Where are all the Android medical apps?

As Android gains popularity among smartphone users, the health care community is asking: "Where are all the Android medical apps?"  Physicians and medical students rely heavily on apps like Epocrates. We know that Epocrates for Android will launch in "early 2010" but what does that mean? Can a physician or medical student effectively use an Android smartphone while waiting for medical apps to get released? I think the answer is "yes," but it also depends on how heavily you rely on certain apps. For instance, my wife (a primary care physician) depends on Epocrates and she would not be able to practice medicine efficiently if she doesn't have Epocrates and access to drug formulary information. So what are you to do?

Speaking of Epocrates, we know that mobilePDR will also be available for Android, but when? They currently advertise that mobilePDR is available for:

           

There's no doubt that by the end of 2010, we'll see many more apps available on the Android App Store (Market). Can you wait? One of the major drawbacks of being an early adopter is that you may have to wait for some key medical apps. I'm anticipating by the middle of 2010, we'll have so many Android users in the community that you won't be considered an "early adopter" anymore.

HTC Touch Pro2 rated #2 by Consumer Reports

The Verizon Wireless HTC Touch Pro2 is the second most highly rated smartphone this year. You're probably thinking that the Apple iPhone 3GS is #1. You are correct. Well, 2nd place isn't bad for HTC.

The Windows Mobile operating system also got very high ratings for "business" use and beat iPhone, Android, and even BlackBerry. Now something seems a bit strange here, doesn't it? Perhaps we're really seeing some sampling bias here. After all, are we collecting data from business users or consumers? I thought that BlackBerry was ranked #1 among business users. Am I missing something here? Also, are physicians considered business users?

Well, in any case, it's great to see some positive press for the HTC Touch Pro2. I love my device and I think it's great. It's certainly not perfect, but it's a huge improvement over the older Windows Mobile devices. Android is still in early stages, so I'm sure we'll be seeing some significant strides in that OS over the next 12 months.

Palm Pre Didn't Pick Me

It appears that Palm Pre did not pick me to review their upcoming Palm Pre smartphone. They were supposed to notify the reviewers on May 8th and I never received any type of notification. Oh well, I must live on with my current phone (an XV6800) and hope for the best. Hopefully someone in the medical field was chosen to be a Palm Pre reviewer since this is going to be a really popular phone among medical students and physicians.