Iphone App - Would you find this useful?

[jwraider]

I know not everyone has an Iphone but many of the people I work with have one and I'm going to develop an app to make our lives easier when dealing with medications (and possibly more someday).

I think most of us have the app "Epocrates" and it can be used among other things to look up a patients medication. My experience is that this app loads way too slowly and it takes too long to narrow down the medication and is even impossible to figure out what the medication does sometimes. It's mostly useless on a scene call.

I want to create a medication lookup and management application for paramedics that is reliable, efficient and useful during an actual call. It will help us understand medications we don't recognize and manage those patients with 25 medications.

My app would load quickly and have an easy to see interface for searching medications. They would be listed with their class or mechanism for quick reference (Atenolol - Beta Blocker) and could then be tapped and added to a current patient list. You could then look at the list and see every med the patient is on with the class. Each medication could also be looked at in detail.

I'm looking for opinions so that I know it's worth my time to build and share this with everyone and of course for improvements on my idea.

Thanks!

Future ideas:

PDF viewer and manager - Many counties are starting to put their protocols online in PDF format. This would easily display a pocket gudie of your protocols in your phone.

PT info and vitals recording -

Hopefully Zoll or someone comes out with a monitor that allows for blue tooth connection. ECGs should be readable by other devices (like your phone) and transmitted as well from them.

[rock_shoes]

I use the "Skyscape" emergency med constellation on my iPod touch and so far it has been excellent. The menu system is very simple and the layout of "Davie's Drug Guide" is the most user friendly I've ever worked with. The applications are not cheap but I also have a knee high stack of medical reference material at my fingertips at all times.

It's extremely rare that I use this kind of reference material on a call to be honest. I usually reference the "Emergency Medicine" manual, and "Davie's Drug Guide" post-call to reinforce the proper management of that particular patient. This also gives me the opportunity to review any new patient management practices that may improve my patient care.

[FireMedic65]

There are numerous programs out there that do this already.

epocrates is fast for me on my palm. I have no issues and its a powerhouse of information. Lacks some stuff, but it's amazing for it being FREE.

Medical Wizards also makes a bunch of programs. More geared towards specific fields. I use this also, and it too, rocks.

If you want to go forth and making your program, good. Go for it! take into account what everyone else has, and improve on it. If you need help with ideas and such, let me know.

[Just Plain Ruff]

If medics are going to rely on this application to do their jobs it better be completely accurate. Make sure that you double and triple check for spelling errors and grammatical errors.

Nothing like a cheaply designed and programmed application that can't even spel if u knw what I meen!!!!

[nremtp]

I use a fantastic invention called a 'book' titled the BNF which includes every licensed medicine in the UK. It is free if you know a friendly pharmacist or you can buy them for £40.

Can't see the need for these electronic gadgets and the like, if it has a battery then it can fail! I also find the PDA style applications cumbersome and time consuming when with the book I can just turn to the right page in seconds.

[nikipoo]

Our counties ALS unit has an EKG monitor that will bluetooth the tracing to a cell which then sends it to the recieving hospital. Which comes in really handy at times.

Good luck with quest for the perfect med app. I will just stick to reading the Drug Handbook for now.