Mobile apps are only as valuable as they are useful. We’ve advanced the user experience of our world-class drug reference app and added a singular channel to discover, store and access reliable tools. Furthermore, this is a fresh foundation for new partner engagements and opportunities to deliver even more value-add resources to our network.

While Epocrates is intended for clinicians, patients may also find the information contained in the application useful. For instance, Epocrates can check whether two medications interact with one another, which can help consumers avoid potential dangerous drug overdoses associated with combination medicines available over the counter. The app also provides safety information for prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, including safety during pregnancy and lactation.

While Epocrates is a powerful healthcare tool, it’s a reference tool; essentially, a set of computerized reference books. The app is not a substitute for diagnostic ability in a physician, or a visit to the doctor by a layperson.

Source: Epocrates

The GlucoDock is just one of the devices that can be connected to an iPhone or iPad to measure and record health information through the VitaDock software. Other devices include the ThermoDock, which measures body (or room) temperature via infrared, the CardioDock, which uses a cuff to measure and track blood pressure, and the TargetScale, which calculates a variety of body composition metrics, including body mass index (a ratio of weight to height) and body fat percentage.

Source: VitaDock

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have developed a free iPhone app called Caffeine Zone that helps users maintain their blood caffeine levels in the best range for optimal mental performance, while limiting potential negative effects — such as sleeplessness — later in the day.

From Penn State:

The researchers used peer-reviewed studies as input data to determine that caffeine drinkers with between 200 and 400 milligrams of caffeine in their bloodstream are in an optimal mental alertness zone. For sleep, the researchers set a lower threshold of 100 milligrams. Drinkers may have sleep problems if they remain above this.
The app can…help people determine when to modify their caffeine habits, so that they might choose to drink a decaffeinated beverage, or mix a blend of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffees.

Users supply the app with information about when and what type of caffeinated beverages they consume, and the app makes suggestions about timing of future beverage breaks. The app is available on iTunes for free (with advertisements) or for purchase (without advertisements) and only works on Apple devices.

Source: Penn State Live

LowestMed’s proprietary technology effectively makes prescription drug pricing transparent. The LowestMed app includes more than 1,000 of the most popular brand name and generic drugs, which comprise more than 95% of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the nation.

According to Brad Bangerter, CEO of LowestMed:

Most consumers don’t realize that prices can vary widely by pharmacy, and that up until this point the only way to do price comparisons on a local level was to go to each pharmacy and submit an insurance claim. With the LowestMed app, for the first time consumers are empowered with the full transparency to identify the least expensive drug prices in their area. We do for the pharmacy marketplace what Travelocity or KAYAK does for the travel industry, providing a one-stop, fast, convenient and easy way for consumers to maximize savings on their medications.

The app also includes a free LowestMed discount card, which when displayed at the point of sale provides savings of 10 to 85 percent off of retail prices.

In addition to the mobile app, users can also compare prices and lookup thousands of additional drug price comparisons at the LowestMed website.

Source: LowestMed

Powered by TeleThrive software, an instant connectivity platform built for the healthcare industry, Ringadoc enables patients to easily and quickly call doctors when facing a non-urgent medical illness. The iOS app and Android app are currently free.

You can call a doctor whenever you have a medical question — in the middle of the night, on weekends, or on holidays. In the time it takes you to research wellness remedies online, you could already have advice from an experienced doctor and a proven treatment plan. Ringadoc doctors can also prescribe antibiotics, antihistamines, and more at the time of your call.

Ringadoc uses advanced Internet and phone security technologies to protect your information. You control who has access to your electronic health record.

Most importantly, Ringadoc physicians are licensed, board-certified and prescreened by a professional credentialing team. All of them hold 10+ years of experience.

Pay-as-you-go consultations cost $39.99 per doctor call. Pre-paid plans are less expensive (per doctor call). Users record an audio summary of their medical history and a video describing their medical concern, which the doctor consults before speaking with the patient.

Source: Ringadoc

Enter the Emergency Medical Center Locator (EMCL) iPhone app, a free, public service app that helps you find the specialized emergency medical center closest to you — no matter where you are in the world. Featuring only the most advanced, state-of-the-art emergency care facilities with proven track records of stellar care, the app directs users to the closest medical center in one of six specialty areas, proving accurate, reliable information that can literally make the difference between life and death.

From the press release:

The EMCL App helps you find the specialized emergency medical center closest to you. There are six specialty areas in the EMCL app: Trauma, Stroke, Eye, Pediatric, Cardiac, and Burn. Only the most advanced and state of the art emergency care facilities with improved patient outcomes are included within the app. Some emergency rooms do not meet our criteria of having proven diagnostic and treatment capabilities in their care speciality with the most experienced staff.

