Medical Schools Developing School-Specific Apps for Students

Since I recently suggested 5 Must-Have Apps for Medical Students, I found this article to be intriguing. Apparently, medical schools are starting to create their own apps for students in their programs. The articles lists five reasons why medical schools are starting to provide students with school-specific apps:

  1. There is no readily available means of knowing which apps are safe, reliable, and useful
  2. The apps are developed by clinicians and others out of real and specific needs
  3. A wide range of resources are readily available
  4. Reimbursement is not a prerequisite for development
  5. They are unique and complex healthcare institutions

Until certification programs, such as the one being developed by Happtique, are up and running, I would be wary of trusting just any medical app out there. For that reason alone, I think it is a good idea for med schools to create apps that they approve for students to use. That, or provide a list of apps that have been reviewed by professors and clinicians at the University. Because probably every student in medical school has a smart phone, this would be a great resource to have available for students.

Every school is different, even if the bulk of the material taught is the same. Having course-specific apps developed by clinicians and other educators at the school would be helpful for both students and teachers a like. The article mentioned that this could possibly encourage adoption success, which is a win-win all around. And going into number three, what better place to develop a medical app than a place that has just about every medical resource available? I would be way more likely to trust an app created using medical school resources than just some company that creates apps.

I feel like most of the reasons are similar and connected in some way, but they definitely make sense. While I’m not a med student, or anything close to it, I can definitely see the value in this. There are a lot of possibilities for great apps that could be created. It makes me wonder if possibly a new fee will be added to the already exorbitantly high tuition that comes with medical school: app creation fee. I don’t see this totally coming without a price!

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August 9, 2012 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Android  Apple  Gadgets  Health Care  Healthcare IT  Healthcare Social Media  iPad  iPhone  Medical Devices  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones  Tablets  Windows Phone
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New App Supposedly “Alleviates” Depression, According to Recent Study

There are approximately 58 million people who suffer from depression throughout the United States, according to the NIMH. The report converts this to about 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older (or one in four adults). Pew Research Center reported last year that 35 percent of American adults own a smart phone.

What do these two things have to do with each other? Well, some of those adults who suffer from depression might just have a smartphone, and if so, a new app might help heal their depression.

Viary, the name of the app, uses a common depression treatment called behavior activation. This treatment is a process where the patient and his or her therapist figure out which activities create the most positive feelings for the patient, and from there, create a “matrix” that helps the patient want to participate in those activities. by which the patient and therapist identify activities that are positive for the patient, and then create a matrix within which the patient will be motivated to engage in those activities more often.

The app encourages the user regularly to “engage in about 100 positive behaviors, such as cooking a meal or increasing social contact and participation.” People using the app began with a score, on average, of 25 on the BDI-II scale, which indicates moderate depression. At the end of the study done on the app, on average, participants ended with a score about 13 points higher.The study also claimed that almost 74 percent of the study’s participants were not considered depressed upon completing the study.

The study really was dependent on the app, which makes the results even more interesting. It didn’t include any health coaching or counseling, and the “only contact patients had with a clinician was a weekly email to psychology students about their symptoms and feelings for that week.”

Having suffered from depression myself at one point in my life, I would have loved an app like this. While some people need more than app to help treat their depression, I think many people could benefit from this. I’m interested in seeing if anymore studies come out about the effectiveness of this app.

The app isn’t yet available for download but will be soon.

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June 12, 2012 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Gadgets  Health Care  Healthcare IT  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones
Tags:Apps for Depression  BDI-II Scale    mHealth Depression Apps    Mobile Health Depression Apps  NIMH  Pew Research Center    Viary

Mobile Health Market Worth $2.1 Billion in 2011; Growth of 22% in Next Three Years

Another focus of the report is the growth of mobile health and the key role it will play in various areas of healthcare delivery, including education and awareness, remote data collection, remote monitoring, disease and epidemic outbreak tracking, and diagnostic and treatment support.

The mobile health market has a year-over-year growth rate of around 17% since 2010 and is estimated to be worth $2.1 billion at the end of 2011. The report also said the mobile health market is expected to grow with a CAGR of nearly 22% from 2012 to 2014.

“The buzz surrounding mobile healthcare has steadily grown during the past two years. There’s no question that this area holds enormous potential in terms of improving patient care in the U.S.,” the report concludes.

The main driver of mobile health’s growth is the increasing adoption of smartphones during the past few years. According to the report, at the end of 2009, smartphone penetration was around 21% and is expected to be 50% by the end of 2011. Further, over 72% of physicians are smartphone users, and mobile health applications embedded in smartphones are a main reason for this increased usage.

Another trend of note is the adoption of Apple’s iPad tablets. More than 20% of U.S. physicians already have iPads, the report said.

“There are over 10,000 applications related to mobile health of which around 40% are designed for healthcare professionals, which includes remote monitoring and healthcare management applications. Even the Apple iTunes application store has about 6,000 mobile health applications,” the report said. -Source

I don’t know that there are very many industries out there that are projecting 22% growth in the midst of a major recession.  While that is quite impressive, there is something that I find even more amazing.  In an article I referenced last month they estimated the value of the mobile health market at $1.7 billion by 2014.  However, this article, written only six months later, estimates the value of the mHealth market at $2.1 billion by the end of this year.  Now you could attribute this to an uncertain future for mHealth, but I see it as a sign that the mHealth market is growing bigger and more rapidly than anyone could have expected.  I think this is another one of those technological booms that we will all underestimate.

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May 26, 2011 I Written By

Filed Under: Health Care  Healthcare IT  iPad  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones  Tablets
Tags:Apple iTunes  Healthcare Management  iPad Tablets  mHealth Growth  Mobile Health Applications  

GE Smart Phone Health Care Apps

GE has launched a partnership with MedHelp to provide a number of health related smart phone apps. You can see them listed here with links to be able to download the apps.

The website is part of GE’s healthymagination and the website says “Tracking your health is easier when it’s broken down to specific activities. I guess that provides GE’s answer to my question about whether we’ll have dozens of health related smart phone apps or one main one to rule them all.

Here’s a look at the GE and MedHelp smart phone apps (which seem to only be available for the iPhone):
I’m Expecting – Keep track of everything that’s happening to you and your baby with 24/7 access to your information both from your phone and online.

Sleep on It – Take control of your sleep patterns with this app that combines alarm clock functionality, sleep data, and health data.

Moody Me – Have more happy days! Track your mood, note what affects it, and record any treatments you’re taking to find out what makes you feel good and what makes you sad so you can better manage your mood.

My Diet Diary – Record your food and exercise routines to stay on track toward your weight loss goals. Share your progress on Facebook and MedHelp to get encouragement from friends!

Pregnancy, Sleeping, Moods and Dieting. An interesting combination to start off with. I have a feeling we’re just barely getting started with health apps.

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March 8, 2011 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: and and .

Filed Under: Health Care  Healthcare IT  iPhone  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones
Tags:Dieting  GE  healthymagination  I'm Expecting    MedHelp    Mobile Health  Moods  Moody Me  My Diet Diary  Pregnancy  Sleep on It  Sleeping  

Welcome to Smart Phone Health Care!!

Thanks for visiting Smart Phone Health Care. We’re still putting everything together, but soon you will find all the latest and greatest gadgets and technology that you can use in Health Care. Yes, we’ll be covering the various smart phone apps for the iPhone, Android and iPad. We’ll also take a look at the other medical devices that can make physicians and patients lives much easier.

Come back soon to find all the great mobile technology that’s available for health care.

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January 24, 2011 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: and and .

Filed Under: Android  Health Care  iPad  iPhone  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones
Tags:    Health Care  Health Care Apps