ER wait times apps -- good for hospital revenue but may discourage patients from seeking care? American Medical News
Track inventory with an app: Medical Tracking Solutions released an iPhone/iPad app that helps hospitals and clinics track their medical devices. iTraycer, which is also in development for BlackBerry and Android devices, includes FDA product recalls and expiration dates and can alert staff to remove devices in the event of a recall or expiration. Inventory data can be entered manually or with the help of a barcode or RFID reader and the phone's GPS technology can even enable the system to mark deliveries with location and time stamps. MedGadget Video Below:
iPad vs. the dedicated speech devices: The Wall Street Journal published a must-read feature story for anyone interested in assistive technologies: "Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in an interview that he hopes the easy-to-use design of the iPad has helped children with special needs take to the device more quickly, but that its use in therapy wasn't something Apple engineers could have foreseen. 'We take no credit for this, and that's not our intention,' Mr. Jobs said, adding that the emails he gets from parents resonate with him. 'Our intention is to say something is going on here,' and researchers should 'take a look at this.'" It's worth noting that Proloquo2Go was the only health or medical related app that made it into Apple's best of the AppStore year-end review in 2009. Also, revisit the controversy over expensive, dedicated speech devices that payers are willing to reimburse for vs. devices like the iPhone or iPad that users prefer to use but for which they receive no reimbursement. Interestingly, DynaVox, maker of some of the more popular dedicated speech devices, recently launched a smaller handheld device called Maestro. WSJ
Advocate Health Care in Illinois has created a GPS-enabled physician finder app for the iPhone. Release
When good apps get lost in the sea that is the AppStore: In a recent column The New York Times highlighted an app that helps people more easily register as an organ donor: "DonateLives, which is free, was promptly lost in the sea of entertainment, sports and utility offerings that dominate Apple’s App Store. It has been downloaded fewer than 1,000 times — which is a shame for those who are interested in public health issues and those who are inclined to donate." New York Times
Orthopaedic manipulative therapy how-to: Clinically Relevant Solutions has created an app for iPhone and iPad called The Mobile OMT that provides instructions for almost 150 different orthopaedic manipulative therapy techniques. According to the company, the techniques included were ones that have been "used in clinical trials and reported in the peer-reviewed medical literature." The how-to material includes written instructions, high-quality video demonstration with audio overlay. The company's press release also points to interesting future plans: "The high quality videos highly support the use of this app as a teaching tool, especially on the iPad, which will soon support video out capabilities to use with an overhead projector." Press Release
Another reminder that mobile devices carry germs: PC World
