Press release

8 Medical iPhone Apps You Should Prescribe to Your Health-Care Professional
BY Lydia Dishman
Mon Dec 7, 2009

It's a safe bet that one of your doctors has an iPhone. But what you may not realize is that he or she is using it as part of your overall treatment. From reading APGAR scores to x-rays, there is a fascinating array of health-care tech available in app form. Some are created by savvy developers, while others are built out of necessity by the doctors. Currently, the FDA has no over-arching regulation in place for mobile medical apps, despite the fact that they have indicated in the past that under certain circumstances the iPhone may be considered a medical device and therefore regulated as one, according to a report by Brian Dolan on Mobihealthnews.

"Many medical imaging software applications are considered medical devices and, as such, are regulated by the FDA," says Justin Dearborn, CEO of Merge Healthcare. "FDA regulations mandate that rigorous processes must be followed during software development, productization, and maintenance." Dedicated resources, domain knowledge and familiarity with standards allow companies such as Merge to speed up the submission process, but approval varies by product and the process to get an app to market, as outlined on the FDA's Web site, is a rigorous one.

However, data mined by Mobclix, the industry's largest mobile ad exchange, shows record growth in health-care apps: 1,399 are currently available, up from just 616 in June. It will be interesting to see if this steady increase spurs the FDA to create special regulations just for medical apps. In the meantime, here are a few noteworthy downloads as prescribed by professionals for Fast Company.

Dr. Rounds What it does: By keeping track of patients--when and why they were seen--this app assures that any daily visit, consult, or procedure charge is accounted. What the professionals say: Necessity was the mother of invention for Camil Sader, MD, FACS, a general and laparoscopic surgeon. Aggravated by the fact that he had to copy long lists of patients daily from the day prior's list, he used his insight on the iPhone's capabilities and hired a coder to produce Dr. Rounds. Now he can walk around the hospital and can check off patients right from his phone, he tells CBS12-TV, without having to rely on a bunch of paper lists.

Miami Herald - Business Monday Nov 9, 2009
Doctors embrace social networking
In the waiting room, the patient's family members circled a Blackberry. About every 15 minutes, Dr. Carlos Wolf of Miami Plastic Surgery gave them a few keystrokes of information about how the patient was doing. read more...

The PULSE, North Broward Medical Center, Pompano Beach, Florida. September 2009