SpeedUp Light - Play podcasts, MP3s, and Goljan or Conrad Fischer Faster on your Phone!

This app allows you to increase the speed of your MP3's loaded on your phone/device all the way up to 2.5X.

Now you can listen to Goljan, or Conrad Fischer, or your favorite podcast, or study tool at the most efficient speeds while you are on your commute to and from where ever you are going.

Its Free, and its called SpeedUp Light.

Enjoy!

Update for Clinical Medical Student 3 - White Coat Tablet - Ipad Mini, Nexus 7, Kindle Fire

Having a tablet that fits in your lab coat... Priceless.

Having charge and reception on your phone.... priceless.
Having a lightweight library of review books, question books, and medical texts, as well as Uptodate, Medscape, and netters anatomy in your pocket... More than priceless.

I suggest you look into the Nexus 7, Ipad Mini, Amazon Kindle Fire HD.

These are your mainstay products that fit in your pocket, are powerful, fast, longlasting battery life, and support a lot of the apps youll need and want. Nowadays, all the apps like Prognosis and Medscape and Casefiles are universal for all. The Ipad is priced a little higher... of course, but really the difference is the iOS vs Android vs Amazon Google Store. The Nexus 7 on Android is the cheapest and really will be the envy of your clinical group, if you need something on a budget, which most of us are. 


Having a smart phone or tablet is priceless... you may want to consider a phone or tablet.  I love having an iphone to look up abbreviations, diseases, surgical procedures, anatomy, etc... during rounds and lectures... but also, It would be nice to have a "dumb"-phone with a superior battery life and cell reception because hospitals are notorious for having terrible dead spots. And when someones trying to get ahold of you for whatever reason, it can be quite frustrating, assuming you dont have a pager, or your pager battery dies, which happens.

Goodluck!

Best Travel Speakers -Island- Beach Speakers

GSP has taught me a lot about traveling. Anything heavy, expensive, or irreplaceable is no good. That's why I spent some time researching about speakers.

These are the best travel speakers period (in my opinion). 

Why?
1) They work with your ipod, iphone, ipad, laptop, whatever!
2) They are loud as hell (10X louder than my laptop)
3) The bass is decent
4) You can link multiple of them together. And it gets much louder.
5) They charge via USB - and last 8 HOURS!
6) They come in multiple colors
7) They are small, lightweight, and cheap... only $18!

Take 1 of these to the beach, and that's all you need.

Prognosis:Your Diagnosis IPad/IPhone/Android App - Clinical Medical Students

If you are in clinical practice, you should check out this app to pass the time when you get tired of reading textbooks or pocket references. This is a great educational/fun resource.


Each case is presented with thorough HPI and physical exam, and preliminary lab tests given to you.
Next, you are asked what tests to do with this patient, and given immediate results to interperet.
Finally, you are asked which things to do to manage/treat this patient.

You are assessed on your performance and there is a detailed discussion describing reasoning behind all tests and treatment options, and is backed  by journal articles listed at the bottom.

New cases are uploaded by MD's all the time. So far there are maybe 100+ cases, divided by Medicine, Pediatrics, etc...

A Must see app.

http://www.prognosisapp.com/

Dropbox

Three reasons this is the most helpful thing for you and your Pathology Group.

1) Its FREE

2) You put a folder on your desktop. Open dropbox ONE TIME, and select this folder. Files (your path slides) in this folder can be added, deleted, manipulated, and edited by ANYONE who has the dropbox program installed on their computer and logged into the account. It all updates automatically, no need to be computer savvy.

So, get an account created, and give the login + password to your whole pathology group and start making/sharing your slides. MONEY.

3) For your own purposes... Have your own account and backup your files in case your computer crashes. You can access these files online at the dropbox website from any location. I plan on doing this as soon as I get some free time. I've been too close to losing a lot of important study materials too many times. Don't let this happen to you.
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GET DROPBOX: http://www.dropbox.com/
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IPHONE/IPAD USERS:
Oh! Did I mention, you can sync this guy with your iphone/ipad as well!? It's absolutely amazing. Definitely something you want to look into if you have one. Take a min to check out this tutorial of how efficient this is.

Fax your Medical Records, Health Insurance Waiver, etc for FREE

If you have an ipad, you can just fill out those pdf files on your computer/ipad, and goto this website:

http://faxzero.com/

Enter the fax number, and zoom! free fax. No need to have a printer, fax machine, stamps, or have to wait for the thing to arrive. This is a pretty sweet service.

Especially nice when you are overseas in England or Grenada and don't have access to a lot of these resources. You can even do it at the beach, Garfields has free wifi ;)

Cheers!

USMLE World QBank App - Uworld Questions fast and easy

Finally, the famous USMLE World Qbank for Step 1 is for Ipad and iphone. Go out and get it.

This is your fastest way to do questions, for some reason it just is faster, and you can be anywhere! Just don't forget that you'll need to get used to the Fredv2 format for the exam on a PC computer, but for practice this is excellent.
     The app is quite nice, like the kaplan qbank, offering complex feedback and explanations. One thing that's better than the Kaplan Qbank, they allow you to review and look at tests older than the last one you did, which is super helpful.

