What are Mobile Tools? Mobile tools are smartphones. If you think that today's smartphone surge is reflective of our need for instant communication, think again. There has always been a drive to create tools that have allowed for instant human communication. To fully appreciate the increased technology and decreasing size of the communication device itself, here is a brief history lesson on human communication via mobile tools.
Mobile technology debuted with Marconi's telegraph system in 1896. It might seem far-fetched to think of the telegraph wire and the smartphone as being related but its true. The telegraph machine allowed for the long distance transmission of messages. Now scroll forward to the 1950's. Mobile technology really begins to change with the Soviet invention of the first true portable mobile phone known as the radiophone. A few years later companies like AT&T began applying for band widths to support cellular systems. In 1973, the modern cell phone was released by Motorola. The picture is the proud inventor, Dr. Martin Cooper posing here to recreate the moment. In 1990, the 2G network was launched by Radiolinja, a Finnish company. One year later, DoCoMo, a Japanese company, created the 3G network which served 295 million subscribers. The first smartphones, as we know them, appeared around 2001 with the release of the BlackBerry and the Treo. The highly anticipated Apple iPhones were released in 2007. Next up was Google's Nexus. It uses the Android open source operating system and perhaps is the iPhone's first realy competition.
Medicine on the Net, a publication that tracks internet trends, reported that 81% of physicians will own smartphones by 2012. Competition is expected to be fierce as is the operating systems battle for first place. Speculation made today is that the Android phone will be the winner. But who knows for sure what will really happen in this competitive market?
It is generally agreed that a smart phone has the following features:
1. Identifiable operating system like Palm OS or iPhone OS
2. Email capabilities
3. Personal organizer
4. Key pad or touch screen
5. Built in camera
6. Internet connectivity
The smartphone's success really depends upon the applications or apps. The more apps you can use from your phone, the less you will store on your desktop. Listed below are some suggestions and where to find good recommendations and reliable evaluations.
There are currently over 1500 medical apps available at the iPhone App store. Software Advice, a blog that evaluates software for physicians and students, has looked at the iPhone apps and found 55 worth downloading. Here is a link to their recommendations. The list includes apps for anatomy, calculators, lab tests, clinical support, and learning tools. Not all of the apps are free, but most are with the most expensive topping out at $49.99. This list was released in October, 2009 so it should be current.
Your favorite medical blogger is also be a good resource. If you don't have a favorite, try KevinMD at KevinMD.com and enter medical apps in the search box. Or even a Google search can lead you to some excellent websites and blogs. If you are a new Android owner, see the section below.
A word of warning. There are many apps being developed but not all of them are designed by those with a clinical background. Make sure the app you chose is safe.
Miscellaneous Sites
Mobile MedlinePlus (Free)
http://m.medlineplus.gov/
Search the National Library of Medicine consumer health library via your phone.
Radiopaedia (Free+$)
http://www.radiopaedia.org/
This is a radiology wiki. Registered users make make and edit the site. The iPhone section contains teaching modules and charges for downloads.
PubMed AppsSearch the National Library of Medicine consumer health library via your phone.
Radiopaedia (Free+$)
http://www.radiopaedia.org/
This is a radiology wiki. Registered users make make and edit the site. The iPhone section contains teaching modules and charges for downloads.
There are different ways to search PubMed than just through the National Library of Medicine. The apps are not very sophisticated as of yet. Expect them to be more robust in the future, i.e. accessing full-text.
PubMed Mobile (Free)
http://pubmedhh.nlm.nih.gov/
PubMed's interface for mobile devices.
PubSearch (Free)
http://www.deathraypizza.com/deathraypizza/PubSearch_Home.html
(Deathraypizza is the name of the company who developed this app.)
This is a basic PubMed search interface.
PubMed on Tap ($)
http://www.referencesontap.com/
Another way to get at PubMed. A little more advanced that PubMedSearch as it allows for some full-text access.
UnboundMedline (Free)
http://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/ebm
This part of the Unbound Medicine company which has other fee-based medical apps. The evidence based medicine app is free.
Other Databases
Also, some of the subscription databases held by the medical library are available via your mobile device. You can access MDConsult Mobile if you create a personal account from our MDConsult database link. EBSCOhost (CINAHL, Academic Search Premier and others) also has a mobile interface. Finally, RefWorks, the library's reference management tool has a mobile interface that is available to all registered users.
Look for mobile enhancements in the future from other databases.
There are not as many apps but the with its increased popularity, there will be definitely more to follow. Here is a short list of medical apps that are currently available to you.
AgileMedCalc
http://www.agilemedicine.com/mainsite/agilemedcalc
AgileMedSearch
http://www.agilemedicine.com/mainsite/agilemedsearch
QXMed
http://www.qxmd.com/home
Unbound Medicine
https://www.unboundmedicine.com/ubstore/ub/android
What Next?
More and more programs are being developed for the smartphone making them an excellent replacement for your computer desktop. Some may seem like an obvious transition, others may not. Listed below are several examples.
