Medical Apps for The iPhone

Patient Tracker - helps health care providers track information about their patients

BlackBag - view the latest medical news, journal summaries, conference coverage in text, video, or podcast forms

Swine Flu Tracker - app that maintains statistics of H1N1 cases, drawing data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

uHear - screen for hearing loss via a questionnaire or tests that evaluate for hearing sensitivity and the ability to detect speech in noise

Symptom Checker - developed by the Mayo Clinic, this app reviews reported symptoms and guides the user on how to perform self-care or when to seek additional care

One of the most useful and used features of the smartphone in health care is the ability to consult a wealth of knowledge in the palm of your hand. There are numerous free and commercial resources available.

Epocrates Essentials - reference of drugs, diseases, and diagnostic tests

Epocrates Rx - free portable reference of over 3000 pharmaceutical drugs. This is one of the most popular medical references for the iPhone and similar smartphone devices.

UMMS Medical Encyclopedia - medical reference with over 50,000 pages of content from the University of Maryland Medical System

Medscape - associated with its eponymous website, this app contains a database of 6,000 generic and brand name drugs, news feed from medscape.com, CME/CE activities, and a WebMD-linked directory of 400,000 physicians, 57,000 pharmacies, and 6,000 hospitals in the US

Normal Lab Values - displays normal laboratory values to help medical professionals interpret test results

Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests - reference for the selection and interpretation of more than 350 laboratory, imaging, drug monitoring, and microbiology tests

Vaccines - quick access reference of the immunization schedules recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

ICD9 Consult - rapidly search the ICD9-CM diagnosis and procedure codes with all corresponding subcodes and descriptions.

ICDMeister - ICD-9 coding tool

- iOncolex - Information about cancers for patients and their families. The content is derived from Norway's central knowledge center for the treatment of cancer.

Mediquations - medical calculator with 211 formulas and scores

MediMath - 133 medical calculators and scoring tools in one app

Medical Calculator - iPhone and iPod touch app that helps doctors and nurses compute useful formulas and equations

Lab Unit Converter - calculator that converts laboratory values between US and SI (Système International) units

Perfect OB Wheel - perform similar calculations on the iPhone as you would with the traditional pregnancy wheel, such as the estimated due date (EDD), gestational age, and estimated date of conception.

The ECG Guide - learn or review various ECG rhythms

Learn CPR - a free training app to learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), developed at the University of Washington

Pocket First Aid & CPR - comprehensive and up-to-date guidelines for first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from the American Heart Association (AHA)

Procedures: Hospital Collection - detailed step-by-step instructions of 15 common inpatient procedures, accompanied by illustrations, videos, and radiographs.

OsiriX - viewer software for DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) images with modalities, such as PET, CT, MR, and US

Airstrip Imaging - remote access to PACS images with the ability to scroll, zoom, rotate, review, and annotate images

Jaundice - helps clinicians apply the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines for the management of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia

Airstrip OB - for monitoring of obstetrics patients, this app permits the user to receive patient data and strip readings from the maternal tocometer and fetal heart monitor

Safe OR - surgical safety checklist for use prior to each operation

Sedation - quick access reference of procedural sedation and analgesia

RSI - quick access reference of the rapid sequence intubation (RSI) procedure

Case Logs - designed for anesthesiologists and anesthetists for tracking cases

PubSearch - a simple user interface to search the PubMed database

MedSpeak - written and audio recordings of over 3300 phrases for communication with the Mandarin or Cantonese patient

Airstrip Critical Care - remotely receive ICU monitor readings, such as vital signs, end-tidal CO2, ventilator pressures, and associated waveform data

Airstrip Cardiology - remotely access vital signs, telemetry strips, EKG tracings, ventilator pressures, and associated waveform data

Airstrip Laboratory - access laboratory results and patient vital signs

soundAMP - use the iPhone as a hearing aid

PPA - mobile app to aid users find resources for assistance in prescription payments, as well as locating nearby free health care clinics

The thick-and-heavy Palm Treo had always been quite cumbersome to carry among my pocketfuls of paper and equipment. With the rising prevalence of computers in the hospitals and clinics, I eventually decided to ditch it for my older, but razor-thin Motorola RAZR (pun intended). If I needed to look up the sensitivity of the expectorated sputum in detecting PCP or read more about polymyalgia rheumatica, a computer was but a few steps away.

However, during my few years sans a PDA, I began to realize how valuable it actually was for increased productivity and efficiency on the wards. While waiting for the elevator, I could read more on the management of inflammatory bowel disease. During rounds or while discussing cases, drug information was rapidly available at my fingertips. While I do not feel that clinicians absolutely need PDAs, I appreciate its many benefits when performing our clinical responsibilities.

Now, there are many other factors that influence the decision of whether to purchase a smartphone. To be honest, most of my colleagues bought their iPhones for the same reason the masses did: it's cool. The PDA functions were a big bonus. But if your budget is tighter, the decision tree begins with the question, do you really need a PDA? If so, then decide whether you would prefer to reduce the number of devices you carry (i.e., phone, PDA, pager) or could tolerate sporting the Bat-belt. If it is the former, then a smartphone is for you. To further cut down on the extra gadgets, some physicians have even forwarded their pagers to their smartphones, giving them a triple combo PDA-phone-pager in one device. Now that's smart!

I'm not a salesman nor am I married to Apple Inc., so I will not sway you necessarily toward the iPhone. Rate your priorities, pick a few candidate phones, and do the research.

This Squidoo lens is for informational purposes only. The list of iPhone medical apps have been compiled through targeted and random Internet searches. I have not tested them and do not vouch for their accuracy or utility. Inclusion in this lens does not represent endorsement by me, On The Wards (medical blog), or affiliated sites.