An electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors the electrical and muscular activity of the heart and is what physicians use to determine whether someone has had or is having a heart attack. Even in a hospital, though, access to an ECG requires that a physician wait for a technician to arrive with the cumbersome cart it comes on. The AliveCor iPhone ECG puts the same diagnostic tool in a physician's pocket. The AliveCor is an iPhone 4 case that turns the phone into a "wireless, clinical-quality cardiac event recorder." The case has two oblong metal bumps on the back that are the electrodes, which can be placed on the chest or simply held in the hand. In conjunction with an app, the AliveCor iPhone ECG can analyze, wirelessly transmit, and store an ECG reading for an immediate diagnosis. AliveCor has also developed an iCard ECG that can be adhered to other iOS devices and that serves the same function. The AliveCor iPhone ECG and the iCard ECG have not yet been cleared for sale as medical devices by the FDA in the United States but Qualcomm, which is backing AliveCor, is using a similar technology in underserved clinics in China. Eric Topol, MD, one of the physicians testing the AliveCor iPhone ECG and the director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, used it to help determine that a passenger on a flight he recently took was having a heart attack, prompting the pilot to make an emergency landing so that the passenger could be taken to a hospital. Heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, and blood pressure make up the vital signs that medical professionals monitor for a basic assessment of a patient's health. The Philips Vital Signs Camera is an iOS app that handles the first two without a device even coming into contact with a patient, making it particularly valuable in emergency situations. Using the camera function, the app assesses blood flow by color change in the face and breathing by the rising and falling of the chest. The Vital Signs Camera can store or send the information it gathers in the form of tables and graphs. The Vital Signs Camera is not approved as a medical device. iMicroscope For a prototype that costs under $40 (plus the cost of the iPhone), researchers at the University of California, Davis' Center for Biophotonics turned an iPhone camera lens into a medical-quality microscope. Fashioning the microscope required little more than inserting a 1-mm ball lens into a rubber sheet and taping it over the camera lens. Though the ball lens itself provides very little magnification, combined with the camera lens, it can achieve resolution of 1.5 microns, which is enough to examine blood cells. In combination with software, it transmits real-time data so that specialists around the world can view it and provide analysis and diagnosis. The research team presented its findings this past October at the Optical Society's annual meeting and is now working with UC Davis Medical Center to validate the device and come up with usage protocols. They are also looking into adding features so that it can be used to diagnose skin diseases, count and classify blood cells automatically, and recognize a wider range of diseases. When it goes into production, the lens would not only come down in price but bring a much-needed level of diagnosis that is often not available in developing nations, rural areas, and out in the field. - Keeping up to date with the latest in medical research is one of a physician's most difficult responsibilities. There's an ocean of journal articles and news stories that can swallow up hours of their time. Docphin takes journal articles, news stories, tweets, and blogs and makes them all available in its online dashboard. Users can filter results according to their interests and specialties. Docphin shows the first few paragraphs of an item and then links to its source for more information. (For full access to journal articles, users must have relevant subscriptions.) A Docphin app is the next item on the company's agenda. Dr. Google Google can be the worst nightmare of a hypochondriac's physician. With nothing more than the search engine to diagnose them, many people who just have a headache can discover that it's the first symptom for thousands of diseases, ranging in severity from the inconsequential to the fatal. For years, physicians jokingly referred to the search engine as "Dr. Google," but physicians themselves now can and do use Google as a part of patient diagnosis. When Googlers type in symptoms, a list of possible conditions linked to sources appears below the search box. The Google initiative was introduced last month by the true Dr. Google, Roni Zeiger, MD, chief health strategist at Google. It's particularly helpful for rare, hard-to-diagnose conditions and with the Google app, it's perfect for bedside consultations. - The WiThings Blood Pressure Monitor is meant for consumers but its use helps physicians keep track of patients' blood pressure. Its compact design means it can just as easily be used by physicians themselves when they're on the go. In conjunction with an iOS device, the monitor takes and records blood pressure. The results can be emailed, sorted, tracked, and graphed. The WiThings Blood Pressure Monitor is endorsed by both the medical (FDA approval) and design (the International Forum Design's iF Gold Product Design Award) establishments. - On top of the long hours that physicians clock in emergency departments, ORs, critical-care units, or telemetry units, they also spend time calling to check up on their patients. But for those who work at hospitals that use AirStrip Patient Monitoring, vital signs, lab results, waveforms, and other critical data are available to them 24/7 on their iOS devices. Monitoring is done in real time so that physicians are always aware of and working with the most up-to-date stats. AirStrip Technologies also puts out similar apps specifically for obstetricians and cardiologists. - Physicians with private practices can afford to take Dr. Chrono on as a new partner. At four packages that range from free to $639 a month, the Dr. Chrono iPad app provides an electronic health record, iPad patient check-in, paperless billing, medical speech-to-text, clinical notetaking, clinical form building, drug interaction info, e-prescribing, and more. Using Dr. Chrono qualifies each physician in a practice for $44,000 in Medicare or $63,750 in Medicaid incentives as part of the HITECH Act. FaceTime "The doctor will FaceTime with you now," is what some patients might soon hear. A study at Emory University found that stroke specialists who assessed patients through the iPhone 4's FaceTime app came to the same conclusions as those who saw patients in person. The use of FaceTime can save lives in rural areas where medical facilities can lack stroke specialists or can't afford telemedicine capabilities since a revolutionary drug called rt-PA can be administered to significantly reduce disabilities from stroke in those who meet its criteria but can be harmful in those who don't. Source
