Tag Archives: apps

How I Keep Up With The Trauma Literature

Medicine advances quickly. How can one keep up with new developments in their field? Well, there’s an app for that! You can also do it without a handheld device, but it’s not quite as convenient. Let me show you how I do it.

Most regularly updated online content is syndicated for RSS (Rich Site Summary). You know, those cute little  icons on web pages. There are loads of RSS readers available, both online and for handheld devices, that allow you to organize and browse content from RSS feeds. I use Google Reader on desktops or laptops, and the River of News app on my iPad.

I visited the home page of each of the journals I was interested in “following” and snagged the RSS web address from each. I then added it to my Google Reader collection of feeds. Now, at some point every day I can quickly browse through new abstracts in each journal. For most journals, abstracts are released once a month. A few publish early release abstracts more regularly.

When you click an abstract of interest, a web page opens that shows the full abstract. If it looks interesting, I save it using Instapaper, a clipping service that helps you organize web pages of interest. I just click a link at the top of the browser and the page is instantly saved for later reference.

As you probably already know, much of what is published is junk. Class III or worse data. Concluding that “additional research is necessary.” So why didn’t you do the study right in the first place? Therefore, it is vitally important that you read the whole article for the abstracts that you have saved. For this, you need access to a biomedical library, either online or brick and mortar. If you’re not lucky enough to have this, you’ll need to rely on others who do. I just run through my list of saved pages on Instapaper and pull up the full article via an online library connection through work.

Here’s a screen shot of my River of News app. I currently monitor 18 journals that publish trauma articles to a greater or lesser degree. I’m also a firm believer that some of the best ideas come from cross-pollinating your own field with ideas from others. To that end, I also scan another 22 feeds in technology, publishing, cooking, aviation and many others. I’m interested in hearing how others do this as well. Please feel free to comment below.

Related links:

Trauma Triage Guidelines: There’s An App For That!

The CDC released an iPhone app covering the Field Triage Guidelines for Injured Patients a few months ago. It’s not received much attention, but could be helpful for some trauma professionals.

The app consists of 2 components: a copy of the triage guidelines pocket card, and a quiz about the use and impact of the guidelines. The app is pretty bare-bones, but is a convenient way to keep the guidelines available for immediate reference. It doesn’t look like it’s available for Android yet.

Click the link below to go to the Apple App Store for more information or to download.

Related posts:

The Future of the Medical Journal – Part 2

After posting yesterday, I was informed that LWW was not the first to enter the small screen arena. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) released content for the iPad platform beginning in December 2011. This journal uses the built-in Newsstand app on the iPad or iPhone.

On first look, it appears to be more robust than the LWW app for Neurosurgery. The BMJ allows access to other related content streams, such as their news, blogs, podcasts and video. It is a bit more interactive and does allow searching and bookmarking.

Bottom line: I’m sure someone will step forward with yet another earlier entry into the smartphone/tablet arena. Regardless, it’s all good. Either Newsstand or independent app works, although the Newsstand offers some pre-built functionality for developers that might make it a bit easier to create. However, the Newsstand is also Apple-specific, and won’t work for all the people with Android or Windows based phones and tablets who will be screaming for this content.

Reference: search for “BMJ” in the Apple App Store

The Future of the Medical Journal

Journals have been printed on trees since forever. Within the past 10 years, there has been a shift toward also making this content available on the publishers’ web sites. Now, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), publisher of the journal Neurosurgery (and many others) has taken an important step forward.

Beginning with the current issue (March 2012), this journal is now available within an iPad app. One of the problems with the traditional journal was that you had to go to the library to read it. And medical libraries can’t carry every journal, so if the one of interest was not in the collection, you had to wait a few days for the librarian to get a copy.

With the onset of the internet age, journals began to appear online. Most major publishers had a web presence and made their journals available online. However, most provided full text content for free only to their subscribers. At best, a non-subscriber would get the abstract, or an occasional free article. Biomedical libraries typically subscribed to services where hundreds of journals were available as full text to medical staff members, residents and students. The downside was, and still is, that you need access to a desktop to comfortably consume the articles. The web sites were just not that friendly for the small screen.

Finally, LWW has made a concerted effort to provide this content in tablet format. More and more trauma professionals are carrying these devices and using them in their practices. This brings the content closer to the patient and provides it in a very consumable format. It also allows the publisher to add dynamic digital content (audio and video) to the material.

I’ve been using this app for about a day and am impressed. Here are some key features:

  • Portability is excellent. A continuous internet connection is not needed. The entire journal issue is downloaded and added to your library, and you are only limited by the amount of storage on your iPad.
  • Extra digital content is routine. And since it is already downloaded with the issue, there is no waiting for it to load.
  • Articles have the same look and feel as the journal and can be panned or zoomed for readability.
  • Content sharing is possible (somewhat). Each article allows the user to share on Twitter or Facebook. The article can also be emailed to others. However, only a link to the article is provided, and if you are not a journal subscriber you’ll either have to pay up or use your medical library account to get full text when the link is opened.

What doesn’t it do? There is currently no ability to search through an article or issue. And it would be nice to interact with one of the authors via an email link to ask questions or make suggestions. Finally, Apple is not the only tablet maker out there. Publishers will need to make sure apps are available on the Android platform as well.

Bottom line: This is a great first-try at moving journals onto a mobile platform. I expect that LWW will begin to roll out this format for all their journals since they’ve now figured out how to do it. And expect all the other publishers to jump on the bandwagon as well. Journals are eventually going to go the way of DVD movies, and we’ll end up streaming our professional content from some company with a big red logo.

Reference: Search for “Neurosurgery” in the Apple App Store.

There’s An App For That: Reading Xrays on Your iPhone/iPad

MIM Software has developed an app that allows trauma professionals to view xrays on their mobile device. The app actually received FDA clearance for use earlier this year, and is available as a free download.

The catch is that the software only works with MIM’s cloud-based product for managing radiographic images, called MIMcloud. It is primarily intended for those who do not have access to a full image viewing workstation (MIMfusion).