by Deirdre Mills and Laura Turner
On college and medical school campuses nationwide, it isn’t uncommon to see students hurrying around campus with an iPhone or iPod Touch in hand. These devices allow you listen to music, access your email, and get on Facebook with the flick of a finger.
You’ve probably downloaded some fun apps to play with – Tetris, Scrabble, ESPN, Frogger and Facebook, of course. Maybe you’ve even tried “I Am T-Pain” to channel with your inner rapper. There are tens of thousands of entertaining apps available to help kill time and de-stress. But did you know that you can get hundreds of medical study aids on your iPod and iPod Touch as well?
In the Apple App Store, the “Medical” section currently holds more than 1,000 applications, with more added every day. Many of these apps provide instant access to flash cards, question banks, study guides, medical tools, and clinical reference materials. Whether you are an undergraduate studying for the MCAT, a first year med student looking to review gross anatomy, or a family physician needing to quickly calculate a patient’s BMI, the App Store has something to satisfy your needs.
Learning and Reference Applications
As a student, most of your life outside of the lab and the classroom consists of studying for exams, reviewing different procedures, or perfecting surgical techniques. Flash cards and review books are helpful to have on-hand for an impromptu study session; however, these study tools are difficult and heavy to carry around 24/7.
There are a plethora of learning and reference applications available for purchase through iTunes, designed with the same content as the hard-copy versions, but offering additional interactive features. Time spent waiting for the bus, in line at Starbucks, or while waiting for class to start can be turned into a study opportunity with these digital learning and reference applications.
Instant ECG: An Electrocardiogram Rhythms Interpretation Guide (iAnesthesia, LLC) – $0.99
A comprehensive ECG app that includes 90 high-resolution ECG examples and 30 full-screen movies (without audio) of common arrhythmias. You can also test your interpretation knowledge with 140 exam questions.
Kaplan MCAT Comprehensive Flashcards (gWhiz, LLC) – $34.99
Kaplan Publishing presents this app, which includes 700 comprehensive flashcards and five instructional videos. The key concepts highlighted in the videos are Colligative Properties, Effective Nuclear Charge, Enzymes, Bernoulli’s Equation, and Resistance. The flashcards address terms, definitions, and concepts in physics, general chemistry, biology, and organic chemistry. The app includes the ability to take quizzes and mark cards for future review.
Lange Flash Cards (Modality, Inc.) – $34.99 each
Lange Flash Cards (available for Biochemistry & Genetics, Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Pathology, and Pharmacology) give comprehensive, customizable course review and USMLE Step 1 prep. These apps allow you to create a personalized study regimen based on your needs using two distinct modes: index mode for key information about each card, and the flash card mode.
Procedures Consult: Internal Medicine (Modality, Inc.) – $39.99 each
Two apps are available in the Procedures Consult series so far—General Internal Medicine and Musculoskeletal —each featuring a blend of high-quality video, illustrations, animations and text for common medical procedures encountered in a clinical setting. These apps include a fully searchable index, ability to bookmark procedures, and locally stored content on your device.
Medical Tools
You are doing daily rotations in the hospital and are asked to calculate a patient’s BMI, or you are shadowing a doctor and are asked to reference the CDC for child immunizations. There are numerous formulas for varying medical indicators, many of which you may need to reference, or will be unable to calculate in your head.
AHRQ ePSS (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services) – Free
The ePSS app is published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to identify the screening, counseling, and preventive medicine services that are appropriate for a patient based on age, sex, and behavioral risk factors. The ePSS information is based on the current recommendations of the U.S. Preventitive Medicine Task Force.
MedCalc (Mathias Tschopp & Pascal Pfiffner) – Free
This is a free medical calculator, providing you instant access to numerous medical formulas, scores and classifications. MedCalc allows you to make a list of your most-used equations, search for formulas by name or keywords, and obtain detailed information about each formula.
Clinical Support
Streamlining workflow on the wards is a constant battle. You may serve a sizable non-English speaking community and your high school Spanish class is a distant memory. Or, you are an obstetrician whose patient arrived at the hospital in labor while you’re delayed at an airport hundreds of miles away. Even keeping up with drug formularies is a herculean task. Get some point-of-care support from your iPhone by using these apps:
AirStrip OB (AirStrip Technologies, LLC) – Free
This app provides obstetricians instant access to critical data from the Labor and Delivery unit. Users can access nursing notes, vital signs, labor status, physical exam and maternal/fetal waveform data, even patient historical data.
Epocrates (Epocrates) – Free
This free app provides you access to information about thousands of drugs, including dosing, adverse reactions, formularies, pricing and pill photos. You can identify pills by their physical characteristics and imprint code and check for up to 30 drug interactions at a time with this app.
Pedi STAT (QxMD Medical Software) – $2.99
This app provides quick reference to critical data when caring for pediatric patients in the emergency and critical care environment. Features include rapid results for airway interventions, cardiac resuscitation data, and age- and weight-specific pediatric equipment.
Pocket Medical Spanish with Audio (Modality, Inc.) – $4.99
This app allows healthcare providers to communicate with, diagnose, and treat Spanish-speaking patients with over 400 phrases. Visual text and audio pronunciations of key questions allow for faster, more effective communication at the point of care. Also available in French.
While PDAs and smartphones have been a part of medical education for years, Apple’s App Store is rapidly changing the way students and professionals are using mobile technology. Leave a comment about your favorite apps below to help others in search of the best study aids in the App Store.
