2 More Apps for Pediatricians: Pediatric Resuscitation and  Pediatric Pedia

Number 3:  Pediatric Resuscitation

This application has a lot of practical applications around the wards of a Pediatric department.  When a child becomes unresponsive, it is critical to ensure that ventilation is returned immediately in order to preserve nerves so the patient has the best chance for a high quality of life after such a traumatic incident.  This app provides a comprehensive algorithm for the most current AHA guidelines for Pediatric resuscitation so a resuscitation effort is done correctly.  As an added bonus, this app also will give recommendations for appropriate levels of drugs necessary for resuscitation such as epinephrine and amiodarone.  Because time is the most critical factor in this cascade, physicians using this app will be able to save valuable time in deciding the appropriate actions to take and be able to have a clear understanding of what to prepare before the leads to the defibrillator are even attached to the patient.  

This app is scored as a 4.6 out of 5 stars and would have a good tool to have for any physician in the field.  During certification for PALS, I remember that dosing for medications was often generalized because it took too long to calculate based on the weight of the child.  Pulling out the calculator to figure out the right level of medication is not an essential task to bring a child back to life and is often an impossible luxury due to wards not having the adequate manpower for a 5-personal revival effort.  This application will cut this time into seconds as well as remind the response team the appropriate algorithms and procedures based on availability of a crash cart.  

Number 4:  Pediatric Pedia

This last application is also another valuable item to download.  After downloading, the user will have a comprehensive breakdown of appropriate heart rates, blood pressures, and developmental milestones for patients based on their age, alleviating some of the common mistakes made in the ward.  If you aren’t sure if a Heart Rate of 125 in a 3-year old is tachycardic or normal, then this app is for you.  This application also has tabs for drug calculations and common presentations like in some of the other apps listed so you can save some space on those tablets by just going for this all-encompassing app.  Additionally, the user will be able to determine the appropriate sizes of incubation tubes or other medical equipment that is dependent on the age of the patients quite easily.  Last but not least, this app also has a comprehensive breakdown of growth and height curves as well as jaundice curves.  Doctors will be able to input levels of bilirubin and generate a curve to determine the trend and then receive recommendations for the dose of phototherapy or frequencies of exchange transfusions to address their patient’s condition.  

READ How To Choose Your Baby's Pediatrician

This app is a good installation based on the fact that it covers a wide array of common points of confusion for medical students, residents, and physicians.  It can be tricky when dealing with young patients because there isn’t the convenient HR >100 is always tachycardia that we can use in the adult populations.   This same hindrance is also present when considering the blood pressures.  Tracing bilirubin levels is also a nice feature to make sure that you are providing enough phototherapy to alleviate any hyperbilirubinemia.  Definitely consider this one if you are a Pediatrician out here.