ACC Offers New Mobile Resources for Physicians and Patients

The ACC has several mobile resources available for physicians and their patients. "With the increase in use of technologies such as Smartphones, tablets and e-readers, mobile devices are now a part of our everyday lives," said William Zoghbi, MD, FACC, president of the ACC.

"These technologies have become increasingly popular over the past few years and have the ability to be truly transformative in our work flow as well as the way we communicate with one another other globally."

Additional Resources
The CardioSmart Explorer App is the first medical app by the ACC, was previously available exclusively to members of the ACC for free, but is now also available to the general public for a nominal fee. The app is available for the iPad 2 and is designed to help explain medical conditions and procedures to patients and enhance the clinician/patient relationship at the point of care. Physicians and health care professionals can review and discuss common heart problems and treatment options by utilizing the app’s high-resolution cardiac graphics and animation, as well as walk step-by-step through the structure of an animated 3-D beating heart by swiping up or down through seven basic layers of normal cardiac anatomy.

The AnticoagEvaluator App, an ACC risk assessment tool, will launch at ACC.13, and is an easy and fast way to assess stroke and bleeding risk and the benefits and risks of antithrombotic therapy in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation. The app is free for ACC members and is available for use on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.

Benefits of the app include: a combination risk calculator tool that uses CHADS2, CHA2DS2-VASc, and HAS-BLED; users can enter patient info at the point of care and get individualized annual risk of ischemic stroke and thromboembolism with concurrent annual risk of major bleed; compare antithrombotic therapy options based on clinical trials (ACTIVE-A, RE-LY, ROCKET-AF, ARISTOTLE); and the ability to email individual patient results in seconds.

In addition, the ACC has created a new ACC Connect App for members. The App is available for both iOS (iPhone, iPad, and iTouch) and Android devices, and allows cardiovascular professionals to stay connected through their electronic devices. Features include a searchable member and ACC staff directory, the ability to update individual contact information, news feeds from the ACC, and access to important ACC phone numbers.

The ACC.13 eMeeting Planner App is available for meeting attendees. Users can personalize their meeting by searching for sessions by specialty, interest area, and role in the cardiovascular care team. In addition, users can receive access to Expo information, animated maps, Twitter feeds and more.  There will also be several sessions at ACC.13 targeted at mobile technologies and social media.

The ACC also offers ways to review CardioSource.org content on your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android and Blackberry through the CardioSource Mobile App. Further, several of ACC’s print publications feature apps including the JACC iPad edition App (which was named one of the top medical education apps, and one of Apple’s top 80 medical apps); the Cardiology magazine App available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and the CardioSource World News App for the iPad. Other mobile resources include heart songs and ACCEL.

Further, CardioSmart offers several mobile resources for patients. The free CardioSmart Med Reminder app is designed to help patients take their medications as prescribed in addition to serving as a personal medication record (PMR) to help patients communicate to their health care providers about medications. Other mobile resources include free SMS text messaging services for patients in the U.S. looking for tips to prevent cardiovascular disease or to quit smoking.

"There are so many tools and different ways we can impact health care," added Zoghbi. "I do hope you find these tools useful in your daily work, providing you with content and tools at your fingertips for improved efficiency and effectiveness in providing health care. Under Incoming President John Harold, MD, MACC's direction next year, I am confident the ACC will take its digital strategy to the next level, with even more mobile offerings and tools to help the cardiac care team and their patients achieve their goals."


Keywords: Thromboembolism, Health Personnel, Stroke, Methyltestosterone, Methotrexate, Risk Assessment, Malus, Smoking, Education, Medical


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