Earlier this week, AirStrip Technologies announced that the FDA had granted the company's iPhone application, AirStrip OB, clearance to market the app to physicians via Apple's App Store. AirStrip OB enables obstetricians to use their iPhones to remotely access real-time and historical waveform data for both the mother and the baby. The data set includes heart tracings, contraction patterns, nursing notes and exam status. The app pulls the data from the hospitals' labor and delivery units.

In order to connect the iPhone to the hosptials' clinics, the hospital needs to purchase the AirStrip system first, which then works along with the hospital's existing patient monitoring system. Once installed, doctors only need to download the app to their iPhone.

"Labor and delivery is one of the riskiest and most litigious environments in healthcare, and... communication errors lead to a measurable majority of actionable bad outcomes," AirStrip President and CMO Dr. Cameron Powell stated in a company release. "AirStrip OB aims to mitigate that risk by closing the communication gap among caregivers," he said.

AirStrip OB is already available on Windows Mobile powered PDAs and smartphones, but the company noted the iPhone app has a different feel because of the phone's touchscreen.

"The demands of a physician's day necessitate their periodic absence from labor and delivery and other acute care environments," Dr. Powell said. "As a result, doctors need easy-to-use, standards-based, intuitive mobile applications that can be quickly downloaded with the necessary security and configuration files in place, and with hospital perinatal systems up and running live."