Certainly, it’s a great idea to have all those evidence based policies and guidelines endorsed by the APP in the palm of hands!
The AAP’s compilation of the latest guidelines and policies is available in the form of Mobipocket document.
The PDA version of the Pediatric Clinical Practice Guidelines and Policies “9th edition” offers more than just the policies and statements, it includes some other very useful features. Turn your audio on and see the following video for more details.
The addition of a bilirubin assessment tool, the vaccines scheduling, patient guidance, and some ICD codes makes this great evidence-based PDA reference a repository of the all tools that a pediatrician may need in practice.
However, as mentioned in the video above, the app need to be available in other medical readers that we are all familiar with such as Skyscape or Unbound Medicine.
For $55 [members] and $60 [non-members] the stand alone PDA version only it can be downloaded from the AAP’s Book store
When Pepid first launched their new native application on the iPhone and iPod Touch we all cheered. However, unfortunately, the app came pretty much to our disappointment.
Turn your audio on and see the next couple of videos for details;
The very reason that we need a native app is to avoid all the hassles with Internet connection such as the horrible 3G connection of At&T and the often missing WiFi inside our hospital corridors and ERs [where we use Pepid the most].
This Pepid native app does not do three of the most important dynamic functions that we frequently use on the bedside, namely, the drug dose calculator, the calculators, and the drug to drug interactions! They hosted these functions on their server and we can’t access them without active Internet connection.
What’s the point of this app? If we have Internet connection we can then visit Pepid mobile [read this post for details] and have a fully functioning Pepid.
In addition to this great shortage, there are also a number of design problems as seen in the videos above. They just copied and pasted what was there in Palm and Pocket PC into the iPhone which of course has horrible sequences.
There’s only one good thing with this app which is the new toxicology reference Pepid Elements provided for free when the app is downloaded.
Pepid native app simply does not fit into the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Our message to Pepid, we love Pepid, we love the wonderful ER info and the great content but if you don’t fix these design and connection issues expect to refund most of your iPhone subscribers, if not already did!
Epocrates launched the latest version [2.51] yesterday. It delivers significant improvements over the previous versions but most noticable is the new disease images which we have been waiting for quite long time.
The images added are not just a bunch of nice images to say that the app has images, no, there are hundreds of them and many many dx entries are supplemented with [sometimes more than one] images which are crisp clear and highly relevant.
Sadly, however, these images are not actually hosted on the native app and requires 3G or Wifi connection whenever requested. This is unfortunate because it means that we highly unlikely to see these images in closed CT scan and other hospital indoors still lacking adequate Wifi. Probably add these images to the Epocrates app would significantly increase the memory requirements that’s they avoided that.
Another great enhancement in the latest version is the landscape mode which is previously unsupported, here’s how it looks
Also now the search page include extra options such as disease by system and labs but still we want to see the major search box in all the sections and not only the main page.
Bottom line, Epocrates continues to demonstrate commitment in providing the latest updates with more and more features time after time consistantly.
However, we are still waiting for Sx and CME to arrive on the iPhone, version 3.0 perhaps!
We said that Skyscape has recently changed their business model and is now offering paid apps directly from the app store and we explained why here.
But what is interesting is that all of these new apps are actually funneled back into the mother app [The Skyscape Medical Resources, recently referred to as The Skyscape App], here’s how they guide us …
Now the question is Why? and the answer is simply, their SmartLink technology. One of the biggest features of Skyscape that makes their different resources work synergistically when they are installed together by cross linking.
On Palm and Pocket PC, there was no problem. Different titles installed in different folders and they were still cross linked to each other. But on iPhone this is not possible, you cannot jump from one app to another. That’s why whatever new Skyscape app you install is going to establish itself into the mother app and its icon will then merely function as a shortcut to the mother app, even they explicitly mention that you can now delete this icon and keep the mother app [see screenshots above].
Accordingly, we can now understand why all the new apps have a single common icon on which there is a stamp called Admit One!
The 5-Minute Clinical Consult and it’s website www.5mcc.com has been around for a while and is developed by Unbound Medicine. iPhone users were able to use it by logging in to the website above and access the content.
Now, with the development of a native app there is no need for Wifi or 3G anymore and the application can resides on the iPhone.
See how it looks on iPod Touch;
This is the ultimate reference and it was a best seller on Palm and Pocket PC, and it would certainly be on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The 5-Minute Clinical Consult is not just like the traditional paper book that we used to carry, the digital version includes much more content like the ICD codes and SNOMED codes, full list of searchable medications, algorithms, dermatologic images and other tools.
