15 Free iPhone Healthcare Apps

Find them here at Fiercehealthcare.

iPhone app for Depression

From FierceMobileHealthcare:

A Texas emergency physician has developed a questionnaire for the iPhone and iPod Touch to help people screen themselves and loved ones for depression. “When I was in the ER, I had seen a lot of psychiatric patients,” Dr. Harvey Castro told the Flower Mound Leader newspaper. “I saw many cases where they died or they tried to harm themselves. I thought that if they had gotten help earlier, there would have been a different outcome. I started wondering if putting a depression scale on an iPod would help these patients.”

Castro first thought of the idea two years ago, and introduced the app, called Sad Scale, in April. Sad Scale incorporates four questionnaires, including a newly created one for detecting pediatric depression. The app has users rank the frequency of symptoms and emotions to come up with a score, and can email the results to the patient’s personal physician–assuming, of course, that the doctor even uses email in medical practice.

Castro is working on an update so users can report their moods on a daily or weekly basis. He also has created apps to help nurses calculate IV dosages, and to teach cursive writing to children. He is awaiting approval from Apple of an app to measure stress.

M-Health forging Ahead

Here are some great articles from mobilehealthnews.com on the uptake of mobile health solutions, particularly using the iphone:

Roche decides it’s time to enter mHealth. Roche Diagnostics inked a deal with Glucose Buddy iPhone app developer Healthagen, because Roche believes that the time to get into the wireless health market is now. While the company’s Accu-Chek educational program for diabetics is a far cry from meter integration for mobiles, Roche plans to work toward integrating glucometers in the future.

Interview: Mayo Clinic forges its mobile strategy. Every major provider of health services and information is trying to figure out how best to go mobile. Scott Eising, director of product management for Mayo Clinic’s Internet Services offered a peek behind the curtain at Mayo to discuss how the not-for-profit, integrated medical practice is planning to do just that. It covers basic functions mhealth is likely to use such as symptom checkers, and find a doctor, as well as more complex things like health and wellness trackers. Great article for anyone going into the mHealth sector. Best quote, “It’s a ways out but the key is not to wait until it gets here“.

Aetna: Ultimate goal is health info on-the-go. Aetna’s Head of Digital Engagement Strategy and Innovation Robert Heyl understands that health decisions mostly occur while people are going about their daily lives, so that’s why his ultimate goal is to take the information in SmartSource, Aetna’s online patient portal, and bring it to the mobile platform.

Interview: Google Health on mobile is criticial. Google Health Product Manager Roni Zeiger makes it clear that mobile phones, connected devices and mHealth applications will become a crucial part of Google’s health plans moving forward.