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  With the  highly acclaimed and popular iPad set to be released to the market on April 3, the first tablet computer announced by Apple on January 27,  there has been a rush to preorder not just the iPad but the  compatible software that accompanies the iPad. The fact that this miniaturized, keyboardless and touch screen enabled computer is portable, lightweight and affordable (ranging from $500.00 to $800.00 depending on whether you get a 3G network enabled or 3G+ wifii enabled iPad)  makes it ideal for medical doctors and staff to use it in hospitals and clinics.

   Currently, many medical doctors own Palm Pilots, the PC counterpart of the iPhone, which have many features of the iPad but lack some attractive functions such as user enabled touchscreens, mega large screens, (zoom, rapid screen scrolling, etc..) and  software flexibility afforded by iPad.  Moreover, the high resolution and colorful touchscreen of  the iPad makes it an ideal tool to learn, review human anatomy, surgical procedures  and even  search for drugs using online Pubmed and medical drug encyclopedia applications. As a matter of fact, many current iPhone users will enjoy the user function flexibilities and transferability of many  iPad applications across platforms. 

  This brief article reviews some medical technology applications sold by Modality, a software company that generates applications for the iPhone and iPad,  that include Clemente’s Anatomy, Rohen’s Photographic Anatomy, and Moore’s Clinical Anatomy to learn basic medical human anatomy and surgical procedures whether on the go, or at home. Each software has its own strengths and weaknesses and it all depends what anatomy and physiology book each medical student or doctor has used in the past or is comforable using with the iPad. However, you buy the whole software package offered by Modality which can be installed on the iPad. The best part of all is that you can interactively browse and navigate back and forth between different modalities and applications if the user finds one application better over another for a given feature. These are software applications that medical students attending University of Pittsburgh or aspiring nurses or even current healthcare professionals in UPMC and at West Pennsylvania Hospital might consider purchasing for refreshing anatomy and physiology and for patient education.

Clemente:  This software application revises several organ systems really well such as the skeletal, muscular, lymphatic and nervous system. However, the downside of the medical flashcards look cartoonish and does not have the real-life appeal of actual cross-sections of cadavers. Some of the images look incomplete, cut-out and some reviewers have claimed that some of the human parts are mislabeled.

Moore’s: This software looks very much like Clementes but offers more strengths than weaknesses in that it shows very detailed factoids and labels for cranial nerves (12 overall) and head and neck muscles; there is additional medical trivial information offered in the back of digital index cards that includes pathological manifestations, lesions and the illustrations do not look very cartoonish as that offered by Clemente’s.  

Rohen’s:  This application actually shows cadaver images, has a compilation of X-rays, CT and MRI and angiogram scans and even offers the zoom feature to allow for close-up on regions of interest.  The weaknesses is that there is no additional medical factoids and trivia in the back of the index cards to follow up and the lack of pseudocoloration makes it difficult to memorize anatomical structures.

Overall, all applications are sold under $30.00 which make them much more affordable than purchasing a medical or anatomy and physiology lab book. Other nice features is that all software communicates with Google, Pubmed and Wikipedia for additional support information.  Finally, these applications are not just great for reviewing and refresh anatomy and physiology for all healthcare professionals but it is a good tool for patient education and promotion. One can envision using the iPad hooked to a digital overhead projector to show a group of patients or doctors the surgical procedures being performed on a patient or to review different pathologies (muscular dystrophy, bone fractures, double bypass coronary arteries, etc…).

Finally, LOL Software which has released software Gray’s Anatomy from Henry Gray (1858) for the iPhone, not to be confused with the highly popular ABC show, has yet to realease an application for the iPad. This application can be downloaded directly from iTunes for about $5.00 and has more detailed labels and factoids than all  the latter three combined but does not score well in terms of visibility since all the images look like sketches drawn on canvas (black/white). Of course, Grey’s Anatomy medical encyclopedia is popular for its medical illustrations drawn as black/white sketches which makes it hard to follow structures with the exception of  landmark anatomical features. The nice thing of the iPhone software is that it allows all-around angular rotation of structures which makes it great for reviewing the same structure in different angles and cross sections.

For more information click on the links below:

Other more comprehensive reviews by medical students and healthcare professionals: http://www.imedicalapps.com/2010/01/anatomy-apps-ipad-iphone-medical-apps/#more-2502

For community college and university students, Mader’s Understanding Human Anatomy and Physiology offers online subscriptions for many online interactive educational software that quizzes, reviews and offers notes to students for a low price including Anatomy and Physiology: http://www.mhhe.com/maderap6

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