Apps Give Physicians New Tools

As technology changes, so does the way doctors use it to treat their patients.  In recent years, more and more doctors have been turning to smartphone apps.  A recent interview with doctors across the nation show that app use has become almost routine now, and almost all doctors have smartphones these days.  In fact, many of these medical apps can also be installed by patients and used to provide their physicians with more data to assist in diagnoses.  

The Range of Apps

There are a huge number of apps now available in the medical industries.  A number of these apps replace other tools, creating a virtual Swiss Army knife for doctors and making it much easier for them to do their jobs.  Some of these apps are purely informative, such as databases that list diseases, viruses, and drug interactions.  Others actually replace different diagnoses equipment like asthma, blood pressure, or glucose meters.  On the patient end, many apps are available to help them manage long-term diseases.  There are basic medication reminders and databases of symptoms, of course, but there are also apps that actually send information back to a patient’s physician, allowing them to see exactly how a patient is doing even when they are away from the office.

A Few Popular Apps

If you are a new physician and are not sure what apps might be useful, or if you have your own practice and are upgrading, here are a few of the most popular apps that have become mainstays of any physician.

Clinicam – one of the earliest uses of smartphones was to take pictures of a patient’s wound, rash, or other visual indication of their condition and then upload it to their electronic health record.  However, some doctors were not always good about deleting the photos from their phones, which could lead to a privacy violation.  With clinicam, the photos are sent to the patient’s record without ever being stored on the phone, removing any chance of a patient-doctor confidentiality breach.

Breast Cancer Diagnosis Guide – this is a great app for patients struggling with breast cancer.  It allows them to keep track of their treatments, disease progression, and more.  It was developed by the founder of Breastcancer.org, a website aimed at helping women deal with the often-overwhelming amount of information, appointments, and treatment options associated with breast cancer.

Alivecor – this app, when coupled with a small monitor, turns a smartphone into a portable heart monitor that patients can use anywhere.  They just attach the monitor, open the app, and place their fingers on the sensors.  The phone creates an EKG of their heart rate.  This app is very helpful for doctors who have patients with irregular heart rhythms.

iHealth Wireless Pulse Oximeter – another app that requires a separate sensor to operate, the iHealth monitor will record a patient’s blood-oxygen level while they sleep.  This helps their physician determine if they have sleep apnea.  The sensor fits around the patient’s finger, so it is fairly unobtrusive.  Many physicians have said that this and similar apps may actually be better than a sleep study in determining if patients do suffer from sleep apnea.