Hoping for a USMLERx app for valentines day!

Ipad - USMLERx Flash Cards - Great!

This App is SUPER good for reviewing First Aid. It's like having the study partner who pays attention all the time ask you questions about the book you think you know so well, First Aid.

Really well planned out app. You can build cardsets from any modality you choose out of over 11,000 Flashcards!!!!! The app is free, but you have to purchase the card sets individually within the app itself.

I have found a couple free sets but, and after trying out a few sets of cards, I am tempted to buy the whole set. You get to see the question, and try to remember the answer, then touch the screen, the card flips over and shows you the answer. Then you get to give it feedback, whether you got it right or wrong. Swipe to the side, and on to the next card. This is a great review resource while on the bus, or during any situation. It's so fast. Also, it keeps track of what you remember and don't remember so you can go back and review those things you have trouble with later. There's a timer included as well, so you can add that element of pressure, that's good to get used to.

Highly recommend this one as one of your Ipad USMLE starter kit.

SGU - Sakai to your Ipad - Quickly Download Files From Sakai

**Thanks to Some Awesome Students posting in the SGU Ipad Group on facebook**I assume you can link your school's online resources website if you are not an SGU student, but this is especially helpful for SGU students to Quickly Download Files From Sakai. 

To sync your Goodreader app with a course folder in Sakai: You need to retrieve the URL for the folder that you would like to add from Sakai. The easiest way to do this is to log into Sakai from your iPad to copy/paste it into Goodreader.

1) Open up Safari on your iPad and login to your Sakai, click on the tab for the course folder you would like to add (e.g. Anatomy) and go to Resources on the left. Then click on "Upload-Download Multiple Resources" on top of the window frame and you should see a URL listed on that page. Highlight and copy that URL.

2) Now open up GoodReader and tap on the "Connect to Servers" tab on the bottom right.

3) Tap "Add" and choose "Any WebDAV Server" from the menu.

4) Paste the URL into the URL field and add in your Sakai username and password.

5) That's it! Goodreader will now show your course folder and sync with all of its subfolders so you can download files directly from Goodreader and manage them however you like.

Ipad 2 for Medical School

Yale is already on board getting all their Medical Students Ipad 2's.... wonder why?

READ: http://www.boston.com/Boston/whitecoatnotes/2011/08/medical-student-essentials-stethoscope-ipad/inZJ4ayzxOm4cs4TBhGBhK/index.html



There's some real advantages to having a fast, digital database for all your notes, lectures, videos, pictures, and textbooks.

Plus, why carry all the weight?

<== Yes, Amazon has them on Sale. Go ahead!

Kaplan Qbank Ipad App - Questions on the Go

So, Kaplan offers a fantastic application for doing your usmle testprep anywhere, and anytime.

The app is free, granted you paid for a questionbank subscription. At the moment they have a good deal of offering upto 12 months for only $200. You get 2500 questions, a good deal in my opinion, especially compared to other Qbank prices I've seen.

The good:

• The app is fast.
• You can Pause, and resume as many times as you want, and quit out/come back to the application.
• You have the option of choosing to create custom tests just like the online website
• You can choose unused questions, or questions youve previously gotten wrong, or a combination
• The full explanation, how many seconds it took you to answer, and why the wrong answers are wrong are provided after each test you complete.
• It's up to date with the new questions, downloaded straight from your Qbank. 
• You can review your total subjective scoring, and overall percentages. 

The Bad:

• The app is Iphone/Ipod/Ipad compatible... however it is written for Iphone/Ipod format, so when you expand it to 2X size... its not as crisp as you would expect it to be on your Ipad you spent so much money on. 
• You can't review past tests you've taken in the past. 
• You can only work on, and review one test at a time. 
• You cannot make tests longer than 45-50 questions. 

Overall though, I've found this more than useful! I even do questions during lecture when it gets slow... and then pause it immediately when the lecture picks up speed.

Play your videos in 1.5X and Double Speed on Ipad

AVplayerHD. its $3 in the appstore. and you can (just like goodplayer), transfer files of any filetype right onto your ipad in the Itunes Applications section at the bottom. No need to convert your video files.

So, you can put Kaplan Videos, DIT videos, Full length movies, TV shows... whatever you want.

Best feature for studying? You can increase the playback speed upto 2X right there on the screen. Easy.

Upad - top note taking pick

I like this best for Taking notes. Not editing powerpoints or Pdf slides... but actually annotating fresh notes, like a notebook. Check it out!

UPAD 1.61

Attention: If you write Applications! There is a market for Med Students!

I just thought of a small niche for those of you who write applications for Apple or Andriod and want to make a few bucks.

There currently is a need for an update to Kaplan's Questionbank application, one with more features and ipad friendly.
Also, USMLERx Questionbank and USMLE World Question Banks do not even have associated applications yet.

