ShoulderDoc App, educating patients about shoulder conditions, pathology, and surgery

What we call the shoulder is a complex structure of several joints that combine with muscles and ligaments to allow movement in many directions: forward, backward, around in a circle, and away from the body. 

The shoulder is a very flexible joint, which means it is highly prone to injury, especially in competitive athletes or people suffering from years of repetitive motion.

There is a multitude of shoulder conditions, such as frozen shoulder, arthritis, tendonitis, bursitis, rotator cuff tear, dislocation, and more, but we can only identify them as mild or severe pain that occurs when we move our shoulder or all of the time. 

Shoulder pain that won't go away over time or after treatment with OTC medications is the most common reason to visit shoulder specialist who could help us identify the specific shoulder condition.

To help patients better understand different shoulder conditions and the cause of their pain, Lennard Funk, a UK-based specialist shoulder surgeon, established ShoulderDoc website back in 2002.

The website started off as a simple resource built to provide Dr. Funk's own patients with information and guidance about shoulder and elbow conditions that was not easily available elsewhere.

While the website provides a plenty of information that is well-referenced and updated frequently, it may seem a bit crowded and hard to navigate, especially to inexperienced users.

This is probably the reason why Dr. Funk also developed a mobile app to help patients quickly access reliable information on-the-go. 
Just like the website does, ShoulderDoc app also provides detailed information about a multitude of shoulder conditions using a combination of text, images, animations, and videos, as well as 'Diagnose' section that assists patients in self-diagnosis of their shoulder problems. The app is available for free download and use, however, only on iOS devices.

The ShoulderDoc app's interface is clean and easy to navigate as you'd see after opening the app. You'd also notice that the app is intended for patients, not the seasoned providers, who could, however, still use the app to educate their patients about various shoulder conditions and their treatments.

By default, the app opens to Topics page that lists the 25 common shoulder problems, from AC Joint Problems, Calcific Tendinitis, Frozen Shoulder, to Injections, Labral Tears, and Internal Impingement.

The remaining 4 categories are listed in the bottom menu, including Diagnose, Your Surgery, Videos, and About Us.

Tapping on the topic in the list opens a new page with more specific categories listed for each topic. For example, tapping on AC Joint Problems would open AC joint, AC Joint Osteolysis, ACJ Arthritis and ACJ Dislocations, or tapping on Frozen Shoulder would also reveal four sections, including Frozen Shoulder, Capsular Release, Exercises, and Arthrographic Distension/Hydrodilatation.

Sometimes these categories could also have their own categories, for example, ACJ Dislocations that opens to three additional sections, or they could get straight to the point, i.e. open to the information, such as Labral Tears category.

Information on each shoulder condition is comprehensive and well-referenced, and it's provided in a form of text, accompanied by annotated anatomy illustrations, photos, radiographs, and animations to help illustrate the condition. 

The information contains a summary of the problem and common treatment options, which is tailored to be easily comprehended by patients without medical training.

The next section of the app is 'Diagnose', a tool that lets users go through a series of questions to help them self-diagnose their shoulder problem. The users complete the questionnaire containing the questions, for example about an injury, location of the pain, how it's triggered, etc.

Based on the answers, the app provides possible diagnosis, linking to the information about the problem in Topics category.
The disclaimer states that this self-assessment tool is only a 'rough guide' to help users find more information about their shoulder, not to substitute a real medical exam.

Also, this tool provides a limited number of diagnosis, meaning that not all conditions listed in Topics section are covered. This is partially understandable because it's hard to diagnose the problem without a proper exam. 

The 'Your Surgery' section provides information that could be useful to all patients scheduled for shoulder surgery. It explains what the surgery would be like, how to prepare for it, questions to ask your surgeon, etc.

Dr. Funk obviously tailored this section to his personal practice, but there is a lot of good general information. Most of the information open in the app, while some links to the ShoulderDoc website, or their store, such as "Print Booklets." However, I got an error here, so obviously store link needs to be updated.

The 'Videos' section contains two categories: Shoulder Animations for shoulder anatomy, and Surgery Animations that explain common procedures. The videos require an Internet connection to load. 

However, once I've hit the play button, the screen rotated, but I was unable to view or play video or to use any controls to exit the video. The solution was to delete the app from my iPhone and install it again. Unfortunately, videos didn't work even after these steps.

Finally, the last section, 'About us' contains the information about the app and its creators.

Overall, ShoulderDoc app is a useful resource for patients who want to learn more about various shoulder conditions and their treatment options. There's a room for improvement tho, particularly the bugs that affect the user experience, as well as the lack of Android version.

Benefit: All patients who want to learn more about common shoulder conditions and treatments would benefit from this app