PoopMD

Ask any new parent and they’ll tell you they spend a lot more time dealing with poop than they ever would have imagined. So it makes sense that there’s now an app dedicated to it. A professor in pediatric gastroenterology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine created an app that helps parents understand what different colors of poop mean and whether or not they need to visit a pediatrician. The app also makes it easy to take a photo of the stool in question, email it to a doctor, or add it to the baby’s health record. 

Cost: Free
iTunes
Android

KidsDoc

ddKidsDoc was created by the American Academy of Pediatrics and is a great resource to recommend to parents. It provides an easy way for parents to plug in a sick child’s symptoms and find out a course of action based on the severity of the illness. It also provides home care advice, pediatric dosage tables by weight and first aid illustrations.

Cost: $1.99
iTunes
Android

Epocrates

More than 1 million healthcare professionals worldwide use Epocrates. The app has information on thousands of brand, generic and OTC drugs and their interactions. It can also identify pills by imprint code and description. In addition to drug information it also provides: medical news; a provider directory; national and regional healthcare insurance formularies for drug coverage; and medical calculations, such as BMI and GFR. It also has HIPAA compliant text messaging.

Cost: Free
iTunes
Android

Figure 1

The Figure 1 app has created a private community for healthcare practitioners to share clinical cases and discuss treatments. Currently more than 150,000 professionals use the app to discuss diagnosis and treatment options with knowledgeable doctors, nurses and others. The app also contains thousands of anonymous patient photos, x-rays, charts, MRIs and other scans as well as both rare and textbook medical cases. The app follows all necessary government and industry privacy practices. 

Cost: Free
iTunes
Android

Doximity

Doximity was created primarily for physicians but can be very useful to nurse practitioners as well. It has created one of the largest online communities of healthcare providers and makes it easy to connect. The app also provides the opportunity to earn continuing education credits by reading posted medical journal articles. The app follows established HIPAA guidelines.

Cost: Free
iTunes
Android

CDC Vaccine Schedule

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention have created an app that allows quick access from the CDC’s ACIP recommended immunization schedules. It includes: child and adolescent immunization recommendations from birth through age 18; adult schedules by age group and medical condition; color-coded coordinates with printed schedules; hyperlinked vaccine name with dosing and more.

Cost: Free
iTunes
Android

Google Translate

While Google Translate is not a medical app, it can be extremely useful for healthcare providers. It currently allows you to speak, scan, type or draw to translate in 90 languages. If you have languages you deal with more often you can download them to the app and use without a cellular connection. You never know who might come through your door and being familiar with Google Translate may make a medical visit better for you and the patient.

Cost: Free
iTunes
Android

Red Cross Blood Donor App

The Red Cross has created an app that makes donating blood easy. From scheduling appointments to keeping track of your donations over time the app provides a lot of benefits, both to the donator and the patient that ends up needing blood. This is an excellent app to recommend to patients that have a special blood type or just enjoy contributing to the health of their community.

Cost: Free
iTunes
Android

This post was brought to you by Spencer Sutherland, the public relations and content manager at CompHealth. CompHealth is one of the nation’s largest healthcare staffing companies. He has been covering healthcare for more than a decade.