Resident at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and The University of Notre Dame Australia medical graduate, Dr Rhys Clark, has developed iDoctor, an iPhone application designed to assist training medicos to keep track of their professional development and patient caseloads.
The internationally-rated, 4.5 star iTunes application allows users to log hospital cases and export them to Excel and other spreadsheet programs. Data is saved in a procedural logbook, including the option to save details based on procedure performed, category-based patient identifiers, role, supervisor and an option to attach a photograph taken with the iPhone.
Dr Clark said once doctors had reached a required number of supervised procedures, it was simple to then email and print the spreadsheet for authorisation.
“Ticker wheels permit users to enter the procedures or operations specific to their speciality and these are saved for use next time a procedure is entered,” said Dr Clark.
Dr Clark said he saw a need for junior doctors to keep accurate records of their experiences on-the-go and iDoctor provided an essential toolbox of assorted logs to enable them to keep their CVs up-to-date with educational and professional development activities.
“As training positions become increasingly competitive and we move towards experience-based credentialing this app becomes vital in order to keep track of procedures performed,” he said.
“Before the application, I found myself often collecting patient stickers to keep records of cases I had been involved in for my surgical logbook or for follow up.”
During iDoctor’s development phase, Dr Clark asked interns, residents, registrars and consultants to test the application in their particular field. He then adapted the application to suit the changes suggested by colleagues prior to its release on the iTunes store.
Dr Clark said he also received feedback regarding tracking hours worked as many doctors reported they were often too busy to record overtime and were not keeping track of the wages owed to them.
“I have also missed out on many dollars owed to me. Often we will work late or be asked to take extra shifts beyond our normal paid hours. In order to keep track of these hours I also developed a logbook for overtime within iDoctor,” he said.
Dr Clark said he would continue to develop iDoctor as new software became available and valuable feedback from colleagues was received.
“I have plenty of other ideas but at this stage we are just focusing on rolling out this app and having doctors using it in their every day working lives,” he said.
Since iDoctor’s release in June, Dr Clark said he had been overwhelmed by positive feedback received from colleagues using the software.
“At first I got a real buzz when I saw people using it on the wards or in medical meetings, however this is now becoming common place,” he said.
“Many doctors have told me how useful they find it and lots ask for it to be made more specific to their specialty which we are looking at doing.”
Part proceeds from the sale of iDoctor will go to Australian Doctors for Africa, a charity providing volunteer doctors and nurses to areas of need in Africa.
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