7 Mobile Health Apps for Medical Professionals & Patients

The Rise of mHealth

In recent years, mobile technology has expanded its influence within the medical and health care industry. Mobile health (mHealth) is a category of electronic health (eHealth) that uses mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, for health services, information and education. Free or inexpensive mobile health apps have become widely available for both medical professionals and patients. As you can see, mobile healthcare app users worldwide nearly doubled from 2011 to 2012.

Revenue generated my mHealth apps is on the rise as well.

According to an O’Reilly Radar article:

In June 2012, real health apps and services are here — and their potential to change how society accesses health information, deliver care, lowers costs, connects patients to one another, creates jobs, empowers care givers and cuts fraud is profound. The venture capital community seems to have noticed the opportunity here: according to HHS Secretary Sebelius, investment in healthcare startups is up 60% since 2009.

Here are a few mobile health apps worth checking out.

4 mHealth Apps for Medical Professionals

1. Skeletal System Pro III (iPad and iPhone, $14.99)
Skeletal System Pro III, developed by 3D4Medical in collaboration with the Stanford Unviersity School of Medicine, is a valuable learning and reference tool that shows detailed 3-D images of the human body. Users can tap to zoom in, rotate, cut and get superior and inferior views of each body part. This mobile health app is perfect for medical students, physicians and educators.

2. Mobile MIM Radiology App (iPad and iPhone, free)
This FDA-approved radiology imaging app, created by Mobile MIM, provides wireless and portable access to medical images, including: SPECT, PET, CT, MRI, X-ray and Ultrasound. It allows doctors to store diagnostic-quality X-rays in the cloud and zoom to highlight different areas of an image.

3. Medscape (iPad and Iphone, free)
Medscape, from WebMD, is the most downloaded free medical app on iTunes and used by more than 1.4 million health care professionals. The app offers medical news and alerts in 34 specialty, as well as a comprehensive drug reference section (including herbal drugs), an interaction checker and continuing medical education. Medscape also allows offline access.

4. drawMD (iPad, free)
The drawMD app aims to improve the patient-physician relationship by helping doctors explain medical problems and procedures through images. The app allows a user to sketch, stamp or type directly onto the included detailed anatomic images. Drawings produced within drawMD can be emailed to patients and family members to help them remember conversations.

3 mHealth Apps for Patients

1. VueMe (iPad and iPhone, free)
VueMe is the patient’s version of the MobileMIM app, offering patients non-diagnostic views of medical images. Users can view their own medical images to go along with their doctor’s explanations. The app has real-time multi-modality fusion and blending, 3-D models, videos, audio lectures, quizzes and text for a detailed learning experience.

2. Fooducate (iPhone and Android, free)
Fooducate helps users make quick, healthy decisions at the supermarket by scanning a product barcode for good and bad features, ingredients and healthier alternatives (more than 200,000 unique products available). The mobile health app also allows users to search for products or browse by categories.

3. FitnessClass (iPad, free download)
FitnessClass offers a selection of more than 300 fitness classes by PumpOne (for individual purchase or available with a monthly or yearly in-app subscription). The app lets users stream workout videos over WiFi or 3G while listening to their own music, keep track of workouts and see estimated calorie counts for each class.

Applico’s mHealth Apps

1. Sagent (iPhone, iPad)
This anesthesiologist application allows users to input data, analyze data, access the timer, or brush up educational material. This app can auto-fill through smart processing and makes it easy for users to compare information through a dynamic bar graph.

2. ConvaTec (iPhone)
ConvaTec is a leading developer and marketer of innovative medical technologies inspired by improving the lives of millions of patients around the world. ConvaTec’s app includes the following key business units – Ostomy Care, Wound Therapeutics, Continence and Critical Care, and Infusion Devices. This app provides a broad array of products and customer solutions developed from rigorous science and borne from our collaboration with healthcare professionals and end-users.

Filed under: Product Engineering | Topics: apps, mHealth, mobile health, platforms