App Review: Dermatology: Medical Student Edition

The latest in our series of app reviews is a guest post by MBBS student Michelle Warncke. If you are interested in reviewing an app or resources for the blog, please email us at: liaison@sgul.ac.uk                      

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Name: Dermatology: Medical Student Edition

Publisher: British Association of Dermatologists

Devices: Available on Android (version 2.2+) and Apple devices

Other requirements: Requires 10MB of memory.

Tested on:  Lenovo P2

Available from: Google Play and the App Store, although the iOS version is currently being re-coded.

Price: Free

For: Anyone who wants to prepare for their YSKTs, OSCEs, or simply to explore dermatology.

• Main Pros: Simple language, lots of pictures and a wide range of topics.
  
• Main Cons: There could be more practice questions with varied pictures.

Type of Information: Handy guides to clinical examinations, dermatology concepts, and different conditions. Exam preparation help with practice questions including how to describe lesions.

 

One of the most difficult points of dermatology is differentiating rashes and learning how to describe them. This app helps practice just that!

The dermatology app includes sections for learning and for examination preparation.

The learning section includes:

• Basic concepts: Anatomy and physiology.
• Essential clinical skills: How to take a dermatology history, how to do an OSCE style examination, and how to describe any lesions you might find.
• Practical skills: Patient education, written communication, prescribing skills, and clinical examination/investigations.
• Disease profiles: Emergencies, infections, cancers, common problems.
• Management: Topical and oral.

The exam section includes:

• Case scenarios
• Picture quizzes
• 113 randomized questions

This free app is very useful because of how simple and clear it is. Its folders are easy to navigate and ordered logically. The descriptions are relatively free of medical jargon, and any more difficult terms are accompanied by very indicative pictures. These pictures are used again in the practice questions. The rehearsal is helpful in making associations and has made even practice questions on other apps easier.  The British Association of Dermatologists designed this app for both medical students and junior doctors, and we can definitely see ourselves using it as a refresher on clinics or on the wards in our foundation years.

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Thanks again to Michelle Warncke for writing this review. Please note, all app reviews on this blog are subject to St George’s Library mobile resources disclaimer. Please take the time to read it carefully.

Quick Look: NICE Guidance

*Update – 8th November 2018*

The NICE guidance app is now in the process of being phased out, with a view to it being withdrawn by the 31st December 2018. More information from NICE can be found here.

Name: NICE Guidance

Publisher: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

Devices:
Android: requires Android 4.0 and up.
iPhone/iPad: iOS 6.0 or later. App size: 5.8MB
*We tested this on an iPad*

Available from:      Google Play , iTunes and Windows

Price: Free

Type of information:  The app provides mobile access to NICE guidelines for healthcare professionals and students. The evidence-based guidelines offer current pathways for the diagnoses, prognosis and treatment of many health problems. There are hundreds of conditions and diseases covered, as well as different public health topics.

Main pros: 

• Easy to use
• Clean interface
• Official guidelines from NICE
• Handy mobile tool

Main cons:  

• Text heavy
• Limited personalisation features

The updated NICE Guidance app from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence offers on-the-move guidance for healthcare professionals and students. With over 760 topics and guidelines, as well as thousands of individual chapters, the app is text heavy. However, the in-app search box makes it easy to extract information quickly. The app also allows users to browse by topic and by guideline type.

The app is available through NICE and provides access to official NICE evidence-based guidelines which are used to keep health and social care professionals up-to-date on pathways in diagnosing and treating health problems. The information within the app is of a high-quality. Sections include clinical guidelines, cancer service guidelines and public health guidelines. One of the most beneficial features is the new and updated guidance section. New guidelines will automatically update on your device to keep you informed of any developments within healthcare guidelines.

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The app’s interface is uncluttered and easily navigable. You can also personalise the app, although these features are limited. Individual chapters can be bookmarked for use offline, which is useful for keeping track of specialist areas of interest. However, the text cannot be highlighted or annotated.

This app is a good aid for speedy and accurate guidance for the busy healthcare worker, but don’t expect more than what it says on the tin. Overall, the app is intuitive and easy to use and could be a handy mobile tool to have in your pocket!

All posts on this blog are subject to the St George’s Library Disclaimer, please take the time to read it carefully.

