15 Essential Apps for Clinicians

15 More Smartphone Apps to Improve Your Practice
source: http://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/apps2?src=ptalk

1. Stay Current With News and Journals: Reeder 
2. Stay Current With News and Journals: Google Reader
3. Stay Current With News and Journals: Instapaper --- This app allows you to save interesting articles for future reading. If you come across a lengthy paper that you don't have time to read, just send it to Instapaper and read it later.
4. Stay Current With News and Journals: Downcast ---Downcast allows you to follow and keep track of Podcasts, including new episodes as they become available. The app supports both audio- and videocasts. Many medical publications these days have weekly or biweekly summary podcasts. For internal medicine, I like to follow Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Archives of Internal Medicine. For rheumatology news, I subscribe to Medscape Rheumatology.
5. Access Important Files on the Go: Dropbox
6. Access Important Files on the Go: Evernote --- Within a Web browser, you can use the Evernote clipping add-on to save pages being viewed. On your mobile, you can take pictures, write notes, and record sound. Everything gets synced with the cloud.
7. Access Important Files on the Go: Genius Scan --- use an app called Genius Scan in conjunction with Evernote when I want to save a multipage PDF document to Evernote.
8. Access Important Files on the Go: LogMeIn --- LogMeIn allows you to access your computer from your mobile device. I have used LogMeIn to access patient schedules and to review charts and labs.
9. Time Management: Wunderlist ---Wunderlist has all of these features (ability to create folders and a priority hierarchy; set up reminders for date, time, and/or location; voice input for easy entry; a note option for more complex tasks; an easy-to-navigate user interface; and being available in/on multiple platforms and devices ) and is beautifully designed. It has a desktop version that can sync with your mobile.
10. Remember Web Addresses and Passwords: Xmarks ---Xmarks is a cross-platform app that keeps all of your bookmarks synced across different browsers (eg, Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari) and mobile devices. This app is especially useful on a tablet or small-screen device, where it is hard to type long addresses.
11. Remember Web Addresses and Passwords: LastPass --- The first step in setting up LastPass is to create a master password. This will be the last password you will need to remember. (LastPass -- get it?)
12. Remember Web Addresses and Passwords: Kypass ---This app will not fill in any forms or passwords, but it will keep your passwords safe, sound, and accessible.
13. Reference Resources and Score Calculators: DAS Calc ---This calculator offers multiple ways to calculate DAS, including using ESR, CRP, and/or patient global health. It also includes the CDAI and SDAI assessment tools as a bonus. The app can tell you when a patient is in remission or has high disease burden.
14. Reference Resources and Score Calculators: Lab Gear and Medscape --- Lab Gear is a very useful app that not only shows normal values for many labs (which any EMR should be providing nowadays) but also provides background information on what is being measured, differential diagnosis, and common symptoms when abnormalities are found.
15. Reference Resources and Score Calculators: My Pain Diary ---This app lets you record pain levels on a calendar and describe associated factors, such as triggers, alleviating symptoms, nature of the pain, and location. It automatically adds weather data to the diary as well.
    
    

Contributor Information

Author
Bruno S. Oliveira, MD, Staff Physician, Billings Clinic, Billings, Montana

Disclosure: Bruno S. Oliveira, MD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.