Unbound Medicine has also added 200 topics from the 5-Minute Pediatric Consult making this app appealing not only to adult physicians but also to pediatricians. They probably wanted to warm us up on the upcoming pediatric native iPhone titles!
As with the other titles titles from Unbound Medicine, you not only get an iPhone version but your username and password can be used to access 5mcc website on your desktop or any wireless device that can browse the internet. This website also includes extra features such as topic of the week, the A to Z drugs, patient handouts, and medical procedure videos. We wonder why they did not add the last two to the native iPhone version. Probably because of the shear size of these videos but at least they could have added online access to it. Speaking of these videos, however, they are merely musculoskeletal exam procedures and may not be of interest to everyone.
Cross linking in between the two references is available via the opposing arrows lower right [see screenshots above].
Some improvements that we’d like to see in future versions, is to have a global search rather than a search for each of the two references and live links to Pub Med articles listed at the bibliography section. We also wish to see a table content page where the book is divided into sections and chapters.
Again, Unbound Medicine is providing a free template from the iTunes store and the content will only be filled out if we subscribe to the 5mcc through their website. This is an approach that could certainly change in the future [read this post to know why].
Bottom line, this 5 over 5 application deserves consideration by all of us..
The drug doses booklet written by Frank Shann, which is also known as the little white book is widely known among Australian physicians and pediatricians. This simple drug dosages handbook has been transformed into the PDA by another ICU doctor named Oliver Karam.
It sports a collection of drug doses, some resuscitation drug calculators, a list of normal lab values, and a collection of pediatric calculators named PedCalc.
There are many way that this $20 application can be improved, here’s a list
It should run faster. It is only a few KBs app and there should be no delay at all in loading the app. It relies on a runtime environment called Thaker Satellite forms which is not so popular. This runtime is the reason why it cannot be installed on the memory card but that’s not an issue because of its small size.
The installation, the registration and the purchase processes should be much more easier.
Entries should be cross linked like when we check acetaminophen it tells us check paracetamol but there’s no link to paracetamol and we have use search.
The website and software needs some updates. Like you get a message “thank you for downloading Drug Doses 2007″ while you actually downloaded the latest 2008 updates. Also there should be more frequent updates.
No built-in drug dose calculator despite the app’s name! and there should be some more info with each drug like at least the side effects.
There should be at least double the number of the calculators available in the PedCalc portion of the application. Speaking of PedCalc it is available for free check the website here.
However, for an app developed solely be an ICU physician this a great start. Dr. Karam told us that he’s working on an iPhone version and so let’s wait and see.
The drug doses booklet written by Frank Shann, which is also known as the little white book is widely known among Australian physicians and pediatricians. This simple drug dosages handbook has been transformed into the PDA by another ICU doctor named Oliver Karam.
It sports a collection of drug doses, some resuscitation drug calculators, a list of normal lab values, and a collection of pediatric calculators named PedCalc.
There are many way that this $20 application can be improved, here’s a list
It should run faster. It is only a few KBs app and there should be no delay at all in loading the app. It relies on a runtime environment called Thaker Satellite forms which is not so popular. This runtime is the reason why it cannot be installed on the memory card but that’s not an issue because of its small size.
The installation, the registration and the purchase processes should be much more easier.
Entries should be cross linked like when we check acetaminophen it tells us check paracetamol but there’s no link to paracetamol and we have use search.
The website and software needs some updates. Like you get a message “thank you for downloading Drug Doses 2007″ while you actually downloaded the latest 2008 updates. Also there should be more frequent updates.
No built-in drug dose calculator despite the app’s name! and there should be some more info with each drug like at least the side effects.
There should be at least double the number of the calculators available in the PedCalc portion of the application. Speaking of PedCalc it is available for free check the website here.
However, for an app developed solely be an ICU physician this a great start. Dr. Karam told us that he’s working on an iPhone version and so let’s wait and see.
Most of the pediatricians that I know bounce away when they realize that the price for the Lexi Pediatric Suite is $179. They must be saying why should we buy such an expensive app while we can have Epocrates and Skyscape for free on the iPhone.
Here’s the answer;
The Lexi Pediatric Suite is unlike Epocrates, Skyscape, or Unbound Medicine, is offered straight away. You pay for the app and you get all the contents with regular updates. While in the case of other developers, they don’t provide full contents, they just tempt you with a free summarized app on which you have to download and purchase the content from their respective websites. So for example if you want to have a fully functional Epocrates Essentials you’d have to pay $150 yearly subscription and similarly with the other developers.
