EMS Differential Diagnosis App Idea

[epicEMT]

So I'm in the middle of exploring new potential EMS app ideas for android and iOS. At the moment I'm contemplating the idea of an EMS specified quick and easy to use differential diagnosis finder app.

My idea so far would be the following:

1. A start screen that displays the most common chief complaints (chest pain, respiratory distress, abdominal pain, etc).

2. Whenever the user clicks on a specific chief complaint they are taken to a screen that displays the most common signs and symptoms for the specified complaint. It would perhaps simulate a checklist allowing the user to select the patient's signs and symptoms (Crushing chest pain, crackles in the lung, hypertension, etc).

3. After selecting all of the current signs and symptoms that the patient is displaying, the user will then be presented to another screen where a list of all the possible differential diagnosis are displayed with the most probable at the top.

4. And perhaps if a user selects a differential from this menu a list of common treatment suggestions will be displayed as well as vital information about the differential.

5. All screens can be easily accessed through a tab bar controller at the bottom of the screen and easily edited as changes are observed.

I believe this app would be an excellent quick and easy tool to prevent tunnel vision and helpful for new professionals or students.

I guess my question to everyone is would you guys find such an app useful? And if so, is there any other feature you would like to see in such an app?

 

[DesertMedic66]

The application iTriage for iOShas most if not all of those features already (I haven't used them just briefly scrolled through).

 

[epicEMT]

The application iTriage for iOShas most if not all of those features already (I haven't used them just briefly scrolled through).

That's a good point but iTriage is an app for regular people, not EMS professionals. It's function more or less consists of a single symptom picker and then displays a 100 different things it could be followed by "go to the hospital". I was thinking more along the lines of an app specifically for us that allows the selection of multiple different symptoms that maybe displays the top 5 differentials for those symptoms as well as most common EMS treatment options.

 

[ghost02]

As much as I like Apps, I only use them post call. My rational is that even if I tell my patient the reason I am using my phone, I think it still looks kinda bad. IMHO.

 

[Handsome Robb]

I hate to be "that guy" but it seems like a crutch for those who didn't spend the time or put forth the effort in school and their continuing education.

 

[cprted]

I'm not sure how well that would work given how much gray we deal with ...

I hate to be "that guy" but it seems like a crutch for those who didn't spend the time or put forth the effort in school and their continuing education.

As well, we deal with so many grey areas that I don't know how useful an app could even be ... so many factors come in to play.

 

[Akulahawk]

For the most part, that's not a bad idea... but there are some "optics" issues to using your phone, even if it's a PDA while you're in patient contact. You see, for all they know, you're texting with someone instead of paying attention to the patient. Using a tablet of some sort is less "bad" because you're more likely to be obviously gathering information and putting it into a patient care record because people just don't do texting or whatever else on a somewhat ruggedized tablet.

I would say that it might not be a bad idea to play with such an app after you're done with patient care so that you can think about potential differential diagnoses during transport and compare them to what the app suggested later. That way you can start to more quickly develop questions that may help narrow things down to a smaller range of differentials.

Now if someone were to figure out how to bring "Dr. Watson" to an app, that might make things more interesting... from a differentials aspect but that would involve having a pretty decent server and a good data pipe to the internet. With something like that, your handheld device would basically be a front-end for Dr. Watson and all the work would be done remotely. Since Dr. Watson won't have many labs to deal with, the range of possibilities could be quite wide... or if you "constrained" the Dr. to the prehospital protocols, you might get a very short list of what protocols you might be able to implement... or even a "call base for orders" default a lot.

Just a thought...

 

[Carlos Danger]

So I'm in the middle of exploring new potential EMS app ideas for android and iOS. At the moment I'm contemplating the idea of an EMS specified quick and easy to use differential diagnosis finder app.

My idea so far would be the following:

1. A start screen that displays the most common chief complaints (chest pain, respiratory distress, abdominal pain, etc).

2. Whenever the user clicks on a specific chief complaint they are taken to a screen that displays the most common signs and symptoms for the specified complaint. It would perhaps simulate a checklist allowing the user to select the patient's signs and symptoms (Crushing chest pain, crackles in the lung, hypertension, etc).

3. After selecting all of the current signs and symptoms that the patient is displaying, the user will then be presented to another screen where a list of all the possible differential diagnosis are displayed with the most probable at the top.

4. And perhaps if a user selects a differential from this menu a list of common treatment suggestions will be displayed as well as vital information about the differential.

5. All screens can be easily accessed through a tab bar controller at the bottom of the screen and easily edited as changes are observed.

I believe this app would be an excellent quick and easy tool to prevent tunnel vision and helpful for new professionals or students.

I guess my question to everyone is would you guys find such an app useful? And if so, is there any other feature you would like to see in such an app?

I have tons of clinical apps on my phone, and I do regularly use them immediately before and during patient contacts (anesthesia, not EMS for the time being), not usually to help with a differential but for referencing other info.

I don't think using your phone in front of the patient is a big deal, but obviously timing and tact are both important. If you feel like you have to, just say "I'm just double checking something real quick".

As far as differentials and grey area......I think the fact that so much grey area exists is exactly why an app like this might be useful. I think we get so used to seeing similar presentations represent common disease processes that we often don't consider alternatives as readily as we should. As long as the app went as far as to list not only common but also uncommon differentials, and then tapping on each differential gave additional info and diagnostic criteria, I think it would be pretty neat. Even if it didn't affect your treatmeant plan and was just used to help with documentation or review after the fact, it could be a cool app.