Apple iPhone applications aimed at health care professionals are expanding a wide selection of apps dedicated to healthy living.
Apple's App Store is widely known for the width and breadth of content to be
found, from mobile games to travel guides to green applications like a
community recycling finder. While popular (and controversial) apps grab
headlines for innovative or outrageous content, with so many applications
available, it is encouraging to see Apple fine-tune its ranking of apps: The
company recently added a "Top Grossing" search option that lets users scan the
top grossing apps in the entire store.
As the health care blog "mobihealthnews" points out, personal fitness
and health applications are flexing their muscles right alongside media players
and Battle Bears. A $1.99 application called iFitness, an exercise database
with instructions for bulking up or slimming down, leads the group of health
apps at 19th place overall. The app, released in mid-September, also
leads the App Store's "Healthcare and Fitness" section.
And then there's an application called "Tap & Track" from a Croatian
software development company, Nanobit Software, that is designed to help users
track their calories and weight and improve their exercise regimen. The
application costs $2.99.
While the majority of health and fitness apps offer basic, yet helpful
services like calorie counters and fitness companions, as well as pricier services
like anatomy guides (Netter's Anatomy, $39.99), there is some evidence
developers are aiming to provide more sophisticated applications for medical
professionals as well as consumers. This week Webahn, a clinical documentation
solutions company, announced the launch of two new iPhone apps for physicians:
Capzule for its online EMR (electronic medical
records) service Capzule.com and Accent, a voice recording application for its
online transcription service OvernightScribe.com.
Capzule is a free, Web-based EMR app that
enables physicians to access patient information instantly while away from the
clinic. Specially designed for small practices, it has the capability to send
messages, add notes, prescribe medications and write orders. Accent, which
sells for $0.99, allows physicians to dictate patient notes and letters on
iPhone and send them to OvernightScribe.com for transcription. The app also
lets users edit audio files and tag dictations with key information, and it features
search capability and the ability to access dictations from desktop PCs over Wi-Fi.
"We are upgrading the tools that physicians rely on most to access and
update patient data," said Webahn CEO
Vinu Nair. "Browsing charts on desktops and dictating onto telephone
systems or digital recorders make less sense when you have a mobile device like
iPhone, which can do much more and much better."
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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