New Delhi: Earlier they referred heavy tomes to hone their surgical skills, and choose which medicine to prescribe. Now they do the same through apps. This is how much mobile technology has changed the world of medicine. Hippocrates would have been astounded.
Apps like Epocrates help doctors choose drugs and dosage. “There are millions of drugs in the market and it isn’t easy to remember all. The app helps us decide what drug to prescribe and mentions the dosage, side-effects and interaction with other drugs,” said intervention cardiologist Dr G Sengottuvelu to a leading national daily. The doctor has three other apps on his android phone and tablet. One of them gives him the latest breakthroughs in his specialization, another helps him calculate the likelihood of a patient getting a heart attack, while the third is for patient records.
It is not just surgeons who find apps handy. Patients can access apps to know if they need medical help. “There are a lot of apps that help test the heart and eyes. For example, retinal degeneration can be tested with an app that shows a straight line. If it is wobbly to the person, he or she clearly needs medical help,” says ophthalmologist Dr Amar Agarwal who also uses SloPro, an app that shows videos in slow motion, to diagnose. “These let patients understand the procedure they are about to undergo. We’ve found that it improves patient comprehension and reduces anxiety. Doctors are not gods anymore. It’s more of a shared partnership,” he says.
Touch Surgery, an iOS and Android surgery simulator, allows surgeons to practise and rehearse operations before they enter the operating room. Every step of the procedure is animated in graphic 3D detail.
