Top 5 medical apps by category
The use of smartphones is undoubtedly on the rise, in fact the a recent Ericsson report is projecting 6.1billion smartphone users by 2020. Half of these users gather some type of health-related information on their phones, making mHealth a huge industry. The mobile health market to be a $26 billion industry by 2017 by research2guidance.
The rise of both consumer and medical health apps is clear, but are doctors adapting? How do they deal with the ton of information the patient brings to them on their smartphone?
At Hacking Health, we’ve seen a clear demand for more health and medical apps, stemming from developers, patients and surprisingly from doctors as well. Doctors are an untapped resource for creative solutions to the challenges they face everyday. Ideas are endless: an app that sends a prescription directly to a pharmacist, a digital map of the hospital, and a mobile dietician advising you on your food choices according to your medical condition are just a few examples. Physicians are going as far as teaching themselves how to code and building the apps themselves. Dr. Jordan Littman, a family physician based in Ottawa for example, coded an app himself — guiding medication prescribers with up-to-date information drug information, such as prices, drug interactions, and symptoms.
Hacking Health was built for people who are passionate about innovation and are ready to get their hands dirty in building a solution, much like Dr. Littman. Unfortunately, most ideas that are presented to us hear our most common answer being: “There’s already an app for that”.
With over 165,000 mHealth apps to choose from in the Apple iTunes and Android app stores, and only 15% of mHealth apps being marketed to doctors, how can they sift through all the fitness-centered apps to find ones most useful in a clinical setting? We decided to research the answer to this question and broke it down by types of apps most used by physicians. Here are the top 5 apps every doctor should use, by category.
Top Photo Sharing App — Figure 1
With more than 500,000 users, Figure 1 is the most-popular photo sharing app for physicians. The Toronto-based startup has quickly become the Instagram for doctors, sharing images of diseases, injuries and everything in between. Anyone can see the photos, but only verified medical staff can leave comments about the image, essentially crowdsourcing diagnoses. Photos are anonymized to respect the patient’s privacy, and even some doctors decide not to use their names.
Top Secure Messaging and Scheduling App — PetalMD
With over 26,000 users, PetalMD is Canada’s largest physician-only network. The app allows doctors to text each other securely in a HIPAA-compliant manner, without worrying about privacy and security issues. Partnering with physician groups, PetalMD allows physicians to view and manage their schedules on their smartphones.
Top Medical Reference App — Medscape
With over 4 million users on the google play store, Medscape by WebMD is the most popular medical app available in the Apple store and other platforms. A clinical reference database includes 8,000 drugs, 4,000 diseases and conditions, clinical images, procedure videos, drug interaction checker tool, medical calculators and can be accessed offline. A resource for physicians in 34 specialty areas, medical students, and nurses. Medscape CME’s are also available for Canadian physicians.
Top Drug Reference App — Epocrates
With over 1 million active members, Epocrates provides clinical information on thousands of prescription, generic and OTC drugs, including an interaction check for adverse reactions between up to 30 drugs at a time. Being one of the oldest medical apps, it’s considered the first medical application for the iPhone.
Top Medical Calculator — Calculate by QxMD
With over 500,000 downloads, Calculate is a free medical calculator and decision support tool for general practice and specialties. iMedicalApps called it “The best free Medical Calculator apps for the iPhone.” It offers a variety of calculators in all different areas of medicine, from basic BMI calculations to Bishop Scores and Ranson’s Criteria.