Now that the Android smartphone platform is mature and full of available applications, our friends at iMedicalApps went through the offerings in the Medical category to find the best free apps available. The fifteen apps that made the cut are individually reviewed:
This list was compiled over a one month period, from mid December 2010 to mid January 2011. Initially, iMedicalApps went through the full health and lifestyle category in the Android Marketplace — over 1,000 apps — prior to Android making a separate Medical category for their app store. Once a separate medical category was established by Android on December 23rd, 2010, iMedicalApps went through the complete medical category again. Trial apps or “Lite” apps were excluded in our list.
Inclusion criteria for list: Apps needed to add functionality for health care providers in at least one of the following three ways: Point of care use, medical education, or patient education. The mobile devices used to make this list were the Motorola CLIQ and the Dell Streak.
This list is not based on top downloaded Android medical apps according to the Android Marketplace. It is also not based on comments or star ratings from the Android Marketplace. The list is compiled by two fourth year medical students, and is based on the specific inclusion criteria mentioned above in order to assure actual utility for medical professionals.