There's an App for that!

Happy New Year, everyone!

One of the things I really noticed in 2009 was the growth of useful apps that really made a difference to my daily life.

Getting an iPhone was the first step towards not only improved productivity in the office and on the road, but also in how I manage myelf.

For example, I used SimpleNote a lot to jot down ideas and quotes at meetings. A camera can be used to take snapshots of scientific posters etc. This is really useful if you do CI work, for example, and need to discuss things with clients.

Two other apps I used for my personal life included RunKeeper and LoseIt. The first tracks my exercise routes and tells me how far I've walked or run and approximately how many calories have been expended. The second helped me manage my daily food choices and calorific intake. Together, they helped me lose 20lbs in 2009.

Now imagine what other health and educational apps could be created for people with all sorts of needs. How about a transfuion app, for example, that calculates how much blood and iron you are adding over time. This would be relevant to many patients across a variety of different diseases because the body cannot remove the iron added. Too much is bad for you and will deposit on internal organs unless removed. Helping the empowered patient track this themselves would be a nifty little app.

Of course, there are many other examples that the Pharma companies could create and involve patients and doctors in the design process.

2010 may well be a good time to start developing better education tools that have a real impact on patients lives.

What apps would you like to see developed?

Comments

[Lily Kim]

I just downloaded the Clinical Trials app to check it out! Any pharma-related apps you'd recommend?

Not pharma-related, but I wish all cookbooks came with an accompanying app (like Michael Ruhlman's "Ratio"), so I could easily carry around a shopping list/recipe-short-form in my phone.

[MaverickNY]

Hi Lily,

Thanks for stopping by. Here are some reviews of clinical trials apps http://bit.ly/5jqre9 and http://bit.ly/30gpGP.

J&J have an app called BlackBag, which I love. It offers a summary of medical news by therapy area of your choice. sanofi-aventis and Novartis haevapps called GoMeals and VaxTrack respectively, but I was less enthused by either of those, mainly because of their limited utility.

[brian]

After reading your article thought you might be interested in Daily Dose of Medical Knowledge. It delivers a short medical article (a dose) directly to your iPhone. You can also view the past week of doses and save your favorites. http://brimsoft.com/daily-dose