Apple's iPhone: A True Life Savior

In the latest earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, Dan Woolley, a U.S survivor, used a medical app on his iPhone to treat his injured leg. That helped him save his leg until the paramedics transferred him to Memorial Hospital in Miami. For Dan Woolley, but also for many other people, the iPhone can be a real life-savior because it features incredible apps that can help you survive the toughest conditions or simply having your vitals checked.

With that in mind, having emergency apps on your iPhone is absolutely necessary. Of course, there are iPhone apps that everyone can use, while there are other apps that can be used only by medical professionals. For your convenience, this article presents 10 iPhone apps for emergencies that could really save your life, classified to iPhone apps for everyone and to iPhone apps for medical professionals.

A. iPhone Apps for Everyone

1) Pocket First Aid & CPR

Pocket First Aid & CPR is offered from the American Heart Association and includes a full package of first aid instructions that help you know what to do if someone is in need for CRP or AED, has chocking or breathing problems, or undergoes a cardiac episode. With this app you can create detailed medical profiles by filling in your preferred hospital, primary care provider, emergency contacts, pre-existing conditions etc. It also features the unbelievable story of Dan Woolley, who used this app and finally survived after being 65 hours under rubble in Haiti 's earthquake.

Cost: $3.99

2) iBP Blood Pressure

iBP is a great app that tracks and analyzes your blood pressure before it gets to high levers that are dangerous for your health. In its user-friendly platform you can enter your blood pressure values as well as your weight and pulse and see if your blood pressure is normal or if you potentially suffer from hypertension. The app allows you to edit or delete the values; keep historical record of all the data you have entered; have interactive color graphs on an hourly, weekly, monthly or yearly basis; take a snapshot of the graphs; email the graph to your doctor.

Cost: $0.99

3) MedWatcher

MedWatcher is a great iPhone app that alerts you about recalls or other updates related to your medication. MedWatcher also informs you about potential side effects of particular drugs and is approved by the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) main drug alert system. If you experience a side effect by a particular medication you can submit an event report to the FDA and report it so that FDA informs you about the latest developments regarding this drug. MedWatcher is also used by medical professionals, who can use the FDA MedWatch Form for administrative tasks. In the future, the developers of the app plan to make it interactive so that patients can ask questions and get instant answers. They also plan to include medication alert reminders and a way to notify the patient's doctor if a dose is skipped.

Cost: Free

4) Emergency Radio

Emergency Radio is a police scanner that helps you tune in live with police, fire, coast-guard, air traffic, railroad, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other emergency frequencies. Featuring an integrated police and emergency scanner code list, Emergency Radio helps you to locate quickly and accurately the closest emergency frequencies among 3,700 live feeds and to access them. Emergency Radio also features real-time database updates; built-in speakers, Bluetooth, headphones, iHome or Livespeakr to enable you listen to instructions from the emergency frequency you have accessed; last playing feed; list of favorite feeds.

Cost: $2.99

5) Survival Pocket Ref

Survival Pocket Reference provides you with exact instructions from the Department of Defense publication "Survival, Evasion and Recovery". With this superb guide you will learn how to survive extreme outdoor conditions exactly like the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force military forces do. Survival Pocket Reference features a quick reference guide on survival, evasion, first aid and recovery basics as well as information on how to build a fire, create a shelter, find food, survive a nuclear attack, and many more.

Cost: $0.99

6) Pet First Aid

Pet First Aid is an iPhone app that takes care of your pet on a 24/7 basis. Featuring detail instructions and step-by-step illustrations on how to take care of your dog, cat, puppy, or kitten, Pet First Aid is your number #1 assistant to help you aid your pet with bleeding, drowning, poisoning, chocking & CPR, muzzling, restraining, bandaging, impalement, bites & stings, burns, heat & cold injuries, cuts, and many more. You can also record your pet's vital medical information, vaccination dates, medications, allergies, pre-existing conditions, weight and general health condition.

Cost: Free

B. iPhone Apps for Medical Professionals

(Note: the list for the apps for medical professionals is not comprehensive. It contains the most widely used apps.)

1) Medscape

Medscape is an iPhone app that portrays the landscape of modern medicine. Being a valuable disease and condition clinical reference tool, this iPhone app is in reality a mini-textbook that features protocols for disease pathologies and provides solutions for common pathologies. Medscape provides over 7,000 drug reference (6,000 generic and brand drugs, 1,000 generic and brand OTC drugs, herbals and supplements); 3,500 disease and condition clinical reference; 2,500 clinical videos; 80 tablets and protocols; HIV Post exposure and treatment; adult and pediatric vaccination tables and doses; pregnancy and lactation guidelines; medical news and alerts concerning 30 specialties; side effects on particular medicines; physician, pharmacy, and hospital directories and many more.

Cost: Free

2) Prognosis: Your Diagnosis

Prognosis: Your Diagnosis is an app developed to make medicine fun. Featuring clinical case simulation games indented for med students, paramedics, physicians and nurses, this iPhone app is the most downloaded medical app because it allows you to investigate and diagnose real-life medical cases. All cases are checked by medical experts and based on updated management guidelines. Besides, new cases are added every Friday allowing you to check on your analytical skills and your knowledge on key medical principles

Cost: Free

3) Airstrip OB

AirStrip OB is an iPhone app developed exclusively for Obstetricians. If you are Obstetrician, you can use the AirStrip OB only if the hospital has purchased and installed the required system and software to support the app. The app features detailed information of the patient's medical condition and vitals as well as the fetal heart racing and virtual real-time maternal/fetal waveform data, which you can see simply by logging on to the hospital's Labor and Delivery unit. Moreover, by using AirStrip OB you can see on your iPhone nursing notes, labor status, vital signs and many more. Also, you can save historical data and review on the fetal heart racing (strip).

Cost: Free

4) iRadiology

iRadiology is a great iPhone app if you are a neurology resident or a medical student. Featuring Lieberman's 500 iRadiology Classics Collection radiology cases to help medical students and residents upgrade their CT, MRI and basic film reading skills, iRadiology is an excellent iPhone app that does not require an Internet connection. Besides the 500 unique cases, iRadiology allows you to test you knowledge by finding the irregularity on unlabeled images; find relevant cases by performing a keyword search ; browse unlabeled images by pathological entity; zoom, scroll down and rotate images.

Cost: Free

In conclusion, iPhone aficionados have more than one reason to love their iPhone: more than being a technological miracle that features a powerful iOS 4 and a number of mobile platform -related advancements, the iPhone can also save lives. It's official.

Sources:

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Earthquake-Survivor-Says-iPhone-a-Life-Saver--82081602.html

http://www.imedicalapps.com/2010/02/top-10-free-iphone-medical-apps-for-health-care-professionals/

http://www.imedicalapps.com/2010/12/bes-free-iphone-medical-apps-doctors-health-care-professionals/