Smartphones will soon be diagnosing illness as well as advising on cures. Will we all become iPho-chondriacs?

Lena Bryce’s mobile phone got her pregnant. Dan Woolley’s kept him alive for days under a collapsed building. Fran Neri’s saved her from a life-threatening infection. A fast-growing array of downloadable applications for smartphones is turning the mobile phone into a doctor in your pocket, on constant call to diagnose ills and propose cures. Soon mobile apps could even provide lifesaving home treatment for millions. That’s the upside. Experts warn, though, that apps may turn us into a neurotic nation of phone-hugging iPho-chondriacs.

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Beginning of the review and analysis of applications from section “Medical” can be found here: link

Functionality and sophistication of applications in section “Healthcare” (Top-100)

Average price in Top-100 “Healthcare”: $2.21

The average price in Top-10 “Healthcare”: $2.59 (the most optimal price for new applications).

Conclusions

- Applications in this section have a higher quality of implementation and design (in particular compared to those in section “Medical”).

- Section “Healthcare” already contains popular applications which use built-in sensors (allow the applications to collect additional data and significantly facilitates the interaction with a customer). Moreover, we can confidently forecast an increase in quantity of such applications in the future;

- The section is more commercially attractive for publishing new applications, compared to section “Medical” (it has applications from a general Top-100; the total number of applications is twice as much as in section “Medical”);

- there are applications with a successfully implemented model of “free basic functions” + “in-app purchase”, what obviously positively affects the general target customers of the application and profits of developers.

With respect to such criteria as quality of implementation, design, promotion of applications and business model, section “Healthcare” is a guideline for all developers from section “Medical”.
However, we have to admit that neither of the categories include application which could bear the title of “killer medical app”.

But only slow and steady wins the race!

We plan to systemically monitor in the future the qualitative changes of applications in Top-100 of this section and will publish respective reports for our readers.

The review is prepared by
specialists of The Viactivity LLC
(development and promotion of mobile applications)

Some of the data is published here, since it can be useful to readers of our blog.

Functionality and sophistication of applications in section “Medical” (Top-100)

The most popular price: $0.99 (35%)

Average price in TOP-100: $4.38

The average price in Top-10: $2.29 (the most optimal price for new applications).

Conclusions

- low quality of the most of applications can probably explained by either unqualified developers (“student’s quality”) or the fact that developers don’t understand the specificity of medical applications and can’t modify them properly for iPhone;

- the main mistake of new developers: charging an exorbitantly high prices per simple applications (most often $9.99), whereby the demand and total profit are minimal.

- customers are promised a valued result with the help of many applications which in reality can’t be derived on the basis of given data (in other words it is a deception of customer with respect to service’s quality);

- the section “Medical” contains relatively few projects with good ideas; mainly these are merely the databases or catalogues of audio/video materials, without adaptation etc (71%);

- applications don’t use the business model of subscriptions(”In App Purchases”) and various additional features of the phone (sensors, camera etc);

The data analysis suggests that section “Medical” still has to get its “medical killer app” as  a result  of effective cooperation between highly skilled doctors and experienced developers of mobile applications.

In the next article we will similarly analyze section “Healthcare” of mobile applications for iPhone.

We also plan to monitor in the future the qualitative changes of applications in Top-100 of this section and will publish respective reports for our readers.

The review is prepared by
specialists of The Viactivity LLC
(development and promotion of mobile applications)

Voalté successfully integrated an interesting innovative iPhone-based clinical communications project in Sarasota Memorial Hospital in September 2009(link).

After 3 months, when it has become already possible to speak about real results of the project, we decided to address the Vice President of Innovation of Voalté, Trey Lauderdale, and ask him several questions. We believe that the answers on these items are interesting for professionals of the branch.

Q:  So, Trey, if it’s not difficult, let’s start with a couple of words about your company.
No problem.
Voalté helps improve hospital mobile point-of-care communication by providing a complete solution for voice, alarms and text messaging on a robust expandable platform – the Apple iPhone. We were started in Fall 2008 in Sarasota, Florida.

