mHealth in emergency medicine [special report]

With the proliferation of smartphones over the past several years, apps now play a prominent role in many social and work contexts, including medicine. This is enough of a phenomenon to have inspired the abbreviation “mHealth,” short for mobile health. The number of app-driven clinical calculators, checklists, and risk scores in common use in the emergency department (ED) has significantly increased and shows no sign of slowing. Thanks to this digital development and innovation, clinical decision support is now just a finger-tap away. As of 2016, there were approximately 20,000 apps in the “Medical” category of Apple’s app store. There are at least 300 apps specifically targeted to emergency clinicians, and given the variety of patient presentations, general-purpose apps and apps from other specialties likely merit usage in the ED. Despite the abundance of apps and their potential to improve patient care, the decision of which apps to choose and use is left largely to each clinician, with little guidance on best practices or potential risks. The purpose of this report is to educate emergency clinicians about medical apps that can be utilized to improve patient care during a shift.