It is now important for physicians to be cognizant of costs of the medications.  If patient can not afford it what you prescribe, he may not take it and in that case physician did nothing to the patient. It is not easy to find out which medications are available free or at what cost at pharmacies.

Now with this app – Generics – finally you can search a generic drug and you will know right away how much it cost at Walmart, Target, RiteAid, CVS, Walgreens, Kmart and Giant. Some antibiotics are available for Free at Shoprite and some are cheaper at Walmart.

Knowing this allows us to know where patient can get the same medication at cheaper cost.

With this app, you can

• Search the drug by name, class or by pharmacy
• See whether a particular generic drug is available at the patient’s pharmacy
• Verify if patient get the discounted price for a 90 day supply
• Check which drugs are available as discounted generics for a particular condition or drug class

It is a FREE app which is very useful tool for a physician to have on their iPhone for daily use.

But the question is are all the translations good enough? Are the Hindi, Chinese, Arabic translations accurate? The answer to this question is it depends. If you have a few words sentences or simply meaning of a word, then they do do good job in translation. But if you have a long sentence, the translation may loose the real meaning or gist of the original statement specially in Hindi and Chinese that I can tell from my own experience.

Spanish translations are however more reliable than any other language. As I have not used any other language translations, it is hard for me know as to how good the translations are.

None the less, it is better than nothing. When you have to talk to a patient who does not speak commonly spoken language, Google Translations does become handy. You can type a small sentence in English and Google translates in the desired language. You can then either have the patient read the translation on your phone or can play the voice (provided by some apps).

Here are some good Translation apps

for iPhone:

• iTranslate ~ the universal translator
• GoTranslate (Google Translate™ support)
• Translator with Voice
• TranslatorGo with Voice

Google Voice. It is a free service from Google which gives you a phone number (which is free at present). All you have to do is register. Once registered, you can set-up your current phone number’s voice mail through it. It is really easy to do. Instructions on the Google Voice site are very nice. Once Google voice is setup for your iPhone number, all the unanswered calls gets routed to Google Voice where it takes the voice message and then stores it for you in you account. You also gets option to either receive a text message whenever you have a voice mail OR have the complete voice mail TRANSCRIBED and send to you as TEXT or EMAIL so that you can READ your voice mail. The transcription however is not great when the person speaking have an accent or not speaking clearly. But you can always listen your messages with click of a button the phone itself.

Read more about the GOOGLE Voice and its features at www.google.com/voice.
Fusion Voice Mail plus. With Fusion voice mail plus, you can see, hear or read your voicemail messages with just touch of a button. No more dialing multiple phone numbers, no more remembering multiple passwords. You just register your iPhone number with them (Free). Each time a caller leaves a voicemail, an SMS message is forwarded to your mobile phone, a tone is played and information displays on your handset screen — including the date and time of the voicemail as well as the caller’s information. To make life easy, Fusion Voicemail Plus lets you easily scroll through the list and select the voicemails you want to hear or read in the order of your choice. With the tap a button, you can select, listen to, call back, send a text message and delete voicemails as desired. The transcription is little better here than Google Voice. You also have an option to receive FAX on your iPhone for as low $2 for unlimited faxes.

Overall the app is very detailed and covers a wide variety of OMM topics and related information. It serves as a very good app for quick review.

It would be helpful to use less abbreviations as at times the app  appears more to be a student’s individual study notes more than a review for other students, residents or practicing physicians. Also, there should be some improved editing to check for spelling and grammar mistakes.  Lastly, it would be better terminology to change what the authors review as counterstrain under the assessment section to tenderpoints. Counterstrain is a technique, not a diagnostic finding.

While this app also misses body areas,  sympathetic viscerosomatic dysfunctions, and helpful ways for integrating OMM into clinical assessment and treatment for a patient, it still is an overall
effective site a decent reference for most students or osteopathic physicians.

You can either look up the STD in the Topic index or easily search it. Image atlas is also provided with pictures of all the STD in this small app. Treatment algorithms are the best. It takes you through a series of questions. Based on your answer, the next question comes; ultimately providing you the treatment option with antibiotic dosage.

Features

• Includes all sexually transmitted diseases from the common (gonorrhea, chlamydia, Candidal vaginitis, herpes) to the rare (lymphogranuloma venereum, tertiary syphilis, granuloma inguinale)
• Clearly details everything you need to know about diagnosis, treatment, post-treatment follow-up, and management of sexual partners.
• Atlas of clinical images containing more than 200 photos from the Center for Disease Control’s Public Health Image Library illustrating the varied presentations of STD’s to help you make the right diagnosis.
• Never seen live Trichomonas swimming under the microscope?  You will in STDMeister (and there’s a rocking musical soundtrack to back it up too)
• Step-by-step treatment algorithms help you choose the safest and most effective treatment customized for your patient
• Full text from the Center for Disease Control’s current guidelines for the management of sexually transmitted infections is included
• Entirely self-contained on your iPhone or iPod touch. No Internet access required.
• Add bookmarks to your favorite pages
• Add your own notes to any page in STDMeister
• Expanded from a popular handheld reference in use by clinicians since 2007

Screenshots:

At the end there are samples ECGs which are sharp, clear and very informative. There is also an option of quizzing yourself.

Each cardiac arrhythymia includes description of condition and its appearance on ECG along with the possible etiology and causes for that arrhythymia.

PediDoser lists most commonly use drugs in pediatrics in alphabetical and categorical format. Once you find the drug you are looking for, select the formulation and then you can either select the age or Weight and you have your answer in no time (See the screenshots).

It is made by MeisterMed who has developed many other applications for iPhone or iPod touch.

MeisterMed has provided us some FREE Coupon code to get this app free. These are very limited in number. If you are interested, please email us for the code at contact@iphonemedicalinfo.com.

• Disease Index mode. All the cards are categorized by organ system. For each disease, the card provides a case vignette, etiology, pathology, clinical manifestation, treatment and additional notes. Important points are bolded or italicised.
• Flash Cards mode. This mode is customizable and allow users to study all aspects of each disease. You can choose which specific aspect of the disease they want to study – clinical vignette, etiology, pathology, clinical manifestations, treatment and notes. The flash card mode is very interactive. You also get option to bookmark certain cards for future quick reference. You can also add your notes to each card.

Features include:

• More than 250 diseases covered
• Clinical vignette presentation
• Concise coverage of pathology
• Unique and interactive flash cards interface
• Search functionality
• Ability to bookmark cards for future quick refence
• Ability to add personalized notes
• All major body system covered.

The Red Book

Red Book is a resource you’ll consult often and with complete confidence. It is created by the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases in conjunction with the CDC, the FDA, and other leading institutions with contributions from hundreds of physicians nationwide.

You can access it directly on your iPhone by going to: http://www.unboundmedicine.com/redbook ($)

Source: Unbound Medicine - $99.95