Q: Great! Now I would like to ask several questions directly about the introduced software solution. How can you characterize the results after two months of program integration in Sarasota Memorial Hospital?
The pilot of Voalté One has been an amazing success at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. I truly feel we were able to strike a win-win relationship with the organization and we were lucky to have such a great hospital in our backyard. We were able to learn an unbelievable amount from their caregivers and it has greatly helped to improve the functionality we are able to offer as a company to our end-users. It was also a win for SMH in that they were able to help shape the future of point-of-care communication on the iPhone and were able to leverage the advanced communication functionality we could offer to them with this innovative platform.

Q: Could you, please, mention the most interesting responses from the patients and the clinic staff as the main users?
One of the most interesting comments we received came from two separate patients the day of go-live at the pilot unit. Almost immediately we were able to drastically reduce overhead paging in the hospital. There were two different patients who had been in the nursing unit a few days, and separately, they both asked their nurses if everything was OK in the unit. The nurses said yes, and asked why. Both patients said they noticed the unit was so much quieter than the day before and wanted to make sure everything was alright.
Keeping the nursing floors quiet is unbelievably important to nurse management because it helps patients sleep and rest better which leads to better patient outcomes. We were thrilled to hear our solution was able to effect noise in and around the room the day of Go-live.

Q: it would be interesting for our readers to learn about the basic parameters of solution integration(integration terms; the budget, counted for the one user; requirements to the staff; whether it is necessary to carry out training etc.)
We provide a turn key solution to the hospital to get iPhone’s in at the point-of-care. Hospitals don’t want (and really don’t have the time) to purchase piece-meal solutions that aren’t made to fit their workflow.
We provide the hardware, installation, integration to hospital’s PBX, integration to middleware, training to users, and go-live support to make sure the project is a success.

Q: If it’s not a commercial secret, are you going to integrate similar solutions in the USA and other countries? What level of interest in similar systems, including the interest of the state structures, is there now?
Our goal is to continue growing our market share in the U.S. acute care hospital setting. As we see new opportunities develop for our software, we will investigate them accordingly. Right now, we feel the greatest return on investment for our solution is at the point-of-care.

Q: As for you, which of mobile platforms, along with iPhone, have prospects for the mass use in clinics? Why?
The iPhone and RIM BlackBerry seem to be the two devices gaining the most traction in healthcare. RIM still has a strong presence due to it’s support by IT staffs and technical teams. Without a doubt, the iPhone is still the hot item right now, and the App store has helped make it even hotter. Apple claims more than 700 medical apps which is unbelievable- just think of the number of apps that will be out in a few years. The raw number of applications and the number of developers storming to the iPhone was a deciding factor in why Voalté selected to develop on the iPhone first.
One other platform worthy of mention is the Google Android. With the launch of the 2.0 firmware Google has started to get minimal attention in healthcare. The openness of Android platform allows developers to access a number of API’s they would not be able to get to on an iPhone. The result (in theory) should lead to deeper app’s available only on the Android. Only time will tell if developers fully embrace the Android in healthcare as much as they have the iPhone.

Q: It would be interesting to learn from your words what is the venture investors’ estimation of the start-up investments perspective in the mHealth sphere? What ideas for investment in the mHealth sphere will be the most popular during next 2-3 years?
mHealth, as in all new industries, will take a few years to gel before the market leaders begin to take form. We have big players entering the field (Cisco, GE, Philips, etc). I think it is great that they are getting involved so early, but I really think it is the smaller start-ups that will drive the greatest innovation and out-of-the-box ideas.
I think ideas that enable the automatic entering of person health data onto mobile devices and the web (PHR) will be the technologies that have the most success. Unfortunately, the average consumer is not going to take a proactive role in entering their health data into the cloud. I think the companies that find the easiest, most non-intrusive way to get data from the patient to the PHR are going to be the most successful and have the greatest effect on the market.

Q: When mHealth will become popular and start to bring profit on the mass market? What is necessary for this purpose?
That’s a tough question. I think there will be one vendor that finds a way to make this profitable, and the floodgate swill then open. As for time frame, I would say early 2011 to mid 2011 is when the mass market will begin seeing profit.

