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iPad and Medicine. (Apps, stories, Medicine-iPad stuff)

F

FutureStan

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 17, 2011
98
0
Hello everyone :D,

I wanted to share with you how I use my iPad as a medical resident, to help doctors or anyone that has to do anything with medicine, and also to maximize my iPad's usability in this field.

I am a 4th year resident specializing in Neurosurgery and have been using my iPad (first gen, Although tempted to get the White iPad 2, it fits better here lol) for about ten months now, and its been a pleasure using it in my residency.

When I first got my iPad it was relatively new meaning that not many people (compared to today) has seen an iPad yet, I bought it mainly for the Medical Apps, and being a resident in a very competitive hospital (I will refrain from naming it for the sole reason of privacy) can be.. well.. competitive. Meaning that not only do I have to be on top of things all the time, but also have access to every little detail, and the iPad was the best suitable product for this job. It even got me on a very interesting case of Spinal Trauma! (Usually the attending physicians switch residents by turns) Because the Chief of Neuro saw that I am sporting that new iPad he decided to "screw the turns" lol and to take me as his resident so he get to see the cool apps! and that next week he got it! (He obviously got the 64 GB 3G version with some extremely expensive leather case, why? because he can afford it. that and a Ferrari :eek:).

Here are a list of the Apps I'm using a lot these days: :rolleyes:

-The Nervous System - iPad edition: This is a great app, I mostly like it because I can show the patients the visuals that are absolutely wonderful.
-The Skeletal System Pro
-PubMed on Tap
-Medical Lab Tests.
-Blausen Human Atlas.

I use some other Apps as well but these are the ones I could remember at the top of my head.

So which one do you (doctors) use? And what other experiences do you have with the iPad whether you were a doctor or a patient?

And if you were (god forbid) a patient would you like your doctor to have an iPad (or any tablet for that matter) or would you hate it for some reason?
 
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Not a doctor but I have always wondered what the one is Apple shows off on it's adverts when they show doctors using the iPad.
 
My doctor (neurologist) has an iPad. He has some sort of a program that lets him look up insurance company rules for patients. Also uses it for note taking.

He also showed me photos he took on his last vacation that he had transferred to his iPad.
 
back in the day, the newton MP2100 also had a big following in the medical community.... drug calculators, references, etc... the ipad is a better device, so it'll be used alot in the hospitals, etc
 
The 3D Brain app is pretty cool. It was one of the first apps I installed last year when the iPad came out. I don't know if it's detailed enough for you though.
 
I frequently use Blausen Anatomy, Cardiovascular HD, BMJ, Oxford Clinical Medicine and Papers for pubmed stuff. I agree that the iPad is fantastic for medicine.
 
I'm not a DR either, but I am a patient. I suffer from Pompe's and Fibromyalgia. I track a lot of things on my iPad, including my migraines (triggers, what helps them, what I've eaten, etc). I also log my medications and what pharmacy they are at (we use 3 diff pharmacies).

Anyhow.. My point is.. MOST of them have an "export" option. You can export to email or what not. I've sent the records to my DR and he has a picture perfect document of how frequent, how much, triggers, etc.. It helps manage my care so nicely.

Here's the apps I use:
My Medical (set up profiles for the kids too, you can track immunizations & more)
Pill Tracker
iHeadache (only avail on the iPhone at the moment)
Fibromyalgia
Medicine (iPhone only)
Walgreens (You can refill meds with one click!)
MileBug (track mileage for appts and what not for taxes)

I'd love to see what others are using! I know my DR LOVES my records.. he always says I am his easiest patient because all he has to do is browse over my spreadsheets! I do think this has HELPED my treatment!
 
Hey,

I'm beginning my residency in Vancouver and throughout medical school I have used a number of apps. Honestly, most apps out there arent that great. However, with my iPad 2 and a 3G connection I can access "uptodate" with a few clicks. Uptodate.com is the only website most doctors/residents will trust and is incredibly useful. Is anyone else using uptodate with an iPad 2.

Cheers
 
As a student I have found epocrates and Medscape to be great, especially trying to learn all the generic vs brand names. I also have prescribers letter but I think you have to pay for that.

Radiology 2.0 is a great app. It has 50 or so CTs and just tells you the cc. Then a discussion is held afterwards with links back to the image where they saw the problem, ie free air or whatever.

Littman sound builder has been okay for review of heart sounds, but I only opened it once. Need a headset as some sounds are low.

What I have found most beneficial is putting my lectures into the iPad. Now when I have free time I can open a lecture and review the material. The books are great as well. No more carrying around current with me, I have the electronic version. Makes studying ten times easier and lighter!

I also have some anatomy pics up that have helped describing things to patients. I dont pay for apps usually and most medical apps seem like they are at least 5 bucks, some being 50.

As a student I have found it to be a big help. Everyone kind of looks at me funny when I break it out, but once they see how I use it they want one.
 
Papers

I also use Papers, both on my desktop and on my iPad. I have been using it for a few years and I really don't know how I managed my journal PDFs without it.
 
Logilouie said:
Hey,

I'm beginning my residency in Vancouver and throughout medical school I have used a number of apps. Honestly, most apps out there arent that great. However, with my iPad 2 and a 3G connection I can access "uptodate" with a few clicks. Uptodate.com is the only website most doctors/residents will trust and is incredibly useful. Is anyone else using uptodate with an iPad 2.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Boo Canucks. Go Hawks.
 
I'm a chief resident in surgery (2 months before finishing training) have an iPad 1. I can access my patients medical records, imaging, operating room scheduling and a bundle of windows applications remotely using the beautiful citrix app.