Updated: Aug 2017

 

Quick Look: Medscape App

Name:  Medscape App

Publisher: WebMD

Devices: iOS 9.0 or later. Android 4.0.3 and up.   Sive 28.7MB

Available from: Apple’s App Store  and Google Play

Price: Free

Type of information:
This app is designed to support clinicians with all of their professional needs, including decision-making support at the point-of-care, medical news and perspectives from thought leaders across medicine.

For: doctors, medical students, nurses and other healthcare professionals for clinical information.

• Main pros – Authored and reviewed by a team of 7,700 doctors and pharmacists from leading medical centres to ensure that all content is current, evidence-based, and written in a format designed to support physicians in practice.
• Main cons – Some information will be more applicable to American users than British users, so use with caution.

The Medscape app can be used to look up the most current drug prescribing and safety information.  It allows access to 129 medical calculators covering formulas, scales and classifications, and provides reviews of the latest information about 4400 diseases and conditions.  It also provides detailed written and video instructions for over 1000 clinical procedures.
The app allows you to search the Medline database for journal articles, and provides updates for the latest news impacting your speciality.
In addition, the app offers accredited Continuing Medical Education courses for professional development.

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All posts on this blog are subject to the St George’s Library Disclaimer, please take the time to read it carefully.

Updated: Sept 2017

Quick Look: Prognosis: Your Diagnosis

Name: Prognosis: Your Diagnosis

Publisher: Medical Joyworks

Devices: Android 4.1 and up. Tablets and iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Other requirements: The app takes 2.8mb to install, but as you download more cases, it will use up more memory.

Tested on:  Nexus 7

Available from: Apple’s iStore and the Google Play

Price: Free.

Type of information: Clinical case simulation game for physicians, medical students, nurses, and paramedics.

For: Physicians, medical students, nurses, and paramedics.

• Main pros – Free. New cases available regularly. Easy to use interface
• Main cons – Simplistic binary choices for clinical case management.

This clinical case simulation games is very simple to use and quick to download. Once you’ve installed the main app, you are given a list of cases that you download individually. Pick the ones you want to download, and once they are stored on your phone, you wont need 3g or WiFi to access the cases. You can browse all medical cases, or pick from four different categories: medicine, surgery, gyn & obs, and pediatrics. For each case, you go through 3 steps.

1. History: gives you information about the patient.
2. Investigate: you are given a selection of diagnostic tests that you can choose to perform, for the example below, this included TSH + FT$ and MRI Thorax.
3. Management: you are given four patient management choices to pick from. You can choose more than one option.

After this you are given a score depending on the choices that you have made.

Medical Joyworks have releases other versions of the app for particular specialties, such as cardiology and neurology.

 

For more information: read the iMedicalApps review or go to the official app website.

 

Journal of Biological Chemistry – now available on your mobile device

Staff and students at St George’s University of London can now access The Journal of Biological Chemistry from any mobile device, anywhere in the world.

To gain access to the journal on your mobile device, follow the steps below.

STEP 1

• Log on to the SGUL network  via a computer onsite.
• Go to: http://www.jbc.org/voucher/get
• Fill in the short form and receive the Mobile Voucher Code

Note: You can only obtain the voucher from the SGUL network onsite.

STEP 2

• On your mobile device, go to: http://www.jbc.org/voucher/use
• Enter your voucher code and click ‘Get Access’

Note: Activate within 48 hours or you’ll need to repeat STEP 1

STEP 3

• Access the content that is available to St George’s University at http://m.jbc.org

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A JBC App for iPhones is also available to download for free – click here to download.

Note: JBC mobile content is available to SGUL staff and students only.

New anatomy iPhone app from Warwick University Medical School

Professor of Clinical Anatomy at Warwick Medical School, Peter Abrahams, has turned his teaching into bite-size anatomy classes which can be downloaded.

The new app, entitled Aspects of Anatomy, provides 38 short teaching videos using real, plastinated prosections of the lungs, thorax and the arm, from shoulder to hand. You can watch how the professor teaches and demonstrates the function of nerves, tiny twig-like bronchioles or heart valves which very effectively bring medical theory to life. Short tests are also part of the app to check learning.

lt is available from  iTunes store outlets and costs £4.99. All profits will go back to the university to support the ongoing clinical anatomy teaching at the Surgical Training Centre at Warwick Medical School.