Users get a single-screen overview for each patient, with key lab results, medications they’re prescribed, side effects, and notes. The chart can be printed or e-mailed directly from the app.
The app also includes an interactive checklist of comorbid conditions to help coordinate care between rheumatologists and other physicians, and provides disease-activity calculators. It also automatically calculates and reports each patient’s classification score according to the 2010 ACR/EULAR Classification Criteria.
iShould (under development for iPhone; cost to be determined)
This app, for recording range of motion in the shoulder, is not yet available to the public, but researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EFPL) in Lausanne anticipate that it soon will be, after a validation study is completed in about six months. When it is available, it will likely be the first app of its kind.
To use the app, the device is attached to the patient’s shoulder as the arm is moved. The app gives the patient instructions. It then calculates the angle of arm elevation and the functional score—comparing the healthy arm and the arm with disease—simultaneously.
Developers of the app say it could lead to more reliable information about shoulder movements in rheumatology patients.
“The app could contribute to a more widespread use of objective shoulder function measurement in clinics and research,” says Cyntia Duc, an engineer at EFPL’s Laboratory of Movement Analysis and Measurement. “Functional score questionnaires are difficult to answer for some patients, due to language or understanding issues. The app overcomes these difficulties by providing a fast, automatic, and objective outcome.”
Maura Iversen, PhD, chair of the physical therapy department at Northeastern University in Boston, where she works with rheumatology patients, and associate editor of The Rheumatologist—says the app could be a useful tool.
“The app is exciting because it provides real-time feedback about patients’ ROM [range of motion] to the therapist and to the patient,” she says. “This can be a powerful motivator for exercise. It is easy to use and the data is readily transferred to the PT [physical therapist] for review.”
Doximity (iPhone, iPad, Android; free); Sermo (iPhone and iPad; free)
These two apps let doctors gain access to physician-only online social communities in which doctors in dozens of specialties can talk about medical issues and get feedback on cases. Both come recommended by Joseph Kim, MD, MPH, president of Newtown, Pa.–based MCM Education, a medical communications company, and founder of MedicalSmartphones.com.