I also can access the university's library remotely and read papers 24/7. My surgical books (10 of them) are on iBook format and I can access them without Internet connection everywhere. I also have skyscape, epocrates and multiple other apps daily.

My iPad is kind of big to shuffle around the hospital at all times, no worries, all this functionality is reproduced on my iPhone.
 
I am a third year medical student (US allopathic) and have found the iPad to be a great study tool. I combine it with my iPhone and MBP and I always have access to the data I need. I mainly use the following apps:

Epocrates
Dropbox
Papers
Citrix (too bad not all of our hospitals support this)
Eponyms
GoodReader

And to the OP...if you use it in medicine you have to go with the white iPad 2 (that was my reasoning at least :p)
 
MUBiomed said:
I am a third year medical student (US allopathic) and have found the iPad to be a great study tool. I combine it with my iPhone and MBP and I always have access to the data I need. I mainly use the following apps:

Epocrates
Dropbox
Papers
Citrix (too bad not all of our hospitals support this)
Eponyms
GoodReader

And to the OP...if you use it in medicine you have to go with the white iPad 2 (that was my reasoning at least :p)
Click to expand...

Epocrates is a terrific app, especially if you take multi-vitamins and wanna check interactions
 
Good thread. I am a practicing physician, specialty PM&R. I thought of starting a thread for those of us in the medical field. Some bigger hospitals are using the ipads for docs to make rounds with and for charting. The EMR I use will be adding an app by the summer for office charting. The hospital iI make rounds is in the process of getting final approval for there to an app to acces hospital patient records and charting.
 
Thank you everyone, great posts, I'm really glad there are both Doctors and Patients posting here!

I will be trying to post my different "experiences" with the iPad/Medicine combination and will try to keep you updated on which apps I'm using.

I forgot one of my absolutely favorite Apps: AirStrip Patient Monitoring. And its self-explaintory.

I just got an RSS from Apple:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/profiles/medtronic/?sr=hotnews.rss

I will difinetly be looking at Apps from Medtronic soon.
 
GRuizMD said:
I'm a chief resident in surgery (2 months before finishing training) have an iPad 1. I can access my patients medical records, imaging, operating room scheduling and a bundle of windows applications remotely using the beautiful citrix app.

I also can access the university's library remotely and read papers 24/7. My surgical books (10 of them) are on iBook format and I can access them without Internet connection everywhere. I also have skyscape, epocrates and multiple other apps daily.

My iPad is kind of big to shuffle around the hospital at all times, no worries, all this functionality is reproduced on my iPhone.
Click to expand...

I have the possibility to use Citrix app as well, I haven't tried it yet, but I might just do, One thing I'm very curious about is the simplicity of the App? and how quick can you access records needed?

I feel comfortable with some complicated apps, but I rarely use these in the hospital since I usually just need to access records or monitor as fast and as efficient as possible.
 
Logilouie said:
Hey,

I'm beginning my residency in Vancouver and throughout medical school I have used a number of apps. Honestly, most apps out there arent that great. However, with my iPad 2 and a 3G connection I can access "uptodate" with a few clicks. Uptodate.com is the only website most doctors/residents will trust and is incredibly useful. Is anyone else using uptodate with an iPad 2.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Native apps are coming this year.
 
Great thread, thanks to the OP for starting it.

I am a physician, finishing up my fellowship in Rheumatology. The hospital I will likely be working in after training does not yet have an EHR for charting but will soon in the next year or two.

I recently got an iPad 2 (love it!, my first iPad, but my wife has the 1st gen). That being said, I've been using my iPhone alot for medical usages in my field: FRAX calculator, DAS28 calculator, Epocrates, MedSpanish, EyeChart, MedCalc, CortiConvert, PubMed on Tap, Medscape, SonoAccess, STAT ICD9, Rheumatology Q&A, MD ezLabs, and Citrix.

I also store anatomic pics on my device to show patients prior to an office procedure such as a shoulder or knee injection/aspiration.

I haven't used my iPad yet in my training (a bit paranoid about having it stolen), but once I start working after training in a few months, I will getting a few of the high-end 3D musculo-skeletal anatomy apps and maybe some vids: Monster Anatomy HD, The Skeletal System Pro, Pocket Body (Musculoskeletal), etc.

My favorite thing about the iPad is that its so easy to keep up with the article topics that interest me (Health IT, Health Policy, Practice Management, and Rheumatology). I do this by subscribing to the twitter feeds of many websites and journals, and then I can view their links via Flipboard or the Twitter client for iPad.

This is what the iPad skeptics and the copy cats don't get about the iPad: the hardware is just a means to an end to access the incredible variety of apps on the device in a high quality user friendly format with convient interoperability and exchange between platforms (iPad, iPhone, and Mac).

The iPad is not a media tablet. That's the same as describing a house by a single room in it. The iPad is an everything device.
 
Logilouie said:
Yeah? Is this posted somewhere? I couldn't find any information on it. Any idea of a time frame?
Click to expand...

I too would like to know about a native UptoDate app since that would be top notch. We have access to it anywhere on WiFi owned by the University or hospital, but I might have to splurge on a personal account if there was a slick native app I could use right from the iPad. :p
 
Great that uptodate has upcoming iOS apps.

my top medical apps are:

medscape (like the whole contents of emedicine on tap, FREE to boot :) and a robust interaction checker)
medcalc pro
oxford handbook of clinical medicine
eponyms
labtests
micromedex drug information
goodreader for pdfs of textbooks
simplenotes for you guessed it simple notes

*year 2 IM resident with ipad1
 
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