A clear crystal ball Healthcare is becoming saturated with mobile devices. A recent survey by the Healthcare Information Management System Society indicates that 49% of responding hospitals intended to purchase tablets not designed for healthcare, and 30% were pursuing smartphones.18 Cost may also be a factor in the increased popularity of mobile
devices. When compared with the cost of textbooks and references for medical or nursing school, a mobile device with associated applications and unlimited content updates may prove to be a much more reasonable option. In addition, the device can be carried, is convenient and allows easy access to information, even at the patient’s bedside. In recent years, mobile technology has developed rapidly.
Therefore, clinicians and healthcare organizations must to learn about opportunities to integrate this type of technology into their clinical practice settings. In addition, participation in re- search that investigates the effects of the integration of mobile technology is essential to validate its potential impact on nursing practice, patient safety, patient outcomes and job satisfaction among clinicians. Unless healthcare organizations get in synch with advancing technology, they may find themselves lagging in efficiency, buried in stacks of papers and facing fines or reduced Medicare/Medicaid payments. Although not robust enough to be common today, the future of
mobile technology may include wearable devices. The most common are smart watches that run apps on a much smaller screen worn on the wrist. Future mobile technologies for healthcare will likely include digital glasses, such as Google Glass or Microsoft Hololens.
Internet sources With the ever-expanding variety of medical applications for mobile devices, an Internet search using a reliable search engine such as
www.google.com,
www.bing.com, or
www.ask.com, should uncover a diverse selection of titles and sources. Combining keywords, such as “freeware” or “shareware” along with “medical” or “nursing” and “app,” will yield a seemingly limitless list of resources. Critically reading the descriptions and reviews will help determine which are best for your practice. The following overview provides a sampling of these items. The listing is not intended to be an endorsement of any particular resource, nor is it a comprehensive presentation of available products. A variety of reference applications are available for mobile
devices from a variety of sources. The following are among the websites offering software applications for free, for nominal costs or for $50 and up; some require a subscription: •
http://xn--www-rp0a.medicalwizards.com •
http://xn--www-rp0a.medicalsoftwareforpdas.com •
http://www.unboundmedicine.com/ •
http://guides.ucsf.edu/c.php?g=100993&p=654807Top free medical apps for Android
•
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/search?q=medical The following apps can be found by searching the store on your device. Not all apps are built for all OS, so not all may be
available to you. Also consider searching for your preferred medical or healthcare journal as many have developed apps.
Popular drug guides • A to Z Drug Facts (A2ZDrugs) • Davis Drug Guide •
DrugDoses.net •
Drugs.com mobile apps, including Pill Identifier • Epocrates • FDA Drugs • Lippincott Nursing Drug Guide • Medscape • Medscape Nurses • Mosby’s Drug Reference for Health Professions • Nursing Drug Handbook • Pocket Pharmacist • Tarascon Pharmacopoeia
General references and dictionaries • Color Atlas of Family Medicine • Eponyms • Harriet Lane Handbook • Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine • Lippincott Manual of Nursing Practice • Medical Abbreviations • Medical Mnemonics • Redi-Reference Clinical Guidelines • Stedman’s Medical Dictionary • Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary • The Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics • UpToDate
Specialty references • The 5-Minute Clinical Consult • Kidometer • Epocrates ID Infectious Disease Guide • eMedic • Infuse • Johns Hopkins SBX Guide • Medical Spanish • PediSTAT • PediSuite • Pocket Anatomy • Pocket Lab Values • Shots by STFM (Group on Immunization Education, Society of Teachers of Family Medicine) • Symptomia •
EDITOR’S NOTE: Michael Seaver, BA, RN, was a previous author of this educational activity but has not had the opportunity to influence the content of this version.
Sarah Fletcher, BS, RN-BC, is a certified nurse informaticist and informatics consultant with almost 10 years’ experience in nursing informatics.
To see the references and take the test go to:
CE.Nurse.com/Course/CE334-60 2016 • Visit us at
NURSE.com 43
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
