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ER Physicians Are The Number One User Of Mobile Apps

At iMedicalApps, we’re always wary of physician surveys that claim to predict mobile use. We even did a feature article highlighting how sampling bias could be inflating the numbers of many of these surveys.

With that said, Bulletin Healthcare just released a survey based on a large sample size of physicians, using the following methods:

The analysis, based on the reading habits of more than 550,000 healthcare providers, including more than 400,000 physicians who subscribe to Bulletin Healthcare’s daily email briefings, focused on mobile device usage between June 1, 2010 and February 28, 2011.

While the report went on to talk about the increased usage of mobile devices by physicians, with Apple continuing to dominate the market — the iPhone and iPad had a more than 90% share of physician use — we were more interested by the intriguing comparison of physician mobile use by speciality.

Their survey found that Emergency Medicine physicians and cardiologists were the highest users of mobile devices and content, while Pathologists and Oncologists were the lowest. Of note, the survey looked at specialists, not primary care. Emergency Medicine physicians had more than double the usage of mobile technology than Pathologists, 40% verse 16%. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*

iPad Cover Used In Kitchens Could Also Be Used In Hospitals

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Apple iPads are taking the clinical world by storm, but they’re not exactly built for a busy environment full of liquids, dirty hands, and pathogens. The Chef Sleeve is a plastic wrapping originally designed to help cooks prevent their iPads from getting hit by a splash of this and a dash of that. The plastic is compatible with the touch screen, provides basic protection, and won’t require you to sterilize it before bringing it home from the hospital. At $20 for 25 sleeves, your new baby can get the basic protection it deserves.

Product page: Chef Sleeve…

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

Medical Apps Allow Doctors To Monitor ICU Patients Remotely

We have reported in the past on AirStrip, a smartphone and iPad app that allows a mobile doctor to monitor the vital signs of patients in an obstetric ward or an ICU. The reverse, where a fixed doctor monitors multiple remote patients is now entering the mainstream and already making a difference in many patients’ lives.

In a compelling anecdote recently reported in Computerworld, a man experienced cardiac arrest while shopping and was taken to a nearby community hospital. An intensivist, monitoring from an eICU miles away, was immediately consulted. The remote doctor guided the treating physicians as they initiated unfamiliar hypothermia therapy to preserve the brain, and continued to follow the patient remotely throughout his 10 day ICU stay.  Happily, the patient had a good outcome and is quoted in the article as an enthusiastic proponent of eICUs. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*

Need An Ultrasound? There’s An App For That

Imagine walking into the room of a patient with ascites and pulling out your iPad (which you were just using to put in orders on another patient), pulling an ultrasound probe out of your pocket, connecting the two, and finding a fluid pocket from which to drain the abdominal fluid.

We’ve already shown how iPad’s can be useful in the OR. Now they, along with other tablets and smartphones, can be applied to bedside diagnostics and therapeutics to enhance patient safety while reducing costs. It’s a pretty exciting prospect being put forth by an mHealth startup called Mobisante. And having won awards at an MIT Enterprise Forum as well as the Mobile Health Expo, others certainly seem to buying in as well.

Mobisante, an mHealth company based in Redmond, WA, has recently been showing a new smartphone peripheral at conferences across the country: An ultrasound probe. According to the MIT Technology Review, the current prototype connects to a Toshiba TG01 smartphone and was originally developed as a laptop peripheral by David Zar, a computer engineer at Washington University in St. Louis. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*

Some Things About Medicine Will Never Change

I just can’t imagine life today as a medical student. Every medical publication in the palm of your hand. The capacity to create an audience and publish at your own will.  Real-time dialog between students, faculty, anyone. Global reach from your phone. It’s mind-boggling really.

This is in stark contrast to my experience. My world was centered on index cards, textbooks and pens with different colors. We communicated via Post-it notes on the door of the student lounge. There were no apps and our only game was foozball. As a first year I scheduled time to compose H&Ps on the library’s only Macintosh II computer. This was plugged into the new Apple LaserWriter with WYSIWYG. Hi tech we were. We thought.

Being distractible and restless, I’m going to guess that if I had access to the communication platforms and tools available to today’s students, I might not have made it through. The inputs must be staggering and I imagine that discipline with personal bandwidth has become a critical key to survival. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*

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