Productivity in Your Office
Technology is changing the way that people live their lives and it is also starting to change the medical and healthcare field. Oftentimes, when you go to the doctor or the dentist you are given some sort of survey on an electronic device. These healthcare apps are recent developments that are making the lives of medical professionals easier, allowing you to get quality care.
The medical field has been making leaps and bounds over the past several decades in the field of surgeries and minimally invasive procedures. New medicines and topical creams have come out making the patient’s life less painful while letting them live their normal everyday life. What about Artificial Intelligence changing the healthcare industry?
Yet with all of this progress, there has still been a lot of paperwork that has to be filled out and shuffled around. Luckily technology is starting to find ways to transform the offices of doctors and medical professionals. These innovations include apps and systems that are designed to speed up the paperwork and allows professionals to have a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips.
Photo by Increasing your efficiency and productivity has never been easier in the medical field. With so many apps and advertisements, it can be hard to know what to use. Here are several different items to consider and health care apps that you can use to transform your office and practice:
Healthcare Systems
The body is made up of different systems that all work together to make up a body that can do a lot of different activities when it is functioning properly. A medical practice is also made up of different systems that, when working and performing at their peak performance, everything is smooth and functional.
Not every medical practice is exactly the same. A trauma operating room is a lot different from a dermatologist’s room. The same goes for different offices, a chiropractor’s office will function differently from a pediatrician’s office. That doesn’t mean one office or practice is better than the other, they all play crucial parts to patients when they are in need of health care. But since they are different they each have different needs that will have to be addressed when creating an environment that is easy for patients to understand and use.
Consider the space of your office. Do you get a lot of traffic with patients coming in and out all of the time? Have you thought about any ways to reduce traffic? Do you have patients who come in on a regular basis for help with ongoing conditions? Do you or your employees prefer androids over iPhones? How technologically savvy would you like your office to become? The answers will be different for everyone but they are there to get you thinking about the apps and systems your office uses.
Epocrates
Epocrates is first on this list because of its wide usage by a variety of medical professionals. This is not an app that you download and it only has one feature, this app has a variety of uses which makes it very versatile for any professional medical environment. It is available for both iOS and Android phone users so anyone in the office can have access to it if they need it. To use you simply download it onto the smartphone of your choice and register. The app is free to use but you can unlock extra features if you upgrade to Epocrates Plus, which costs 174.00 USD per year.
Epocrates is widely used because it contains a lot of information about drugs and drug interactions. A patient could be trying out different mental illness pills and is also taking a number of other pills already for different problems. This app allows you to check to see if there are any harmful interactions that can happen if you start the patient on a new pill. Instead of flipping through textbooks and manuals you can pull out your phone, enter some information in and get results quickly.
Another unique feature of this app allows you to identify pills that your patient may have. If you aren’t sure what your patient has been taking or they are not sure what they have been taking, you can identify the pill if there is no medical record of their medication. The app requires you to enter the physical characteristics of the pill and it will give you the different possibilities of what it could be.
UpToDate
Made for hospitals and professional medical providers this resource is a great option for any place that would like to have access to information quickly and easily. This software is compatible with mobile devices and shows patients different images of the body and its inner workings. This is a great educational tool for both the patient and the professional. As a healthcare professional, it is important to continuously be learning. This app helps achieve this goal by accessing different articles that are recent while exploring different diseases and symptoms.
Since this product is so professional it does come at a cost of 495 USD. It is free to download UpToDate but to access any of the information your company will need to subscribe and pay the fee. UpToDate is extremely popular because it is available in 9 different languages and includes a variety of high-resolution graphics. It is a great learning tool and a good place to go when you need to do some serious research.
The software has a newly designed user interface that is easy to use and intuitive so any health care employee can easily navigate through the different pages of information. There is also a customizable search feature that lets you tailor the search results to your company’s needs.
Human Anatomy Atlas
Human Anatomy Atlas, which was designed for medical students, is chalked full of interactive diagrams and questions that allow you to make the most of your precious study time. If you are like most medical students you are extremely busy and always on the go, which can make studying hard and leaving it until early morning or late evening. To save some time, Human Anatomy Atlas lets you carry a wealth of information on your portable device.
