The Best CME, NIHSS, and Exam Prep Apps

The Best CME App

Neurology Advisor

'Tis the most wonderful time of the year. By the end of December or January, the majority of physicians are required to submit a proof of continuing medical education (CME) to the licensing authorities, medical boards or professional colleges. This app is ideal for CME, especially if the regulatory authority allows you to log hours of “online reading” or “internet browsing”.

The app offers the most recent news, opinions, and medical guidelines with regular updates. They can be accessed via two sections: the “Latest content” and topic-specific, such as “Stroke” or “Epilepsy and Seizures”. The app also has a drug directory arranged by subject with subgroups, such as, “Psychiatric disorders”: “Mood”, “Anxiety”.

Lastly, there is a section for physicians who must provide official CME certificates. The number of credits (from 0.25 to 2.0) is listed under the title of a course. The app requires registering before embarking on an educational journey. The registration form swallowed my Canadian practice address without complaints, and I was awarded 2 CME credits for "Preventing Medical Errors for Clinical Health Professionals” relatively soon. This course is suitable for pretty much any medical specialty. Unfortunately, there is no option to save a certificate of completion as a PDF, and the option to email it did not work.

The Verdict: A very good up-to-date app for CME. Please add an option to save the CME certificate.

Best NIHSS App

The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) in an important neurological tool to assess stroke severity. There are a bunch of apps on Google Play dedicated to the stroke scale. The following apps were reviewed:

• NIHSS-MedDoctors
• NIHSSAndroidApp
• NIHStrokeScaleFinal
• NIHSS Stroke Scale

All do the job, but I liked this one the best:

NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS)

The app offers the full scale, 8-item, scale, and a 5-item scale. The “Pro mode” enables the modified NIH scale which is 3 questions shorter than the full one and easier to use. The “Help” section gives a brief description of each scale and a list of references.

The Verdict: A great all-in-one stroke assessment app.

The Best Exam Prep App

Clinical Neurology/Neuro Sci. by Scrub Wars

Those who grew up watching “Star Wars” and playing video games will really appreciate this app. It offers multiple choice questions to study for the USMLE and COMLEX (American licensing exams which are necessary in order to start postgraduate training). Only the first level is free, consisting of 50 mixed neurology questions. Capsules containing answers slowly fall down from the sky, advancing onto a spaceship which shoots syringes loaded with something green. It is a nerve-racking experience for sure. Keeping a spaceship in a good working order by avoiding meteors, moving it into the appropriate position, reading questions, and shooting at answers requires a great deal of concentration.

About 20 percent of the questions have two correct answers which complicates the matter, not mentioning such distractions as the necessity to collect ATP molecules. If actual USMLE required such dexterity, some of us would never make it. Corresponding ipsilateral or contralateral paralysis with the appropriate motor neuron pathways is difficult enough even without a need to maneuver a spacecraft.

I failed the test by three questions the first time and was appropriately reminded about my stupidity by Peyronie Attending, which brought up sweet memories of my residency training. After taking some benzos to steady me nerves, I gave it another shot. The second time was a pass, followed by a compliment from the nicer Benevolent Attending.

The Verdict: A fun app containing relevant questions, and the entire Q-bank is priced very reasonably (4.99$).

The app is NOT recommended for medics with attention deficit, anxiety, poor anger management, not so fine motor skills, and no background in playing video games.

An Afterthought: Maybe it’s not a bad idea to use this interface for board certification exams. It would definitely make two days of torture much livelier.

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TIY: Test It Yourself Apps

More conventional exam-prep apps for nursing and medical students:

• Neurology short questions
• Neurology
• PreTest Neurology
• NCLEX Neurology &Nervous Systm
• Neurology Review Quiz
• Neurology Quiz Volume#1 Lite
• Neurology & Neuroscience Quiz
• Neurology QA Review
• PCCN Certification Exam Prep
• Neurology exam prep

Neuroanatomy and Imaging:

• 3D Brain
• 3-D brain Atlas
• NeuroSlice
• Nerve Whiz
• Brain 3D Anatomy Lite
• 3D Interactive Brain
• Interactive Neuro Anatomy 3D
• NEUROANATOMY - Digital Atlas

Journals and CME:

• Neurology®
• Neurology Today®
• Neurology® Clinical Practice
• Stroke Trials
• Neurocritical Care
• Continuum®
• Continuum Audio
• Neurology Now®
• European Journal of Neurology
• Neurology® Neuroimm Neuroinfla
• Neurology® Genetics
• Brain Journal
• Journal of Pediatric Neurology