Pocket.MD: A Directory of Pharma and Medical Mobile Apps February 7, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Web 2.0.add a comment
POCKET.MD is the first and only online directory specifically focused on mobile applications created by healthcare companies. It was launched by Fabio Gratton.
POCKET.MD is the world’s first and only online service focused exclusively on providing the most comprehensive directory of mobile applications created by phamaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies.
PharmApps: Wiki of Pharma Mobile Apps January 23, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Web 2.0, Mobile, Pharma.add a comment
As the PharmApps site declares, it’s good that we have more and more pharma mobile apps, but it’s becoming increasingly hard to track them and find what we need. So PharmApps aimed at creating a database of these by using proper tags and categories.
We know that in this digital age, the best feedback happens when a broad group of individuals has the ability to upload and comment on content being shared for all to use and digest. We’ve built a resource, or wiki, that, by design, will grow through the input and insight of people interested in the healthcare marketplace, mobile technologies, and apps. The PharmApps wiki aggregates pharma/healthcare apps and gives users the ability to add comments, write reviews, rate apps, and share and upload new apps. The apps are categorized by branded, unbranded, audience, and operating system so users can easily sort through this growing resource. The site will continue to evolve, addressing ongoing feedback, new developments, and our collective learning along the way.
Personally, I still like this database as well.
From E-patient Hackers to Health Games on Mobiles January 6, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in e-patient, Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Video, Web 2.0, What's on the web?.4 comments
The study (in Danish) involved asking subjects to post a clinical scenario on their wall and ask their friends for a potential diagnosis. The setup for the paper by Dr. Lars Folkestad and others seems a little artificial, but if you consider that a certain amount of diseases are infectious or genetic in origin then a question to your social and/or family circles is likely to find someone who has had a similar episode and already been diagnosed.
The prestigious Mayo Clinic in the US will launch the pilot study early next year as part of an ambitious move towards an era of “proactive genomics” that puts modern genetics at the centre of patient care.
The trial reflects a growing trend in medicine to use genetic information to identify those patients who will benefit most from a drug and those who will respond better to an alternative.
Damon Brown found a kidney on Facebook after telling his story on a special page the Seattle dad created under the name, “Damon Kidney.” His friends and family forwarded the link to everyone they knew and on Jan. 3 a woman his wife has known for years, but not someone they consider a close family friend, will be giving him a kidney.
Not surprisingly, the survey of 1,000 adults found that younger people were more likely to use social media than older people for healthcare purposes. Overall, nearly a third of respondents, and 50 percent of those under the age of 35, had used social media for healthcare purposes, which can range from registering a complaint to looking up informational videos on YouTube.
12 Predictions in Healthcare, Technology and Innovation for 2012 December 31, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in e-patient, eHealth, Facebook, Health, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Hospital, Innovation, List, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Pharma, Slideshow, Video, Web 2.0, Wikipedia.9 comments
Last year, I published a list of my predictions for 2011 in the areas of healthcare, innovation and technology. Now after a year, I checked these items and actually many of them proved to be right (year of tablets, Prezi.com skyrocketing, Siri leading the way for voice controlled apps, etc.), but now it’s time to come up with the predictions for 2012. Here are my 12 predictions, please feel free to add yours in the comment section.
1) Digital only class in social media for medical professionals and e-patients. Well, that’s quite an easy prediction, as I will launch the global form of my social media in medicine university course this February.
2) Social media policy everywhere. Now that we have an open access social media guide for and about pharma; it’s time for the FDA to come up with their own detailed instructions; also universities, healthcare institutions and medical practices, everyone must have its own as almost everyone is using social media intensively.
3) Augmented reality in radiology. Augmented reality has been a major issue for some time, but seeing the video below made it clear for me, this is where we are going to head in 2012. Doctors can see through patients.
4) Health-fitness gadgets will rock 2012. Myself, I’ve been using Striiv as a fitness motivation tool which also logs my data and visualizes my exercises making it easier for me to make plans and see how I’m doing. Other examples include Jawbone, but you can find even more if you follow the Quantified Self project.
5) Innovations in screen technologies. The form, material and functions of the screens we know now will change dramatically in 2012. Imagine paper screen, holographic screens or flexible screens on your wrist.
6) Internet TV and the operating room. The news sites are full of Apple TV and Google TV, so it’s obvious really innovative internet TVs will be launched in 2012 which brings up the idea of watching operations live on your TV at home. Just check OR-live.com.
7) Pharma will be using social media more intensively. I’m not saying all the pharma companies will have properly designed and managed social media presence, but many brands will use social media more intensively as we should be over now the so-called learing phase and they are getting braver by time.
8) More and more tablet-specific apps. I know the number of medicine/health-related mobile apps is growing rapidly, but now it’s time to turn to tablet-specific clinical apps that could be used in radiology, clinical trials or just for grand rounds.
9) Tablets in healthcare institutions. Whenever I talked to professors and colleagues about how I use my tablet in medicine and healthcare, in a few weeks, many of them had their own tablets and started using those apps. This is contagious. In 2012, a lot of hospitals, clinics and departments will hand out iPad or Galaxy Tabs to their employees in order to facilitate teamwork and make the work processes more efficient.
10) Wikipedia will have more medical featured articles, less medical errors. We recently published a paper describing how Wikipedia can be used for global public health promotion. After years of focus on creating new medical entries in Wikipedia, now we the editors focus on including proper references into medical articles. It is going to lead to a huge improvement in quality.
