following is a short video where UCSF interviewed the founders of MediBabble:

UpToDate® for iPhone® now available

UpToDate for iPhone is now available in the United States.

This new App, which you can download FREE from the App Store or through iTunes®, allows individual subscribers to access UpToDate content quickly and easily on an iPhone, iPod® touch or iPad® over Wifi or a 3G connection.

The offline version of UpToDate for iPhone (content will reside entirely on your device) is coming soon. The current version is not optimized for the large screen of an iPad, but that's coming soon as well.

So, when's the Android version of UpToDate coming?

MD-IT Releases Android App for Physicians

MD-IT’s new Android app for the Google operating system provides efficiency and accuracy for physician documentation and improves on previous mobile applications by offering the full Patient Chart View (PCV) for MD-IT’s EMR users.

Boulder, CO, September 06, 2011 --(PR.com)-- MD-IT, the leading provider of medical documentation software and service to ambulatory clinics and physician groups, announced today the release of MD-IT iConnect for the Android operating system, enabling smartphone dictation, direct access to the MD‑IT Platform, and a new feature that allows MD-IT’s EMR users to view a patient’s entire longitudinal history – right from their mobile device. Available immediately through Google’s Android Market, the free application allows physicians to join the mHealth revolution by enabling smartphone dictation with a direct schedule interface for quick and accurate clinical documentation.

Free iPhone App for Speech Language Pathologists

Virtual Speech Center Inc. Releases a Free iPhone Application for Speech Language Pathologists

Burbank, CA, August 11, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Virtual Speech Center Inc., the provider of online speech therapy (telepractice), announced today the release of Quick Artic, an articulation iPhone application available for free download on Apple’s iTunes App store.

Quick Artic is a free IPhone application for Speech Language Pathologists which contains 566 images tagged with titles and categorized by "phonemes." This easy to use application features a scoring utility which keeps track of the correct and incorrect answers. Quick Artic automatically calculates the score.
The application includes ten most common phonemes in all positions of words. It can be used in speech language therapy or for quick articulation screening.

ResolutionMD Mobile

Back in May, ResolutionMD Mobile was featured on CNN. They recently updated their app in the iTunes App Store:

ResolutionMD Mobile is the only product that delivers anytime, anywhere full-functionality advanced visualization of medical images to your mobile device. Its advanced client-server architecture doesn't require DICOM image data or confidential patient information to be retained on the device, providing clinicians instant access and eliminating data security concerns.

Ubiquitous access to 2D, 3D and MIP/MPR viewing of CT and MR images make ResolutionMD Mobile uniquely suited to deliver acute telemedicine care. Support for both Wi-Fi and 3G allows for cost-effective delivery of world-class care to even the most remote patient populations.

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

MobileDDx™ - Differential Diagnosis Tool

MobileDDx™ - Differential Diagnosis Tool

Special offer: For a limited time, get the MobileDDx Differential Diagnosis Tool for only $9.95 (a $19.95 value!)

With MobileDDx™ you can choose to explore topics by organ system, symptoms or diseases only, or search across all topics. For example, if you wish to review the causes of a patient's chief complaint, simply select the symptom or sign from the main index. If you have made a diagnosis and wonder what other disorders to consider, select your diagnosis from the list to see its differential diagnoses.

Includes over 1,000 medicine and surgery differential diagnoses derived from the most trusted Current Lange series.

And only with Skyscape, any MobileDDx™ differential diagnoses topic can be quickly and easily cross-indexed to related drug, disease or diagnostic topics across your entire mobile reference library!

Learn more here.

Your iPhone® is Now Your Pager

OnPage™ is a pager and priority messaging application for your iPhone® or iPad®. It combines the simplicity and urgency of a conventional pager with the power and functionality of an iPhone. Users can receive priority messages and respond securely and reliably. Currently, the application is commonly used by Healthcare professionals and First Responders worldwide.

· Hosted iPhone app instead of bulky pager device
· One device for everything; voice, email, pager
· No lost messages
· Audit trails with delivery & read confirmation
· Integration with exiting pager consoles
· Privacy of individualized OnPage ID – Your OnPage ID is your pager number
· Group broadcasting
· No servers or IT involvement
· Guaranteed lowest cost

CPT® E/M Quick Reference App

CPT® E/M Quick Reference—now available for the Apple iPhone®, iPad® and iPod Touch®

Fast. Easy. Reliable. This on-the-go reference guide helps you easily determine the appropriate CPT Evaluation and Management (E/M) billing codes. Featuring both decision-tree logic and quick search options, this critical app allows you to digitally track the codes you select and then email them anywhere.

This app provides suggested codes. Final code selection remains the full responsibility of the individual user.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires OS version 4.0 or later

Find it in the App Store.