And don’t forget the MedSchoolRock video “Never Gonna Give You Up (iPhone)” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBw2EBwj9eA .
What would you recommend for those who are not iPhone-using douchebags?
You forgot to mention Skyscape. It’s free, works offline, great for the iPod Touch, and lots of OCM resources.
There is also the app “Mental Case”. You can download thousands of flashcards from online at flashcardexchange.com. You can see the available flashcards online before downloading the app.
Thanks for this article! I hope to read more about iPhone apps!
The Handbook of High-Risk Obstetrics is great, if you’re going to be on OB rotation or a resident in OB/GYN. iPhone/iPod touch, with 200 pages on perinatal medicine, with ultrasound images, fetal heart tracings, and all maternal-fetal conditions.
Full 3,700 keyword search, in-text links to related topics, and Bookmarking feature.
Automatically updated when new ACOG or CDC guidelines come out at no charge. Recent additions are the Library of Normal Fetal Ultrasound, new ACOG guidelines on fetal monitoring and induction of labor, and new CDC guidelines for H1N1 flu in pregnancy.
I know OSU is now requiring the iphone for its first years. Great way to integrate medicine. Does anyone know other schools taking the same route?
theres also a medical case history taking app. Case History Medicine. Usefull for first timers and med studs.. http://www.smartddx.com i think
check out Dragon Dictation for the iphone for speech to text functionality
[b]What would you recommend for those who are not iPhone-using douchebags?[/b]
I hear there’s a good blood-letting app available for the Zune?
Dave: AHAHAHAHAHA! Snap!
iFlipr is the best flashcard app there is. Essential.
Check out Jambinnovations.com — they have a few great medical applications.
Outline of HIgh-Risk OB is a free reference and study guide for those on OB, or preparing for shelf exams.
Great post, and even greater tips via the comments…blood-letting app is on my ‘resources in the history of medicine’ list. I’m a medical library intern and have been assembling and reviewing lots of apps for health sciences students. Two recommendations:
Evernote.com – organize all your notes…any input is a note, and you can access it via free downloaded software; online interface or via your mobile device. It can actually read the text in photographs…i.e. scanned pages of handwritten notes (reasonably legible of course)
Stanza (or any e-reader) – so many of our readings are in e-book form, or pdf. I find it very very useful to have the article du-jour on my iphone for quick reference or to read in smaller chunks of time.
Finally, I wanted to point out that Airstrip OB is not a stand-alone application. You can’t use it for the features mentioned in this post unless the healthcare facility you work in has purchased and installed the Airstrip system.
The OMM Guide app is pretty good for osteo students.
I mayt be biased, but I wanted to be sure you knew you can listen to our ReachMD XM160 stream for FREE CME and other short form physician education audio programming for FREE at Reachmd.com – the FREE iPhone app can be found under MedicalRadio.
A Vet Tool is a nice app for vets, I’ve been using it for a little while now.
trust me, if you are a doctor, the only iphone you need is in your brain and nothing else because you will not have time to handle anything for example if you are in the Labor Ward.These applications are for want to be posers who wish to pass as doctors..kaplan on iphone..what a joke!!!!
A great idea for an article, thank you. It’s sad to see some narrowed-minded comments slipped in. I hope health care professionals will see the usefulness in devices like the iPod Touch and use them to their advantage.
I’ve seen surgeons doing CME and checking just-released articles via the Medscape app. I’ve seen anesthesiologist get patient updates pushed to their phones, or receive a hospital-wide notification of Propofol shortage while in a surgical case. I see many clinicians checking dosages on Mescape, Lexi, Epocrates. It is pretty arrogant to assume any clinician can memorize all drug dosages, renal adjustment dosages, and new drug warnings.
Unlike nash, I realize my comment is just a comment and I don’t expect people to trust me. But they can easily see for themselves. If you think the users of new technology are “posers” then don’t use the technology. Just sit back and assume you know everything.
You forgot the PEPID iphone Medical app which includes drug database, calculators, diagnosis aids, toxicology, and more: http://www.pepid.com/press/iPhone_news.asp
In my experience, the epocrates app leaves out some really important drug interactions. The one that comes to mind is the risk of serotonin syndrome when migraine prophylaxis and antidepressants are combined.
Try the mnemonics application from NerdocoreLearning.com These two docs have fused together a love for clinical medicine with sci-fi.
Formulary on the iPhone is a great reference guide if you’re in the UK – it shows the contents of the BNF in a great searchable app http://www.itunes.com/app/Formulary
Considering many people are on their phones alot these days, it was definitely smart to add these applications to them.
Several medical / clinical iphone apps from Clinically Relevant
CORE – Clinical ORthopedic Exam
Nearly 250 clinical tests for diagnosis of musculoskeletal pathology. Written instructions, video demonstrations, and diagnostic properties to include validity and reliability. Free updates when new evidence emerges.
Low Back Pain Clinical Management Guidelines
Based on the ACP and APS guidelines published in 2007, with full algorithm, screening, and evidence-weighted intervention comparison.
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The app called TIDAL VOLUMES is Great! It’s for setting the tidal volumes for vents using the data from the ARDSnet trial. I use it all the time in the ICU! I love it!
i found ‘medmonics’ in the app store- it has tons of mnemonics I use when trying to memorize everything for tests. you can search, filter, create a favorites list, etc
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