The advent of smart phones and their widespread use have instigated application developers to be more innovative and develop apps that are intuitive and suitable for various industries and professions. The growing awareness about healthcare has resulted in the emergence of healthcare app developers designing applications for promoting healthcare and well-being. There are numerous healthcare apps that are beneficial to healthcare organizations, patients as well as physicians. Here is a list of top android apps for healthcare professionals which were determined by two fourth year medical students on the basis of actual utility of the app for medical professionals:
Skyscape
Skyscape is among the top ten healthcare apps as it offers a wide range of services for medical students and physicians. It provides access to an incredible range of medical calculators, paid textbooks, periodical medical updates and alerts, drug reference and select practice guidelines. Moreover, it is available on all Android platforms. It is a priceless decision-support tool that enables nurses and doctors find the answers they need quickly as it provides clinical information on over 850 topics. Skyscape Medical resources also offers 600 other premium sources related to over 35 different specialities.
Medscape
Medscape is a comprehensive medical application and is the number one downloaded medical app on the Android platform. It provides an exhaustive amount of free information that include about over 7,000 drug references, 3,500 disease clinical records, 2,500 clinical images and procedure videos as well as a drug interaction tool checker. It gives daily medical news from Medscape News and provides updates on 34 different specialities. It is an encyclopedia that enlists protocols for disease pathologies and functions as a quick reference tool that provides instructional medical procedure videos. This app is useful not only for physicians but even for nurses and medical students as well.
WebMD
This is a great simulation app that provides information and decision making tools to aid in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of treatment provided by physicians. The 3D figure enables the healthcare professional to figure out what is troubling the patient by just tapping on the specific part of the body that the patient has issues with. It provides a wide range of tools such as WebMD’s Symptom Checker, First Aid Information, Local Health Listings and Drugs & Treatments which enable the doctor to come up with a successful course of treatment to be followed. This is a free app that can be downloaded from Google Play Store.
Epocrates
This is a very famous app among healthcare professionals as it provides a free drug application called the Epocrates Rx which gives access to numerous tools such as drug monographs, pill identifier, health plan formularies and a drug-drug interaction checker. This is a free app, however, if more extensive information is required, there are other apps that can purchased from the Google Play Store such as Epocrates Essentials Deluxe and Epocrates Rx Pro.
Ob (Pregnancy) Wheel
As the name implies, this app is targeted towards obstetricians and gynecologists. However, this app can be useful even for general physicians and other doctors and this multi-function app can calculate the pregnancy dates down to very last and minute detail. It enables doctors to calculate the last menstrual period, time of conception, due date as well as weeks gestational age. This also works as a record of all patients and stores all patient information, lab records and test results. The latest pro version enables the doctor to import the saved data and make a back-up of the app as well.
Calculate by QxMD
This is app was developed by a collaboration of medical experts from various fields and is front-runner is offering clinical calculators for health providers. It provides access to over 150 unique calculators and other decision support tools. These tools are often grouped together according to each specialty such as cardiology, neurology etc.. for easier access. The tools offered by the app function as a guide for treatment and help to determine prognosis and dosage.
There are hoards of other apps for the Android platform and all these are aimed at making the service provided by doctors and healthcare professionals much more timely and effective!