So that’s why Lexi priced in that range. But someone might argue that this a bad marketing idea, they should provide a free “lite” app to let users get an idea and convince them to pay for the full fledged app.
Here’s how the iPhone’s Lexi Pediatric Suite looks like;
To have all these resources packaged in a single app and an easy to use interface it makes sense to pay that $179.
The Lexi Pediatric Suite is a serious app and the details are scrutinized and synchronized with the Lexi database which is trusted nation wide.
Recently there were two important enhancements to this app:
First; they added the household products database and Lab database which were not there initially, this is probably in response to our request posted previously on the Pediatric PDA Blog!
Second; they added an update function so that we can update the database right within the app and no need to wait for app update from iTunes. This was one of the glitches that we recorded in the initial version.
You can open the purchase page of the app in iTunes when you click on the icon below
The famous Merck Manual is now offered from Unbound Medicine in a new format and in a bundle of symptoms and drugs resources.
The original Merck Manual was previously offered from Unbound Medicine as a stand-alone PDA product, but recently they have added two optional resources to the package; These are the Merck Manual with patient symptoms and Davis Drug Guide for physicians.
So let’s see how it looks on Windows Mobile:
The solution is available for Palm, Pocket PC, Blackberry, and also as a wireless website and a regular website [check it out here http://www.unboundmedicine.com/merckmanual/ub] all for one annual subscription price. If only the manual it is $50; if you add the symptoms guide it is $60; and if want the Davis Drug guide added then it’s $80. The website amusingly includes “topic of the week” to engage the visitor.
The real addition here is the Merck Manual with Patient Symptoms as we have already seen the other two products before; check the Davis Drug Guide and the Merck Manual Pda4peds reviews.
So the patient symptoms is essentially a list of commonly encountered symptoms each being detailed in etiology, pathophysiology, evaluation, treatment, and key points. Many of the symptoms are appropriately addressed to pediatric practitioners for example cough in children and constipation in children and even a topic about crying.
There is also a wireless update button that will allow us to update the contents [bimonthly for the Merck Manual and more frequently for Davis] and also to send search queries to our online account. Sounds great right!
However, there were many missing features that we wished to see in this reference, here’s a list
Many clinical presentations are missing, for example you don’t have hypokalemia or abnormal tendon reflexes. There are only symptoms and the most common ones only.
Still many of the symptoms are adult-only, for example there’s no headache in children or pediatric GI bleeding entries.
Some entries found in the original reference are not listed in the patient symptoms even when they are perfect symptom topics for example Bruxism.
There is yet no native iPhone app for this title, although we can perfectly visit the wireless website on our iPhone’s and iTouch’s Safari.
Hopefully we will see big improvements in future versions of this suite.
Unbound Medicine has recently released their first ever ‘bundle-package’ app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, The Nursing Central.
Have a look here, you can click on the full screen button for better view:
You can see that there are so many features and resources packaged in one outstanding iPhone App. This is the first ‘Central’ packages to be released in App Store.
One of the most important features noticed is the wireless update where tapping on the right upper reciprocal update arrows takes us into the most recent database update of the app. These updates are not a joke, they are real and for example they just recently updated Tabers into their latest 21st edition as it was showing before the previous 20th edition and also just recently they added the Handbook of Nursing Diagnosis for institutional subscribers and as an optional add-on to individual subscribers.
The stuffing of this app is astonishing as you can get Davis Drug guide, Medline journals, Davis lab and dxstic tests, Diseases and Disorders, Tabers, and the handbook all for only one subscription price of $160 per year. The added prices of these components goes well above $200 if they are purchased separately.
The Nursing Central just like all other Unbound titles is available as a website. Just visit http://nursing.unboundmedicine.com on your desktop or mobile. The website version has an extra box of recent PDA medical news and it still includes the previous 20th edition of Tabers.
Another high level of functionality is the cross linking button where you can find related entries to your keyword in the other portions of the package. For example as shown above in the video, when reading about Acromagaly in Diseases and Disorders you can cross linked with related info found in the Davis drug guide and lab references, this undoubtedly useful at the beside and integrates the content into a single completer all-in-one application.
This is a great gift from Unbound Medicine and we can’t wait to see Pediatrics Central on our iPhone and iPod Touch devices!
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