itriage
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iTriage 3.0 adds live wait times for acute care facilities, medicine information and more
When TUAW last talked with the folks behind iTriage, it was shortly before World Health Day in 2010, and the app had just updated to version 2.0 with a version for Android. A little more than 16 months later, iTriage has hit version 3.0 with a plethora of changes and new features such as: Expanded disease treatment support where people can select a symptom and find the right doctor based on the symptom, care facility or prescription. Mapped medications where you can select a problem, such as a cough or cold, find the cause, then peruse medications and possible treatments. More than 1,000 common prescriptions and over-the-counter medications are listed to date. Search for urgent care facilities and see live wait times for acute care. Pre-registration and appointments rolled out. Updated interface adding improved provider search and access to key nationwide emergency hotlines and 911. Dr. Peter Hudson, one of the app's creators, told me that more than 700 hospitals, 400 urgent care clinics and 14,000 doctors are providing data for iTriage, and the number is growing. While I was hard-pressed to find participating physicans and hospitals in the Harrisburg area, I got a good glimpse of the new features by switching the location to Denver. Several of the hospitals listed live wait times for both pediatric and regular emergency care. One had the appointment/pre-registration list deployed. Check out these new features in the gallery below. %Gallery-131117% The app is extremely well-regarded, and it's easy to see why. I'm still feeling my way around central Pennsylvania, and it's nice to see where a hospital or pharmacy is close to me should I need it. "We're trying to make it really simple for people," Hudson said. The app is closing in on 3 million downloads spanning both iOS and Android, Hudson said. What'e more, 60 percent of those who have downloaded the app keep it on their mobile device, which Hudson said is 18 times higher than the average app retention. Future plans include additional functionality for consumers to connect with health care providers and with people in the same area who have suffered like injuries. iTriage 3.0 is a free download in the App Store.
iTriage provides mobile health advice with style
As the clock ticks down on World Health Day, there's an app that we should tell you about: the free iTriage 2.0 for iPhone (now also available for Android, and with a version coming soon for iPad). It's a provider locator, a symptom and disease database, and more. The iTriage story is intriguing enough; the app was created by Dr. Peter Hudson and Dr. Wayne Guerra, practicing emergency physicians who realized that patients and healthcare consumers were facing information deficits at the moments when they most needed clear and accurate guidance around symptoms, conditions and available care facilities. Patients might have to make several calls to different providers -- a PCP, a specialist, and an ER or urgent care location -- to identify the best pathway of care. Hudson & Guerra's approach to reducing this inefficiency was to break down the complexity of more traditional health resource tools and give users several pathways into the massive taxonomy of medical information. With iTriage, the app starts from the most urgent possibilities (the "Call 911" button). It then works its way down through finding immediate care (ER, specialists, etc.), locating a physician, looking up symptoms and conditions, and an exhaustive library of procedure information (including medical web searches, images & video, and eventually average cost details). Beyond the informational bounty of the app, there's a separate layer that combines location awareness and a connection to the hospital systems for certain areas (mostly HCA hospitals in Colorado and Florida for now, but Hudson says the coverage areas are expanding). Hospitals that partner with iTriage's parent company can choose to list additional information, like ER waiting times or areas of excellence, within the app.
