Smartphone Medical Apps

Smartphones have made significant advances over the last year, and with the technological advance a swarm of health based applications have descended upon us.

Despite the potential intervention of the TGA in the iPhone app development field, there are still a good number of well developed, user friendly and increasingly essential smartphone applications being developed. Some of the more useful applications I have tried recently include iDoctor and CPR Pro

iDoctor

In collaboration with developer Stuart Hall of Bonobo, Dr Rhys Clark from Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth has released “iDoctor”, a software application for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices, and also the iPad.

Primarily targeted at junior doctors working in hospital settings, iDoctor offers a suite of five different logging systems that allow clinicians to keep track of their procedures, hours worked, patients seen, education attended and consults given.

“I was struggling to keep track of my surgical logbook and also saw other doctors battling to run clunky spreadsheets on their iPhones. I found I had lots of different pieces of paper and patient stickers in my pockets and was always missing out on cases that needed to be included,” said Dr Clark.

The early version of the app is certainly very useful, and once the colleges MOPS and CME teams are able to accept direct submission of the data it will make the whole process of procedure accreditation much more streamlined.

Part proceeds from the sale of iDoctor will go to Australian Doctors for Africa, a charity providing volunteer doctors and nurses to areas of need in Africa. – The Record

Find iDoctor on [iTunes] [Facebook]

Find Bonobo Labs [Web] [Facebook] [Twitter]

CPR Pro

CPR PRO application offers audio and visual prompts, as well as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) feedback, for individuals trained in Basic or Advanced Life Support.

Ivor Kovik (blog, twitter) runs Ivor Medical which is currently developing some really interesting and innovative medical devices/applications designed to save lives.

CPR PRO APP

CPR PRO was developed by Ivor Medical in collaboration with professional rescuers who perform CPR on a regular basis. It helps a trained individual to deliver CPR according to guidelines, and offer the best chances of survival and good recovery to the victim. CPR PRO features include:

• Compliance with the latest ILCOR CPR science guidelines
• Instant access to CPR feedback
• Visual and audio prompts
• Metronome to pace chest compressions
• Rate detection of actual compressions
• Detection of number of compressions
• Prompts to give two rescue breaths over 1 second, after the detection of 30 chest compressions
• Prompts to pace ventilation, when the airway is secured (10/minute)
• Stopwatch running continuously, helping you to keep track of time (regularly reassess the victim, deliver defibrillation and drugs, change rescuer roles, etc.)
• Two modes of operation, 30:2 and PRO – to be used when the airway is secured or if unwilling/unable to provide mouth-to-mouth ventilationsE
• Basic Life Support algorithm with photos
• Complete Instructions for Use

CPR PRO Cradle

This cool and space age looking device is designed to allow rescuers to deliver good quality chest compressions during CPR. It primarily allows rescuers to hold their hands in a natural position while performing CPR.

Rescuers grasp the two sides of the device with their palms, so that their hands are in line with their shoulders. Due to this natural hand position, it takes less power to perform accurate compressions and rescuers get tired less quickly. For this reason they can perform good quality compressions for longer periods of time, which is of crucial importance since CPR sometimes results in success after more than 30 or 60 minutes.

CPR PRO Cradle

This cradle and app have the potential to monitor and provide feedback on the regularity of performance of external chest compressions. With the help of accelerometers, such devices can determine the frequency and depth of compressions performed by rescuers and provide them with audio, visual and tactile feedback to enable them to adjust their actions according to international guidelines.