IRVING, TEXAS -
Mobile apps seem to be everywhere these days, but now doctors are probably using one in an emergency room near you. Dr. Harvey Castro is an emergency room physician at Las Colinas Medical Center in Irving, where he's developed an iPhone application called IV-Meds.
Dr. Castro said the application is made for tired nurses so they can make sure they're giving patients the correct amount of medicine.
"I thought wouldn't it be nice to put all that information that in that book into an iPhone where you could just open the app and hit two clicks and boom, there is your dose."
The book Dr. Castro mentioned contains thousands of drugs spread over 1,400 pages.
Emergency Room nurse Sherry Stallings used to have to refer to the book but now the doses are a screen touch away. Stallings said the app allows her to easily look for a drug like nitroglycerin which is used to treat heart patients.
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"It's got an effect on the patients vascular system so you want to know what you are exactly running at." Stallings said.
ER nurse Jason Carpenter said almost all of his colleagues use the IV Meds app.
"So if I have my iPhone real quick I can look in here real quick and say okay, this is my refresher on this medicine, I an give this many milligrams per kilogram for this patient," Carpenter said.
Dr. Castro literally had research and development at his fingertips. Nurses chimed in on what they would like to see in the app, and Dr. Castro said he made sure it happened.
Nurse Stallings says the app isn't just a time saver -- it's also a life saver.
"I'm sure it's already saved some lives, I mean we always double check, triple check all our meds anyways." Stallings said. "It's just another great tool that helps verify your dosage and makes it a little bit speedier."
Dr. Castro said he hopes the app can prevent emergency room tragedies.
"I think that would be awesome if we could save one single life ... I think my purpose is done."
Dr. Castro's IV Meds application has been downloaded more than 15,000 times at 99 cents per download. The app is available only for the iPhone, but other platforms are being developed.
Dr. Castro said the application is made for tired nurses so they can make sure they're giving patients the correct amount of medicine.
"I thought wouldn't it be nice to put all that information that in that book into an iPhone where you could just open the app and hit two clicks and boom, there is your dose."
The book Dr. Castro mentioned contains thousands of drugs spread over 1,400 pages.
Emergency Room nurse Sherry Stallings used to have to refer to the book but now the doses are a screen touch away. Stallings said the app allows her to easily look for a drug like nitroglycerin which is used to treat heart patients.
"It's got an effect on the patients vascular system so you want to know what you are exactly running at." Stallings said.
ER nurse Jason Carpenter said almost all of his colleagues use the IV Meds app.
"So if I have my iPhone real quick I can look in here real quick and say okay, this is my refresher on this medicine, I an give this many milligrams per kilogram for this patient," Carpenter said.
Dr. Castro literally had research and development at his fingertips. Nurses chimed in on what they would like to see in the app, and Dr. Castro said he made sure it happened.
Nurse Stallings says the app isn't just a time saver -- it's also a life saver.
"I'm sure it's already saved some lives, I mean we always double check, triple check all our meds anyways." Stallings said. "It's just another great tool that helps verify your dosage and makes it a little bit speedier."
Dr. Castro said he hopes the app can prevent emergency room tragedies.
"I think that would be awesome if we could save one single life ... I think my purpose is done."
Dr. Castro's IV Meds application has been downloaded more than 15,000 times at 99 cents per download. The app is available only for the iPhone, but other platforms are being developed.
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