Dr. Matthew Decaro's free iPhone app for doctors proves that there are any number of small inefficiencies in a typical doctor's day that could be improved by simple mobile applications. Decaro's app, called ABG, analyzes blood gas levels in a matter of seconds, saving doctors a few minutes per calculation. Doctors without the application typically look up numbers on arterial blood extractions in a computer-based index, copy them down (on paper sometimes) and make calculations.
"When the iPhone first came out and people were able to download applications for it there were no medical applications," said Dr. Decaro, who serves as a cardiologist in the ICU at Jefferson University Hospital. "This was probably--if not the first--one of the first [medical] applications that came out for the iPhone."
"It's a guide they can look at as their gold standard that they can say, yes, I got the right answer," said Decaro. "In the intensive care unit, things happen quickly and if you start making the wrong assumptions and acting on those wrong assumptions it can turn into a big problem."
Despite telling CBS that the app is a "guide" and a "gold standard" for doctors looking to get "the right answer," it is important to note that Decaro's official ABG app site declares that doctors should "use at your own discretion" and states that there is "no guarantee of the accuracy of the data is implied."
The ABG application has been downloaded thousands of times, according to Decaro. This app clearly demonstrates one small inefficiency that a powerful and user friendly mobile platform has remedied--there are many other tiny efficiencies that are still seeking a solution.
