Pharma Apps for iPad and Mobiles: More sophisticated, less outwardly promotional.
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| Category: App News | Posted on 17 March 2013
By Kathlyn Stone, About.com Guide
According to healthcare recruitment firm Jackson & Coker, almost 80 percent of U.S. physicians are using tablet PCs and smartphones in their daily work. Manhattan Research found that 62 percent of U.S. physicians are using tablets, primarily iPads. A survey of 1,207 physicians in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the UK found that 26 percent own an iPad and they spend 27 percent of their work time using them.
After just a few years since Apple's iPad launch, the tablet, along with Google's Android and Reality in Motion's Blackberry, are gaining traction in the pharmaceutical industry, too.
If you want to reach your customers, you need to speak the same technological language, right?
Even with little regulatory guidance from the FDA, virtually every big pharma has now launched not one but a series of mobile apps geared for physicians. While some of the apps are simply digitized product brochures, many are sophisticated diagnostic calculators, reference guides and training tools that don't push a product. Below are some of them.
Eli Lilly's emergency diabetes app serves as a reference for caregivers and healthcare providers of people withType 1 diabetes. It provides guidance for treatment with Lilly's Glucagon for Injection (rDNA origin) during severe severe hypoglycemia events. The app includes background on severe hypoglycemia and glucagon, preparation and injection of glucagonsimulation, emergency instructions, tools for keeping track of expiration dates and other safety information.
Mylan Inc. has launched a Generic Brand Reference Guide, that helps caregivers, patients, pharmacists and wholesale buyers identify the generic name for a brand product and vice versa.
The searchable, alphabetized app includes a list of more than 2,000 generic and branded drugs available in oral, liquid, injectable and transdermal forms. The current dataset is for 2012 but Mylan says the content is designed to be updated.
The Hepatitis C Physician eGuide by Genentech is designed to help physicians treat patients with chronic hepatitis C who have compensated liver disease and have not been previously treated with interferon alpha.
Abbott has applied for a patent for its FISH Chromosome Search. The app provides current Vysis FISH probe information, organized according to chromosome and specific locus. Chromosomes are listed by chromosome number and represented by a chromosome ideogram illustrated at the 550 band level. The application prompts users to select either “Global” or “United States” on launch.
Bristol-Myers Squibb's STRIVE (Strategies and Therapies for Reducing Ischemic and Vascular Events) app helps physicians and related staff manage acute coronary syndromes (ACS). The app (like the initiative) provides tools including checklists, standing orders and discharge plans for use at the point of care, as well as different various risk calculators. The STRIVE initiative highlights evidence-based ACS guidelines developed by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.
Celgene's Prognostic Scoring Calculations for Myelodysplastic Syndromes app allows physicians to calculate International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) and World Health Organization Prognostic Scoring System (WPSS) scores, either separately or together. Results include risk score, median survival, and progression to acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
Novartis' GIST Explorer (intended for Canadian Health Care Professionals only), tool simulates the investigation of gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
Novo Nordisk’s Growth Evaluation Tool helps physicians assess the key factors necessary for the identification of patients who might need treatment for a growth-related disorder. The tool calculates height velocity, body mass index and body surface area and helps a physician choose treatment options.
DiagnosisHelp by Genzyme is a diagnostic reference tool for physicians encountering patients with suspected a lysosomal storage disorder.
The app includes about 90 symptoms and indications with images of the most prominent symptoms and links to free online disease descriptions as well as the closest testing centers.
All of the apps are free and can be downloaded from Apple's iTune's store.
For more apps, see PocketMD's directory of mobile apps created by pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers.
