An experienced doctor has great skills and confidence. A newbie doctor tries his best to diagnose the patient’s problem, but sometimes he might not be able to treat the patient. Example: One of my relatives suffered from severe cough for 2 to 3 weeks. Even though she was on medication, the cough didn’t subside. Ironically, the doctor changed the medication a few times, but she had no relief. She visited an experienced doctor and started taking the medication prescribed by him. The cough disappeared after two days.
In the above case, the patient would not have suffered if the junior doctor had sought advice from a senior doctor. In the age of the internet, it is easy to increase the knowledge of diseases and get details of the medicines prescribed by the doctor. Below, I’ve shared seven great apps for doctors and patients. Doctors and other healthcare professionals can use the applications to increase their knowledge. Patients can use the apps to see the details of medicine, go through the reason for their health conditions, see the available treatment options, etc.
Best medical apps for Android and iOS
DailyRounds
DailyRounds is a medical app used by doctors to discuss medical cases. Doctors can share radiology, pathology, ECG reports of patients if they cannot diagnose the cause of the underlying health condition. Patients can also share their reports to get a second opinion from doctors. DailyRounds is used to discuss acute as well as chronic medical cases. In addition to cases, you can see drug details, read important medical guidelines, and use the app’s built-in medical calculators for free. DR requires account registration. The best thing about this app is that anyone can use it.
PS: You might find gross images in this app.
Medscape by WebMD
Medscape has around 4 million users. It is the most popular medical app on our list. Medscape gives you access to detailed information on diseases and topics of medical sciences, which makes it a great educational resource for aspiring doctors. This medical app for iPhone and Android has calculators and a pill identifier tool through which you can get information on pills by simply selecting their color, size, shape, etc. It also features a drug interaction checker utility which you can use to see whether the medications prescribed to you or the pills you’ll intake will react with each other or not. Medscape allows you to go through medical case studies published in online medical journals. Unfortunately, you cannot post your case studies in Medscape. Patients will have to find the cause of their health conditions themselves by reading the Medscape health topics.
Drugs.com
Drugs.com is the best app to get information on medicines and their side effects. Doctors, as well as patients, can use it. Unlike Medscape and DailyRounds, account registration is not required to use Drugs.com. The app will display a warning when medicine is unsafe to take with alcohol or during pregnancy. It allows users to write a review of tablets/capsules and rate medicines on a scale of 0 to 10. DRDC enables users to find pharmaceutical stores nearby them. It lets you print and share details of medication with other users. The DRDC medical app for Android and iPhone provides a symptom checker, pill identifier, and interaction checker tool. It enables you to filter drugs by class and condition. It lets users see important updates from the FDA.
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Figure 1
Figure 1 is a medical app that helps doctors, radiologists, etc in recognizing various conditions of the patients. It also lets healthcare professionals discuss the health condition visible in the picture with other users. Figure 1 has the option to share the medical images with the community. Doctors can hide the face of the patients before sharing the image. They can also edit the photos before sharing them with other people. Figure 1 can sharpen your medical knowledge as it features quizzes and authentic information shared by expert healthcare professionals. It is an excellent app for doctors.
Teach Me Anatomy
TMA is a free medical app for Android and iOS that teaches medical students and enthusiasts the function of various body parts. It covers the details of all human organs. TMA uses graphics and videos to make the complex subject of anatomy easy to understand. It saves data on your phone so that you can go through articles without connecting the phone to the internet. Teach Me Anatomy includes quizzes so that you can test your knowledge or prepare yourself for an exam. Its size is around 100 megabytes.
Ada – Your Health Guide
Are you in pain of late? Have you fallen sick? Ada is a health guide app that uses a robust algorithm to diagnose the user’s problem. Ada asks users to enter their names and age. It also asks users whether they smoke and suffer from diabetes. Ada asks a series of questions to the users. Then, it generates a report which has detailed information on the problem. The app features a condition library where you’ll find a list of the most common diseases. To see the details and symptoms of the disease, tap it. Ada provides a symptom tracker tool.
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Medisafe: Pill Reminder and Medication Tracker
Medisafe is a free app that lets users set pill reminders. It is a must-have app for sick people who intake medicines daily. To create a reminder, you’ll have to enter the following details:
- Reminder time.
- Schedule.
- Share/color.
- Condition.
- Name of the doctor who prescribed the medicine.
- Instruction.
In addition to the above details, Medisafe has an option to turn the Prescription Refill alert on/off. Once you set a pill reminder, you can see the tablet/capsule’s details, side effects, dosage, and interactions of the tablet/capsule. Apart from pills, Medisafe can also remind users of appointments with doctors. Medisafe allows users to track cholesterol, blood pressure, body fat, calories, glucose, creatine, pulse rate, body temperature, etc.
In addition to the above medical apps, you can use Reddit to read medical cases or share knowledge with people. Reddit has subreddits dedicated to various medical topics such as ophthalmology, neurology, renal diseases, dentistry, cancer, etc. You can use the app’s search tool to find medical-related subreddits.
Note: Although the internet has every bit of information you need, it can’t replace doctors. If you’re sick, visit a doctor. Self-medication can be fatal.
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