VisualDx: A Miracle Medical Tool

I love attending conferences that involve technologies. I never miss the International CES conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada annually during winter and its Mid-Year Conference in New York every summer.

My goal was always to look for new products, apps, or technologies that fall under the description “Miracle, Magic, or Mind-Boggling Technologies”.  I gladly write what I discover and readers seem to look forward to reading about them whether the discovery is from the Sin City or the Big Apple.

For many years, Washington, D.C., (the nation’s capital) was a major source for my search for amazing technologies too.  First, because of the Federal Government-sponsored conferences like FOSE, GovSec, Mobile Government, and Cyber Security, which I also attend. Second, because of the mHealth Summit Conference that is also held here annually.

In the latest mHealth conference there was one app that I considered so amazing that I even called it a “miracle medical tool”.  While the app seems to be simple, it actually becomes magical and mind-boggling when applied - benefiting both the health providers or medical community and the patients.

The app is called “VisualDx”. It is a medical tool that provides “diagnostic information on a wide range of adult and pediatric conditions, including ophthalmology, oral medicine, radiology, infectious disease, pediatrics and many other specialties.” It also covers all ages and skin colors with more than 30,000 pictures.

Recognizing its significance as an effective medical tool and great source for diagnostic information, medical students from Harvard and UPenn voted it as one of the Top Five Apps.

It has also received several honors: As a Category Leader in the Clinical Decision Support – Referential category in the 2013, 2012 and 2011 Best in KLAS Awards and the Pride Institute’s “Best of Class” Dental Technology Award. Most recently, VisualDx was also one of the three winners of the AMIA/iHealth "Ideas That Work" competition in Orlando, Florida.  It was sponsored by the California Healthcare Foundation.

Licensed by more than half the nation’s medical schools and more than 1,500 hospitals, its pictures have generated 50 million image views from users in 2013 alone.  This validates its need and beneficial contribution to the users and also my assertion that it is a great app that should be known and shared.

I must admit that I am not really the best judge to rate the app itself.  I could only see and notice its wonders.  At the mHealth Summit Conference, I asked Dr. Noah Craft, MD, PhD, DTM&H, who is the Chief Medical Officer for Logical Images, maker of VisualDx, this question, “why should VisualDx be considered a Miracle, Magic, Mind-Boggling?”

               

Here is his answer:

“Surgical Robotics has extended the doctor's hands.  A stethoscope extends the ears.  Ultrasound, MRI, CT Scans, microscopes, and X-rays have all extended the eyes.  VisualDx is the first major extension of a doctor's brain to be in widespread use.  It helps doctors make more accurate diagnoses and is used to engage patients in the process.

“VisualDx is available as both an e-record integrated resource and a mobile app that works with the iPhone, Android and iPad. What makes VisualDx stand apart?  It treats every patient as a unique individual. Most other electronic medical resources are simply electronic textbooks and are used to look up a single disease or medication dose. VisualDx uniquely enables the user to maximize the search by entering multiple factors about a patient, including symptoms, medical history, travel, medications and lab results.  Based on that information, VisualDx searches across its proprietary medical knowledge database and then uses a patented process to quickly deliver “stacked visual knowledge” -- a highly specific list of potential diagnoses, a series of medical images to compare to the patient’s current conditions and the recommended treatments. Doctors then use VisualDx to arrive at the best diagnosis, explain the process to the patient using the images and decide on the right treatment for each unique patient.

“We know that our brains process visual information much faster than we process text-based information.  With VisualDx, we show doctors complex knowledge visually, rather than through text alone.  Imagine a paragraph of text describing Abraham Lincoln.  Now imagine a picture of him.  Which would help you recognize him faster?  That is the VisualDx difference. 

“We have been building the system for nearly 15 years, and we know it’s working because VisualDx is now used in more 1,500 hospitals and more than half of all medical schools, including Harvard, Yale, UCLA, NYU and many more.  VisualDx is truly changing how we learn and practice medicine.  The days of memorizing everything are now long gone. Like Epocrates is to medication dosing, VisualDx is the most important app that doctors need in their toolbelt for both diagnosis and therapy guidance.”

Dr. Noah Craft said it all.  A visit to the website of VisualDx (www.visualdx.com) shows the positive reviews of users and customers.  I realized how the app could be of great help to Professionals and Institutions. The Professionals could be in the field of Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Dermatology, Dentistry/Oral Medicine, Student/Resident, Medical Librarian or CMIO.

To be more effective and efficient, I see how VisualDx could be beneficial to institutions like Hospitals/Health Systems, Accountable Care Organizations, Clinics & Group Practices, Medical Schools, and Public Health & Government.

Diagnosis and judgments by medical professionals or institutions involve the intellectual process.  They are arrived at based on the quality and quantity of information that reaches them. 

“There is nothing in the intellect that is not first in the senses”, says a scholastic dictum.  Before a judgment is made, the senses are utilized to provide data and images.  VisualDx is an app and tool that helps medical professionals and institutions make better decisions.