Source: iTunes

Medicine 2.0 is the science of maintaining and/or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis and treatment of patients utilizing web 2.0 internet-based services, including web-based community sites, blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, folksonomies (tagging) and Really Simple Syndication (RSS), to collaborate, exchange information and share knowledge. Physicians, nurses, medical students and health researchers who consume web media can actively participate in the creation and distribution of content, helping to customize information and technology for their own purposes.

Communication amongst and between healthcare professionals and healthcare consumers is a necessary element to improve health and is critical for the delivery of optimal medical outcomes.

This edition of Medicine 2.0 covers a wide array of posts with one thing in common — Communication.

Web 2.0 Tools and Slideshows

Gunther Eysenbach’s Random Research Rants

Dr. Gunther Eysenbach presents an archiving system for Citing Blogs, Preserving Cited Webpages etc with WebCite.

Clinical Cases and Images

Do you Twitter? Dr. Ves Dimov offers A Doctor’s Opinion: Why I Started Microblogging on Twitter.

Scienceroll

23andMe presented a slideshow recently in Second Life in the latest session of the Scifoo Lives On series. Dr. Bertalan Meskó covers 23andMe in Second Life: LIVE.

Jay Parkinson+ MD + MPH

Dr. Jay Parkinson asks us to Look, posting a presentation from George Halvorson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente, about health reform.

Pharma 2.0

Bunny Ellerin writes about Within3 and the results of a survey at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference. There’s no doubt that social media is Changing Physician Behavior.

Online Video

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You

Dr. Steve Murphy writes about the upcoming second Helix Health CliniCast on genetic testing, genomic medicine and the science of accurate warfarin dosing, asking How’s that for Genomic Medicine by Press Release?

Digital Pathology Blog

The Digital Pathology Blog reports that Mayo Launches YouTube Channel with videos highlighting the latest research and treatment advances at Mayo Clinic.

WSJ Health Blog

The Wall Street Journal Health Blog discusses online doctor consults, announcing that The Doctor Will See You on the Webcam Now.

Information Tools and Tests

College@Home

Many of us might forget there’s other search tools out there besides Google. Laura Milligan provides a comprehensive list of 100 Useful Niche Search Engines You’ve Never Heard Of.

davidrothman.net

David Rothman posts An Evaluation of the Five Most Used Evidence Based Bedside Information Tools in Canadian Health Libraries, a recent study published in the journal Evidence Based Library and Information Practice.

Medgadget

Personalized Medical Search Engine: With Medgadget describes the inclusion of Medgadget in Scienceroll Search, a personalized medical search engine powered by Polymeta.com.

NursingDegree.Net

Jessica Merritt highlights a number of ways to use Google’s Personal Health Record (PHR), offering The Ultimate Guide to Google Health: 60+ Tips and Resources.

Canadian EMR

Digital records and privacy can be a mixed bag. Alan Brookstone reposts the media report UK Health Agency Loses 31,000 Patients Records.

Sharp Brains

Alvaro Fernandez writes about the Brain Age, Posit Science, and Brain Training Topics, reporting both good and bad news regarding the assessment and training of cognitive skills.

Microarray Blog

Albin Paul discusses the options for a Semantic Search Engine for PubMed — Microsoft Vs Yahoo Vs Google Vs Oracle in Semantic Web Search.

Tomographyblog

András Székely discusses TomographyBlogSearch in the Making, describing the SeekRadiology Project, a search engine for diagnostic imaging.

Doctor-patient Communication

Canadian Medicine

Graham Lanktree reviews a study of prepared patients and internet information, which finds that the Web Buoys Doctor-patient Communication.

Medical Economics

Gail Garfinkel Weiss writes how the shift from authority-based medicine to one of shared responsibility is playing out in the exam room in The New Doctor-patient Paradigm.

The iPhone

Dr Penna

Dr. Sreeram Penna provides a list of health care applications currently available for the iPhone in Mobile Medical Software for the Iphone 3g.

Efficient MD

Dr. Joshua Schwimmer also writes about potential applications on the iPhone for doctors in The New 3G iPhone, the App Store, and Doctors.

Conclusion

That concludes the 27th edition of Medicine 2.0. My thanks to everyone who submitted an article. You can find more information about the carnival as well as the hosting schedule and past editions at the Medicine 2.0 Website.

Have you written a blog post about web 2.0 and medicine? Submit it to the next edition of Medicine 2.0 using the carnival submission form.