DigitalNeurosurgeon.com

Update after two months presence in the App Store: > 15.000 downloads for my iPhone apps! Thanks to all people who downloaded and are using the software. I hope you like it.

I already wrote a post that some of my iPhone apps have been mentioned on other weblogs. Now there is a new blog to add to that list. It’s called Medicalchemy and it’s the blog from Nurse Practitioner Degree. They wrote a post titled “33 iPhone Apps Every Healthcare Professional Needs” and I am happy to see that NeuroMind made it into that list.

What’s going on at the moment? I have applied for a university grant on m-learning, and proudly mentioned all these blogs that highlighted my iPhone apps (with particular attention to the interview on iMedicalApps.com). Further I was pleasantly surprised to see that Safe OR from QxMD is for free now. They make interesting apps, but the former price of €7,99 was too much for that app. Safe Surgery is for free, and got a nice reference in one of the Safe OR reviews (click for original size):

Dutch comment on Safe OR, referring to Safe Surgery

Regarding iPhone development, I have paused that now. Temporarily, I guess. Just waiting for iPhone OS 4 to arrive, before continuing.

For now, I am making progress with my efforts in open web standards. As there is some NDA involved in my current project, I cannot do into details on the content now. But I’ve improved my knowledge of CSS and JavaScript / Jquery already, and expect to learn more in the future. I am especially grateful for the nice examples by Soh Tanaka and the Nifty Corners article.

Planning to update NeuroMind’s content soon, and continuing development in these open standard on a new app.

I submitted updates for both the NeuroMind and Safe Surgery app to the App Store. They’re now waiting for approval: it should take some days before upgrades appear on your phone.

NeuroMind now goes to version 1.1 with these updates:

Content

• Anatomy > Peripheral category added with three images
• Renamed “WHO Safe Surgery” to “Safe Surgery”
• Scores > Other > ASA class added
• Updates menu-item added
• Smiley-icon added for each item that is new in the latest version

Technical

• Improved auto-rotation function for smoother user experience.
• Updated version number

(click for large version)

Safe Surgery 1.01 just had an updated notation of the copyright information.

Enjoy the software! With >7000 downloads of NeuroMind and >1100 downloads of SLIC so far, I guess that should be no problem! :-)

Only 1 week after my first post on a new iPhone app on safe surgery, I was ready to submit it to the App Store. Not celebrating the Dutch carnival provided enough time to finish development and testing.

My new application is based on the Safe Surgery Saves Lifes checklist from the World Health Organization (WHO). A very nice read on the subject is provided in Dr Atul Gawande’s new book: The Checklist Manifesto. Scientific background is provided in the New England Journal of Medicine.

(click for more info)

I submitted version 1.0 to the App Store on February 15, 2010. Normally, it should take between 3-7 days before you can download it (for free!) in the App Store.

I couldn’t resist the temptation of creating a simple no-nonsense surgical checklist for the iPhone. I searched the App Store, and I could only find Safe OR from QxMD. Although I think that QxMD is making pretty cool medical software for mobile devices, their surgical checklist is -in my humble opinion- overpaid, and unnecessarily complicated.

So I think I can do better? Yes, I can! And it won’t even take that much time. I started creating the graphical user interface based on the official WHO checklist, and decided that scrolling is not the way to go. I think that each section can fit into one screen, like:

(click for large version)

Of course, this is rather rudimentary. The layout definitely needs some improvement (read: alignment) and some details. Then I will add some functionality. I do have a nice idea for a practical solution that Safe OR does not offer -as far as I know- but I don’t know if I will include it in the first version of Safe Surgery.

I’d say… I’ll keep you posted!