Continuing my ongoing series of articles looking at iPad applications that can be useful to eye care specialists, this article looks at apps built around online publications featuring leaders in our field, as well as apps that can be used as tools in and outside of the office.
For information on additional iPad apps that can help your practice and career see Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the series.
Publications
The Ophthalmologist (Free)
By Texere Publishing Limited
The Ophthalmologist is a magazine that explores the hopes, fears, motivations and aspirations of the key figures in the field. In each issue are six key sections. “Upfront” covers latest news in clinical research, professional practice and pharmaceutical areas. “Feature” is an illustrated investigation of a topic of central importance to ophthalmologists. “In Practice” reports articles from leading ophthalmologists regarding clinical practice. “NextGen” highlights where clinical practice will be in the next decade, including interviews with ophthalmologists. And “Profession” is a combination of articles that pertain to the optimal running of a practice, from political and regulatory issues, to advice on building, running, improving and marketing a practice. Version 1.1 was updated in October 2014, works with iOS 6 or later and requires 5.5 MB of space.
Millennial Eye (Free)
By Bryn Mawr Communications LLC
Millennial EYE is an all-digital publication targeting future leaders in ophthalmology through an app that can be downloaded on your iPhone, iPad or Android tablet. The publication features meeting updates, personal quotes from various ophthalmologists, featured articles and videos, and forums for discussion. Topics include business decisions, practice development, health care, technology and networking opportunities.
Eyetube (Free)
By Bryn Mawr Communications, LLC.
Eyetube is an ophthalmic surgical video resource developed by Bryn Mawr Communications. This app features online video archives dedicated to ophthalmology and is available on the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone (optimized for iPhone 5) for free. Most subspecialties are covered in this resource with a variety of surgical techniques featured. There are more than 3,000 archived, fully narrated videos. There is a CME Center where one can link to different CME activities. The Product Store offers items for purchase and the Practice Development section carries links to Premium Practice as well as practice development blogs and more videos. Version 1.2.1 was updated in October 2012. It is 4.3MB and requires iOS 4.3 or later.
Clinical Tools
Filmic Pro App ($4.99)
By Cinegenix, LLC
Filmic Pro is a video camera app that has won several awards from blind audience testing. This app uses your mobile device and creates broadcast worthy HD videos. It gives real time, 4x zoom, and control over focus and exposure, white balance and frame rates that help create your own movies. This app has professional tools such as audio meters, aspect ratio overlays, Chroma Key, screen display options and built in integration with Filmic’s new remote app. In June 2013, the retina service at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary published an article about how Filmic Pro can be used to capture fundus photography on a smart phone. With a 20D lens with or without a Koeppe lens, one can capture high-quality fundus images in children under anesthesia and in awake adults by image capturing from videos that were created with the app. The coaxial light source of the smartphone allowed the system to work as an indirect ophthalmoscope that captured a digital image of the fundus in the smartphone camera. For details, refer to Journal of Ophthalmology, Volume 2013, Article ID 518479.
OCT Browser (Free)
By University of Pittsburgh
With current OCT technology, physicians are presented with still images that take time to manipulate for proper viewing. With OCT Browser, one can create 3D OCT images that can be shared with colleagues on an iPad in less than a minute. The University of Pittsburgh has developed the Web Site OCT Browser software. Sample OCT files can be downloaded from their website for testing the file sharing functionality via iTunes. Version 1.0, updated in 2010, supports supplemental documents associated with an OCT image. It also has improved file selection tabs, a speckle noise reduction function and a signal optimization function. The app requires iOS 3.2 or later, takes up 57.4 MB of space, and is compatible with the iPad.
cataractSurgery (Free)
By George Kong Softwares
This application offers some fun to the cataract surgeon. It is a micro-surgical simulation game of cataract surgery that will test one’s hand-eye coordination. The app is available for the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. The game tests both formation of the capsulorhexis and phacoemulsification. The membrane flap can be torn with your finger or forceps in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction, challenging one to maintain a round tear path while preventing the membrane from tearing out to the side. The images of the rhexis can be saved for emailing to a friend. For the phacoemuslification portion, one uses their fingers to control a virtual ultrasound probe to phaco a lens. The position and angle of the probe can be controlled by a slide of the fingers. There are guidelines that direct one to rotate the lens and divide it into quadrants without puncturing the posterior capsule or tearing the capsule rhexis edge. The size of the capsulorhexis can be adjusted to increase the challenge. These images can also be saved and emailed. The system times the procedure and gives a score on how closely one reaches the rhexis target. The pupil size and how spherical and dense the lens is can be adjusted to increase the difficulty. The company added a ‘tearing out’ button to create the scenario of rhexis tear out. There are improved rhexis forceps behavior and an increased level of adjustable peripheral steepness to increase the level of challenge. Version 5.5 was updated in 2013, is 6.8 MB and requires iOS 3.2 or later.
The next part of this series on useful iPad apps will focus on calculator apps for the ophthalmologist.