1. Image viewing
Picture archiving and communication systems used by radiologists to view images in the office are now mobile. One example is OsiriX Imaging Software system, an innovative system which first allowed physicians to download images to their iPods. The program can now be downloaded to an iPhone and is available either for free or a paid, more sophisticated version.
2. Electronic medical record (EMR) integration
Applications will integratet a patient's EMR with their physician's smartphone. PatientKeeper is one of the first application on the market but there will be more to follow. Each EMR company will be developing their own tools. If you are curious, here is the link to PatientKeeper.
3. Mobile health monitoring
As an example, diabeteic patients can track their glucose levels by using a customized tracking program on their smartphones. Here is an example on YouTube. At the next office visit, the patient need only display their saved results. This type of monitoring could easily be applied to other medical conditions.
4. Mobile testing
Physicians can download tools such as eye charts, color blindness tests, hearing tests, stress checks and many others and access them as they go from one exam or patient room to the next. One innovative program that measures spine curvature, the CobbMeter, takes advantage of the smartphone accelerometer -a device that detects motion. (This allows the phone to sense when you turn the phone left or right. It will then change the display to landscape or portrait.) Measurements using this device are precise to 1/10th of a degree.
5. Videos
More and more institutions will be using videos as a teaching tool. Instructional videos have available for a while through various databases and journal sites. But now they will be available as an app.
6. Disease Mapping
HealthMap integrates disease outbreak data from news sources, personal accounts and official alerts and displays them on a Web site. The app for this is OutbreaksNearMe. The beauty of this site is that the information is almost in real time. There is no need to wait for government disease releases.
7. Augmented Reality
You may not be familiar with this term but you have probably seen it hundreds of times if you are a football fan. It is that yellow that appears across the field to mark the first down. Another example can be found at WIKITUDE World Browser. (Click on World Browser located at the bottom left of the screen for demo video.) But how does this translate to health care? If you are a patient coming to a hospital for the first time, you will be able to point your phone at the facility and view detailed information, such as a staff directory, phone numbers and buildings maps. The front information desk redesigned!
8. Homer Simpson leads the way?
The Simpsons have been including some aspect of social media in their story line. Here is Homer Simpson showing us something new with his iPhone. This is not recommended for the non-professional.
*Assignment*
1. Image viewing
Picture archiving and communication systems used by radiologists to view images in the office are now mobile. One example is OsiriX Imaging Software system, an innovative system which first allowed physicians to download images to their iPods. The program can now be downloaded to an iPhone and is available either for free or a paid, more sophisticated version.
2. Electronic medical record (EMR) integration
Applications will integratet a patient's EMR with their physician's smartphone. PatientKeeper is one of the first application on the market but there will be more to follow. Each EMR company will be developing their own tools. If you are curious, here is the link to PatientKeeper.
3. Mobile health monitoring
As an example, diabeteic patients can track their glucose levels by using a customized tracking program on their smartphones. Here is an example on YouTube. At the next office visit, the patient need only display their saved results. This type of monitoring could easily be applied to other medical conditions.
4. Mobile testing
Physicians can download tools such as eye charts, color blindness tests, hearing tests, stress checks and many others and access them as they go from one exam or patient room to the next. One innovative program that measures spine curvature, the CobbMeter, takes advantage of the smartphone accelerometer -a device that detects motion. (This allows the phone to sense when you turn the phone left or right. It will then change the display to landscape or portrait.) Measurements using this device are precise to 1/10th of a degree.
5. Videos
More and more institutions will be using videos as a teaching tool. Instructional videos have available for a while through various databases and journal sites. But now they will be available as an app.
6. Disease Mapping
HealthMap integrates disease outbreak data from news sources, personal accounts and official alerts and displays them on a Web site. The app for this is OutbreaksNearMe. The beauty of this site is that the information is almost in real time. There is no need to wait for government disease releases.
7. Augmented Reality
You may not be familiar with this term but you have probably seen it hundreds of times if you are a football fan. It is that yellow that appears across the field to mark the first down. Another example can be found at WIKITUDE World Browser. (Click on World Browser located at the bottom left of the screen for demo video.) But how does this translate to health care? If you are a patient coming to a hospital for the first time, you will be able to point your phone at the facility and view detailed information, such as a staff directory, phone numbers and buildings maps. The front information desk redesigned!
8. Homer Simpson leads the way?
The Simpsons have been including some aspect of social media in their story line. Here is Homer Simpson showing us something new with his iPhone. This is not recommended for the non-professional.
*Assignment*
1. Read this post on KevinMD's Blog about the Android phone vs. the iPhone.
2. Again, KevinMD has a post comparing the iPhone and the Blackberry
2. Again, KevinMD has a post comparing the iPhone and the Blackberry
Address the following questions in your blog
Epocrates was one of the first databases that was available using a hand held device. If you were one of these early users, how cool was it?
If you currently have a smartphone, why did you chose the one you did?
Why did you chose this thing?
How much time did you spend on this thing?
*Extra Challenge*
Enjoy this video that features yet another way to use the iPhone.
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