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Smartphone Apps are Useful Tools for Otolaryngology Residents and Clinicians

by Renée Bacher and Amy E. Hamaker •

Social/Sharing/Wellness Apps

ACGME AWARE

Developed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, this app was developed to outfit physicians and others providing patient care tools to help identify opportunities to improve their well-being and strategies for promoting resilience. The app features a series of videos, information, and linked resources for better wellness.

Developer: Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

Operating System: iOS and Android

Cost/Subscription: Free

 

MedShr

This secure, private community allows users to connect with thousands of verified doctors, healthcare professionals, and medical students to share knowledge and information, including ECGs, scans, X-rays, and patient photos and videos, and discuss relevant medical cases with colleagues by specialty and at all grades. Users can connect to individuals and groups in their specialty to keep up to date on their latest cases, techniques, and research. The app also makes it easy to request continuing professional development credits for each case shared.

Developer: MedShr

Operating System: iOS and Android

Cost/Subscription: Free

Renée Bacher is a freelance medical writer based in Louisiana. Amy E. Hamaker is the editor of ENTtoday.

 

YouTube Learning

There’s a resource for those with an interest in otology who prefer video education to app learning. Olivia Kalmanson, MD, a PGY4 otolaryngology resident at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, has created the YouTube channel OTOlivia. “The ‘Endoscopic Tour of the Middle Ear’ video has gotten a lot of traction and benefits a wide variety of ENT trainees,” she said. You can view that video at https://youtu.be/GHH9qrbpcO0.

 

 

Do Doctors Really Use Apps? 

There are hundreds of apps for healthcare practitioners available today. But do practitioners actually use them? Several studies say that they do.

A 2021 study examined the use of an app in helping to improve medical student and resident confidence in approaching common otolaryngology scenarios. A cohort of students and residents at Blackpool Victoria Hospital in Australia were asked to rate their confidence in five common ENT scenarios both before and after being granted access to a locally developed otolaryngology application. Results showed that residents’ and medical students’ confidence scores increased by an average of 148% and 124%, respectively (Morecambe Bay Medical Journal. October 1, 2021. doi:10.48037/mbmj.v8i11.1330).

Not only are apps helpful to students and residents, but they can also be helpful to clinicians. A 2012 study found that more than half of the respondents reported using apps during patient interactions, with the most commonly used app type being drug guides (79%), medical calculators, (18%), and coding and billing apps (4%) (J Med Syst. 2012;36:3135–3139). The most frequently requested app types by respondents were textbook/reference materials (55%), classification/treatment algorithms (46%), and general medical knowledge (43%).