In hopes of rapidly pushing new knowledge into clinical practice, mobile medical calculator developer QxMD has collaborated with a major journal and a research team to introduce an app based on new research at the same time the study lead presented the evidence at a conference.
Monday at the annual World Congress of Nephrology, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Dr. Navdeep Tangri of Boston-based Tufts Medical Center presented a paper in which he discussed an equation he and colleagues developed to calculate the risk of renal failure and the need for dialysis in patients with chronic kidney disease. Right about the time Tangri was speaking, the Journal of the American Medical Association published the paper online and QxMD unveiled an update to its Calculate by QxMD medical calculator for the iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry platforms based on Tangri’s predictive model.
Knowing a patient’s age, gender and test results for estimated kidney function, urine protein, blood calcium, phosphorus, bicarbonate and albumin levels, the model helps determine the probability of kidney failure two and five years down the line for someone with Stage 3 to 5 chronic kidney disease, according to Tangri’s paper.
Dr. Daniel Schwartz, founder of Vancouver-based QxMD, said this was the first time a mobile medical app had been released simultaneously with the presentation of new medical research. Schwartz tells MobiHealthNews that he and Tangri wanted to speed the acceptance of this new model into the practice of nephrology.
“It takes years before information becomes mainstream,” Schwartz said, "and for a variety of reasons. Part of it is, nobody wants to go first,” according to Schwartz. He also said predictive models “are very unwieldy, particularly at the bedside.”
Embed a model into a user-friendly app, and that might change, though. “I was in clinic today,” Schwartz, a nephrologist who also trained in internal medicine, said Tuesday evening. A patient asked about the chances he’d have to go on dialysis and Schwartz fired up the QxMD app. “I could calculate it right away.”
Researchers and grant funders also get frustrated with the slow pace of new knowledge finding its way into regular clinical practice, according to Schwartz. “They work so hard on the research,” he says. “A lot of granting agencies want to see a plan for research translation.”
Schwartz suggested that this simultaneous dissemination of research and app could have positive repercussions in public health.“We’re getting people to use the knowledge on day one,” he said. “I think this is one piece of that puzzle.”
Schwartz said he plans on repeating this exercise with future software updates. “I meet a lot of people who are very keen to collaborate,” he reported.
