Largest mobile health study focused on acute wound care underway in Emergency Med department at GW
Dr. Neal Sikka, an Emergency Medicine physician at George Washington University, has a six month study underway examining how accurately Emergency Medicine practitioners at George Washington University Hospital can diagnose wounds from patient generated cell phone images.
Sikka told the Washington Post that it’s currently the largest mHealth (mobile health) study to look at acute wound care.
The study’s methods:
In the new study, researchers recruit people who have arrived at the hospital with cuts, skin infections, rashes and other flesh wounds. Patients use their own camera phones to document their injuries. After filling out a questionnaire about their medical history and symptoms, they send the images to a secure e-mail account. All images are downloaded and stored on a secure hard drive.
Moving the doctor’s office on-line: milestones from the digital practice revolution [Emdat Mobile and PerfectServe Clinician]
While there seems to be a never ending stream of medical reference applications for smartphones, it might well be that medical apps for the more mundane parts of a doctor’s life that get the most use. Once outside the examination room, it seems we spend the bulk of our time charting and returning messages. Therefore, it is as much with relief as with pleasure that we welcome two iPhone applications that aim to facilitate medical transcription and handling phone calls: Emdat Mobile and PerfectServe Clinician.
Emdat Mobile
Emdat Mobile (iTunes link) is a simple application that allows dictation directly into the iPhone. It is not connected to a voice recognition engine such as Nuance’s Dragon but rather sends the recorded audio to a medical transcriptionist. Later, the transcribed record is available for viewing on the iPhone. While this may seem mundane, it is actually a very nice advance over using a digital dictaphone and special software to upload dictations.
It is likely that many readers have never heard of Emdat (“Electronic Medical Dictation And Transcription”). The company provides a web based platform for transcribed medical documents and was founded in 1999, early in the internet era . Emdat is not a transcription company but rather provides the infrastructure for independent medical transcription companies to store recorded audio as well as the finished documents. Clinicians and hospitals then use a simple web interface to edit and sign the documents.
While a lot of attention is given of late to computer voice recognition and transcription, many physicians still rely on voice dictation for documenting their patient encounters. The benefits are fairly plain, speaking is faster than typing or clicking and it does not require standing in front of a computer. Of course, many physicians who have converted to template based EHRs will say that, with time, they can document just as fast as with voice dictation. While this is likely correct, the catch is in the product. The dirty secret is that notes generated by clicking and choosing entries from templates are just barely usable as medical documents.
When you’re trying to read the notes of your colleague [in an electronic record], it’s almost impossible to figure out what happened to the patient. You have to read through two pages of all this junk that’s put in to increase billing.
FDA is actively monitoring medical and healthcare apps in mobile app stores
Bradley Merrill Thompson, an attorney with an expertise in the FDA approval process for medical devices, is stating the Food and Drug Administration is actively monitoring app stores on various platforms.
Regulating medical devices and health care related applications falls under the FDA’s jurisdiction.
James Kendrick from JkOnTheRun spoke with Thompson, where he stated the following:
The FDA is actively engaged in surveillance of various app stores to see if apps should trigger their involvement. Applications where a smartphone is connected in any way to imaging are under scrutiny, in particular. Any app that is used to transmit images to a medical facility requires FDA approval.
Apple’s success as enterprise solution in the business world bodes well for healthcare
One of the issues we’ve discussed previously is that, when it comes to iPhone and iPad acceptance in healthcare, compatibility with the more traditional enterprise solutions could turn out to be a problem for large scale adoption of iOS 4 devices.
There was a fair amount of concern that the iPhone and iPad, as consumer electronics, would lack the necessary business-oriented features to ever be widely adopted by corporate America, let alone healthcare.
However, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal suggests that Apple may be making major inroads when it comes to adoption as a business-wide mobile solution and this time with the blessing of corporate IT.
Notre Dame starts pilot study to research iPad’s potential in replacing traditional textbooks
Corey Angst, assistant professor of management at the University of Notre Dame, has started a one year pilot study of e-readers, starting with the iPad. One of the goals of the study is to determine how electronic textbooks could potentially replace traditional textbooks.
This has interesting applications for our push towards dynamic electronic medical textbooks. With the Stanford School of Medicine and UC Irvine School of Medicine recently giving iPads to their incoming medical student classes – data on the usefulness of medical ebooks should be plentiful soon.
For examples of how medical ebooks look on the iPad check out a recent review we did.
Source: SouthBendTribune
Free Kaplan medical books and Epocrates promotion about to end
Two deals set to expire:
1) Kaplan is offering it’s USMLE books (Step 1, 2, and 3), and a host of other medical texts for free in the Apple Book store until today. For details refer to our prior full story.
2) Epocrates is giving away a premium version – Epocrates Essentials – for free to medical students until tomorrow. It’s valued at $159. For details refer to our prior full story.
Make sure to get a piece of these deals before they expire and to get the word out to your peers via our Facebook and Twitter share tabs.
Also, we recently started giving away tons of promo codes for medical apps via our Facebook group, so make sure to “Like” our group so you can stay on top of the giveaways: www.facebook.com/imedicalapps
iPhones and iPads take position on doctor’s wall: the future of the physical exam
Two applications, Ear Trumpet and Eye Chart hint at the promise of mobile medical applications to enhance the traditional instruments for hearing and vision testing.
Eye Chart Pro
Eye Chart Pro (iTunes link) is a clever implementation of the classic Snellen eye chart for use on an the iPad. It will also work as a quick “pocket” eye chart on the iPhone. As shown in the screenshot, the implementation is recognizable to anybody who has ever been in the doctor’s office. In practice, the clinician is supposed to hold the screen 10 feet from the patient in order to get an accurate assessment of visual acuity. In contrast to a paper chart, the letters can be randomized so patients cannot memorize the letters. Users can upgrade via an in-app purchase of $3.99 to a premium version which allows for smaller letters, which allows testing from five feet, as well as other features. The non-premium version is free, although the App store currently has it labeled as a “Limited Offer”.
The app has been one of the most popular medical apps on the website, likely in some part due to the fact it was available at the launch of the iPad. The developer (web page) states the app was the #1 medical app for two months and is being “used all over the country”. The Orange County register recently reported highlighted the app as part of a photo series on the iPad integration into UC Irvine medical school curriculum.
Epocrates adds multi-tasking support to iOS 4 – now significantly easier to use
Epocrates latest update for iOS 4 (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad operating systems) allows for multi-tasking support, also known as “fast app switching”. If you use Epocrates consistently, this is extremely welcome news.
The app is now significantly easier to use. When you close out of the app it saves the last screen you were on – so if you have to reference that drug you just wrote a script for, you don’t have to waste time searching for it again.
If you haven’t already, make sure to check out our full review of the different premium versions of Epocrates.
Researchers at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center are using mobile apps to help understand nicotine addiction
There are plenty of apps in the Apple Store and the Android Marketplace that try to help patients quit smoking. Some of them even have integration with social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. However, these same genre of apps are helping researchers study addition in a new way.
SmartPlanet has a great interview with Dr. David Wetter, who is leading a team of researchers using real-time smart phone data from those trying to quit smoking in order to better understand addiction.
These M.D. Anderson Cancer Center researchers are finding some interesting trends in the data they are collecting.
We use smart phones to collect data during critical events that happen when people try to quit. For example, when they have a craving to smoke or when they actually smoke a cigarette, we’ll collect data. [We'll find out]: Who else is in the environment with them? What else is going on? Are cigarettes available? Are they drinking? Are they eating? Are they at work, at home, in the car?