Trey, Thanks for wonderful interview!
I believe your answers will allow estimating at true worth the mHealth sphere and we’ll see even more interesting and useful decisions on the market soon!

Editor
Vitaliy Goncharuk

The iPhone Medical Apps is a project of The VIactivity LLC

(medical SEO, software development for iPhone and Android, production)

After getting a referral, a clinician typically heads to the hospital to interview medical personnel and possibly the patient or the patient’s family. The clinician enters information about the patient into the iPhone app, and then submits it to the medical director, who makes final approvals, often using his or her own iPhone. RehabCare is thinking about how it can now streamline that process even more–for instance, by working with hospitals to structure referral information submitted in an e-mail in such a way that it can be immediately dropped into the pre-admission app, Escue says.

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Earlier this year, Mike Dionne signed up for Polka, a smart-phone application that lets him use his iPhone to keep tabs on the health of his elderly father, who lives 80 miles away. It tracks his dad’s numerous doctors’ appointments, his insulin and medication schedule and other health information.

Then in August, a new doctor examining Mr. Dionne’s father detected an aneurysm, something the son was able to confirm from afar. Over the phone, Mr. Dionne consulted Polka, the application he and his siblings maintain on behalf of their father, and was able to tell the doctor when the aneurysm …

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“Wireless Health: Year End Report 2009″ from MobiHealthNews.com.

FDA may regulate smartphone apps. LifeComm closes. Best Buy stocks connected health devices. Apple invites LifeScan on-stage. The West Wireless Health Institute is founded. CardioNet’s reimbursement rate cut. Consumers want wireless health. Three-quarters of Americans are interested.

click here

Read more: link

Go! / App Store

GoodGuide(iPhone Medical App) today announced the first iPhone application that scans barcodes to provide impartial health, environment and social responsibility ratings of products and companies. The newest version of GoodGuide’s iPhone application, now available for free from Apple’s iTunes App Store, will make it easier and faster for consumers to find healthy and environmentally friendly products from socially responsible companies while standing in the aisle of a store. GoodGuide licensed Occipital’s state-of-the-art RedLaser barcode scanning technology for its new application.

GoodGuide’s new iPhone application can help consumers in the store with many common purchase decisions. For example, the application enables consumers to choose the healthier of two moisturizers, determine what’s in various all-purpose cleaners and learn whether organic product manufacturers have good social practices to go along with their healthy manufacturing processes. Consumers can scan a barcode in the supermarket aisle and immediately see detailed and independently researched ratings for health, environment and social responsibility for over 50,000 products and companies right on the phone.

In addition, by using the new version of GoodGuide’s iPhone application, consumers will be able to participate in picking the products to be rated next. GoodGuide will aggregate information about which products are scanned most frequently and use that information to prioritize the products that are rated by GoodGuide. This will ensure that the thousands of products rated every month are those that the GoodGuide community cares about the most.

Dara O’Rourke, founder and CEO of GoodGuide, emphasized that the new iPhone application is another step in the initial stages of the company’s vision to make information about consumer products more transparent. “The iPhone application illustrates how we can provide consumers with critical product information when they need it the most – in the store,” he said. “The service will only get stronger over time as we add more and more product information based on our community’s input.”

The launch of GoodGuide’s new iPhone application follows GoodGuide’s closing in June of this year of $5.5 million in Series B financing. GoodGuide’s Series B financing was led by new investor Physic Ventures with the additional participation of New Island Capital and existing investors New Enterprise Associates and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. In connection with GoodGuide’s Series B Financing, William Rosenzweig, Managing Director of Physic Ventures, has joined GoodGuide’s Board of Directors.

“This new round of financing will allow GoodGuide to further our mission of providing more transparency in the marketplace, helping us expand into new product categories and to rate tens of thousands of additional products, all with the goal of empowering consumers with the impartial information they need on the products they care most about. ” said O’Rourke.

In the last year, GoodGuide has won numerous awards including being named the “Startup Most Likely to Make The World a Better Place” at the 2008 Crunchies, Top 100 Web Sites of 2009 by PC Magazine, and CNET’s Editor’s Choice for “Best Newcomer” in CNET 2009 Webware 100.

Direct link: link