Photo by Jeswin Thomas on Unsplash
This app has a lot of different study options. There is a muscle option, an anatomy and physiology option, and an animation option. These let you focus on specific parts of the human body and allow you to tailor your learning to whatever class you are taking. There is also a section that is available for instructors that allows them to use it with their students. Aspiring medical professionals in high school can also use it if they take an anatomy or physiological class of some kind. While this app is not free it does come at a low cost that is affordable for students, one copy costs 24.99 USD. For a classroom setting, there are different pricing options that allow both the teacher and students to have access to the software.
There are many features that make this app a great learning resource for any student. The images are high definition and detailed so every feature and part can be seen. There is also a slicing featuring that allows users to take an organ and dissect it to see different angles and views of the body. There are also questions and definitions for each body part and the major systems of the body. Ridiculous Latin pronunciation got you down? Don’t worry, this app has you covered with the pronunciation feature so you can sound like a real medical professional in your class.
Andaman7
A lot of the apps have been focused on mainly the office and business side of the medical scene. But most people know that patients or caregivers also have to have their information stored accurately. If not it can give the doctor not enough information or make a misdiagnosis. For faster visits and accurate diagnosis, it is also important for the patient to have access to all of their information.
That is where Andaman7 steps in. It lets you track your medical information and stores it all in one place so you don’t have to worry. This is also ideal if you are a caregiver for someone and need to keep track of their private information.
What exactly can you keep track of? It’s a great question because not all apps let you keep track of the same information. Andaman7 lets you add documents by taking a picture of it with your camera and importing information. You can track allergies, medical imaging, test results, doctor’s visits, hospital visits, nutrition, vaccinations, and more. This keeps everything tidy and organized and allows you to cut down on the number of important documents lying around.
Andaman7 lets you save this all to a backup account, on any kind of electronic device. The Google Chrome extension that is available with the app makes a backup account possible. You can also share information with 6 different trusted individuals. This is helpful when caring for a family member that has several different caregivers who take them to appointments. This feature also helps keep family and professionals informed on medical visits and what changes or improvements have been made.
Doximity
Doximity is a social media app that is for healthcare professionals, an advent of the explosion of social media apps. This is a great resource for staying in touch with different colleagues and professors that you went to school with. Doximity is a great way to meet new professionals and specialists. It provides the opportunity to message and socialize with them if you have questions about a different specialty. Because this app is exclusively for healthcare professionals, you will not have to filter through your friends in order to find professional colleagues.
Doximity is available for both iOS and Android phones. This app is free to install. The only catch is you have to create an account, but that is also free. The low cost is great for anyone in or aspiring to be in the medical field because it lets them make connections early on in their career. There are also job and volunteer opportunities that are available as users connect with other healthcare professionals.
Another favorite feature of Doximity is that you can easily fax documents to and from your mobile device. This is huge because faxing through Doximity is HIPPA approved. This feature is excellent, especially when working with another doctor located in a different area or building than you.
CareZone
CareZone allows professionals to understand current and past medical history through its focus on getting patients organized. If you don’t need a caregiver and just want to keep track of your medications and dosages, CareZone is the app for you. On this app, you have a place to store all of your medical information. One downfall, however, is that you cannot fax information over to doctors or look up fancy anatomical terms.
This app is only available for iOS devices but it is completely free to use. This app deals with many aspects of medication; you can track when and if you took them, scan your prescriptions, and easily access all of your information. This is nice because you can simply enter in the time and get a reminder and an alarm. The camera feature allows you to take pictures of your prescription which automatically uploads all information, requiring no extra typing.
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You will also need to think about the kinds of patients that you have and what their needs are. Do you work with elderly people on a regular basis who may struggle with fancy apps or electronics? Many patients are concerned about their information and whether it will be safe in the hands of new healthcare providers. A new trend that has appeared is secure printing in health care. This provides patients with peace of mind that their personal and private information will be safe in your office.
What kind of apps do you currently use in your practice or office? Have they helped your office be more organized and efficient? Be sure to share this article with all of your medical friends and colleagues to spread the word.
Paisley Hansen
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