11) More health bloggers turn to microblogging due to lack of time. Although I believe my blog is still my major platform online even if Twitter is the fastest channel and Facebook is the most interactive. But I understand those health bloggers who leave their blogs and turn to Posterious, Tumblr or Twitter exclusively. It takes less time to post a message or entry therefore they will use these with a bigger chance.
12) Google+ health pages on the rise. I like Google+ and I think it could be used in medical communication successfully. As Google+ has only been letting companies or institutions have G+ pages, we are going to see a rise in their number soon. Even Ed Bennett who maintains a list of hospital social media accounts will include these as well.
Let’s finish my list with a great presentation about the trends in healthcare for 2012.
Pharma and the Super Mobile Revolution December 15, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Mobile, Pharma.add a comment
I was asked to contribute to the Pharma and Super Mobile Dossier of Firstworldplus.com. I wrote about the pros and cons of using a Samsung Galaxy Tab in medicine and healthcare.
Our latest report, iPad and Smartphone: Pharma and the Super Mobile Revolution examines the rapid changes in mobile and tablet technology, including the trend by HCPs and the industry to use multiple devices to positively impact work flow and business operations. The report tracks how the industry is addressing training, security, consumerization of IT within organizations and advances such as HTML5-Flash and apps.
As a bonus, we’re also offering The Impact of iPads on Pharma: a Primer, which offers a complete examination of what the industry has learned about tablets and how the post-PC tablet is changing internal productivity, growth and sales.
You can buy the report here.
Pocket Body iPhone app December 12, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Web 2.0.4 comments
I remember when I had to study all the details of human anatomy from textbooks and some old books with many pictures, but I didn’t have a chance to see things in 3D (which would have made it much easier to understand, learn and memorize). After medical school, I started to discover new apps and solutions for this problem.
I’ve been using the Biodigital app on Google Chrome, it’s free but a bit hard to use.
And recently, I’ve received a letter from the makers of the Pocket Body iPhone app which is just great, although fairly expensive.
Award winning Pocket Body features a fully anatomically accurate human character with nine layers of musculoskeletal, neurovascular, and internal organ visual content…plus over 30,000 words of learning material.
I hope you check it out and let me know what you think!
Mobile Health Slideshow and Infographics November 28, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Slideshow, Web 2.0.2 comments
Since around 2009, it has been quite clear that mobile phones would not only change the way we check healthcare information online, but the way we do anything online so relevant statistics and analyses are crucial in order to be able to analyze the situation and draw useful conclusions. I’ve recently come across a great presentation focusing on mobile health by Daniel Hooker, health librarian.
And Andrew Spong shared an infographics by Manhattan Research that presents the state of mobile health. 85% of people use social media for health-related reasons on mobiles. Click on the image for larger version.
News from Visualizing Pharma to the Kinect Effect November 8, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in e-patient, Genome, Health, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Video, Web 2.0, What's on the web?.add a comment
- Doctor heads to social media to find patients (video report)
People use their computer or phone to research places to eat, places to visit and things to buy. Sandy Hensley is part of a growing group of people finding medical needs there as well. ”I get all my other life recommendations on Twitter so I think it makes sense to me to make connections with people who you really want to trust like your health care providers on there.” Hensley said.
- This CPR training system gives feedback how you do chest compression:
The School of Medicine’s Office of Information Resources & Technology is launching this week a private, internal social-networking service, called CAP Network, that could dramatically alter communication among faculty, students, postdoctoral scholars and staff like the changes wrought on a much larger scale by Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Photo source: Bigstockphoto
Take a picture of your concern with your mobile camera. Send it as a MMS (Swedish SIM cards only) including relevant information as text in the MMS, or send your query via our iPhone app. We will respond as quickly as possible (within one day) with medical information.
Webicina’s Award-Winning iPhone App: Updated! September 3, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Web 2.0, Webicina.1 comment so far
The award-winning iPhone app of Webicina.com just got a new update. Download it for free! (Also on Android!)
Modified design, small changes in the content, better navigation among the medical social media resources it features. And new highscore board for the best health 2.0 quiz players.
Mobile Apps Regulated by FDA July 21, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in FDA, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Web 2.0.4 comments
FDA has published an announcement about regulations regarding medical mobile applications.
The agency’s draft guidance defines a small subset of mobile medical apps that impact or may impact the performance or functionality of currently regulated medical devices. This subset includes mobile medical apps that:
a. are used as an accessory to medical device already regulated by the FDA
(For example, an application that allows a health care professional to make a specific diagnosis by viewing a medical image from a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) on a smartphone or a mobile tablet); orb. transform a mobile communications device into a regulated medical device by using attachments, sensors or other devices
(For example, an application that turns a smartphone into an ECG machine to detect abnormal heart rhythms or determine if a patient is experiencing a heart attack).
Fortunately, some specific apps won’t be regulated:
- “that are electronic “copies” of medical textbooks, teaching aids or reference materials
- “that are solely used to log, record, track, evaluate, or make decisions or suggestions related to developing or maintaining general health and wellness.
- “that only automate general office operations with functionalities that includebilling, inventory, appointments, or insurance transactions.
- “that are generic aids that assist users but are not commercially marketed for a specific medical indication”
