Sunshine Act CMS Open Payments Mobile App for Physicians

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is providing a free mobile app to help physicians keep track of, store, and view financial payments and other transfers of value from applicable manufacturers of covered drugs, devices, biologicals, or medical supplies to physicians, as defined by the Physician Payment Sunshine Act and its implementing regulations.

Learn more here.

PubMed search for "smartphone"

A few years ago, a PubMed search for "smartphone" would have yielded very few results. Today, a search on PubMed for "smartphone" yields over 400 results with the oldest reference being from 2005. Were you a smartphone user in 2005? Maybe you were still using a PDA.

Remember that the Apple iPhone was introduced in 2007 and that disruptive technology changed the world of smartphones and mobile computing. A PubMed search for "iPhone" currently results in over 170 publications.

Here are some of the more recent PubMed articles that will show up if you perform a search for "smartphone." The first 2 publications explore the diagnostic inaccuracy (not accuracy, but inaccuracy) of mobile apps that are designed to detect melanoma.

Diagnostic inaccuracy of smartphone applications for melanoma detection-reply.
Wolf JA, Ferris LK.
JAMA Dermatol. 2013 Jul 1;149(7):885. doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2013.4337.

Diagnostic inaccuracy of smartphone applications for melanoma detection: representative lesion sets and the role for adjunctive technologies.
Stoecker WV, Rader RK, Halpern A.
JAMA Dermatol. 2013 Jul 1;149(7):884. doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2013.4334.

Development of a Network RTK Positioning and Gravity-Surveying Application with Gravity Correction Using a Smartphone.
Kim J, Lee Y, Cha S, Choi C, Lee S.
Sensors (Basel). 2013 Jul 12;13(7):8879-94. doi: 10.3390/s130708879.

Development and feasibility testing of a smart phone based attentive eating intervention.
Robinson E, Higgs S, Daley AJ, Jolly K, Lycett D, Lewis A, Aveyard P.
BMC Public Health. 2013 Jul 9;13(1):639.

Happtique Health App Certification Program (HACP)

If your medical mobile app certified? What does it mean to have certified mobile health apps?

The Happtique Health App Certification Program (HACP) is a voluntary program designed to help healthcare providers and consumers easily identify medical, health and fitness apps that deliver credible content, contain safeguards for user data, and function as described. HACP evaluates apps against a set of standards and associated performance requirements (HACP Standards) that focus on key areas.

Earlier this year, the former CEO of Happtique testified in front of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on the regulation of the mobile health (mHealth) application and addressed questions relating to the regulation of the rapidly-growing mobile health market. The hearing, “Health Information Technologies: Harnessing Wireless Innovation,” is the first of three hearings on health information technology scheduled for this week by various Energy and Commerce Subcommittees.

You can learn more about the  Happtique Health App Certification Program (HACP) and submit your mobile app here.

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.

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.”