What these are, are paid subscriptions to a bank of Multiple Choice test-like questions, including timing, feedback, and user-customized tests. It is really helpful for these banks to be available on the go, on our ipads as they become more and more popular with medical students.

If anyone out there wants to take on these projects, I can almost guaruntee that these companies would be willing to give you a decent price for a well designed app. PLUS, us medical students would greatly appreciate it. :) please, thank you, and youre welcome.

Toblino 2 Ipad Case + Stylus

Case:
Perfect Case for the Ipad for class, and carrying around the Ipad has been the Toblino. I can't say I've tried and looked at all the cases out there, there are tons, but this one works so good I don't really care to look any further. I did do a lot of research before making my decision, but this one is good some good features.

1) its Stable in several posititions, doesnt flop around, however, only sits in horizontal position (which is better for lecture anyway, as well as typing to get the full width keyboard)
2) perfect angle for in class lectures to be able to type quickly
3) protective. Dropped the thing a few times already without a scratch
4) leather, or fake leather, whatever... It looks and feels legit
5) cheap + multi-colors
6) snaps shut, but also is easy to open back up, unlike some i tried that were hard to unsnap. This one is so fast and easy to use.
7) Turns off / on your ipad when it is closed / opened, by magnets or something amazing. Its awesome, i never have to turn it on! and it saves me battery!

Check it out:
   













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Stylus:

So pretty much the responsiveness of all the styluses out there are the same. My biggest issue is looking like im playing games while Im taking notes or walking around with my tablet, so not only has this stylus gotten great reviews, but it Doubles as a pen.   So it feels right in your hand, it looks legit, and you can also take a moment away from your ipad and sign your name on a real sheet of paper or take notes, draw, or whatever! 


Plus, its also cheaper than the usual styluses by a couple bucks.  Also comes in multi-colors.

  

Top 20 Medical School Ipad 2 Applications *updated Nov 2011*

1) GoodReader - organize your files/lecture notes into folders, sync with dropbox, take notes during class. You can underline, highlight, freehand, add lines, arrows, boxes, textboxes onto pdfs no problem. Ive been able to link this to my schools online resources page as well.


2) AVPlayerHD - play ANY format videos, easy to drag videos on the ipad through itunes without syncing the whole thing, Increase your playspeed, it remembers where you left off... Kaplan videos, DIT videos etc., organize your videos into folders easily too, its fast and brilliant. - http://doctormuggle.blogspot.com/2011/10/play-your-videos-in-15x-and-double.html




3) DropBox - 2GB of free storage, put all your lectures, class notes, and everything else you need to access on your ipad, you can save files in your dropbox from email easily, work on files on your ipad, your laptop, or your friends computer, and it will update automatically anywhere you work on them. Sync it easily with Goodreader. Take notes, upload it to the net for a safe copy and easy access on any other computer.


4) Upad - Take notes Quickly, draw pictures, upload/email/save to yourself. Really simple to use, and Looks like a real notebook. I use this in clinical settings, or when I'm taking freestyle notes. Can email the notes yourself or upload it. - http://doctormuggle.blogspot.com/2011/10/upad-top-note-taking-pick.html


5) iBooks - download and read your Medical Book pdf's in an organized fashion, bookmark where you left off. might want to look for a .CHM reader, as some people have expressed a use for it, although I have not. 


6) QuickOffice Pro HD - view, EDIT *something goodreader currently doesn't do (and loads slowly those files with images), save pwrpts, word, and excel files, and sync to dropbox or googledocs. Can download and upload to dropbox, googledocs, mobile me, idisc, etc. BEST OFFICE application. Is extremely fast because it doesnt load the images.


7) Penultimate - freehand take quick notes. Keep seperate notebooks with scratch notes in it. Can save any scratch work you do by pressing Home Button + On Button => takes a picture of your screen and auto saves it to your photo library for whatever you want it for. Been great teaching tool and for quick stratch work.


8) IM+ Pro - keep in touch with your peers through skype, googletalk, aim, msn, facebook chat, and others too all in one.



9) Safari WITH SEARCH IN PAGE - this fix allows you to search the page for keywords. follow this Ipad Guru's simple instructions: http://www.theipadguru.com/2010/04/15/search-within-a-website-page-in-safari-on-your-ipad/

10) Medscape - look like a doctor. have all the drugs, diseases, and uptodate articles updated constantly at your fingertips. Great for looking up drugs for people and drug interactions. There was another App I reviewed called First Consult (*my Review*). Its great for clinicians, but is a paid app. Medscape is free. Epocrates is also a very popular app for clinicians.


11) Kayak - find and TRACK flights, hotels, car rentals to and from home for cheap.



12) Camera - comes with it out of the box, but the camera is super useful if you take pictures of other resources to review them later. Don't forget about it.

13) Kaplan Qbank*** -  My new favorite for studying for the step! --> KALPAN Qbank REVIEW

14) USMLERx FlashCards**** - GREAT! http://doctormuggle.blogspot.com/2011/11/ipad-usmlerx-flash-cards-great.html


15) First Aid Q&A Question Bank**** - So good! - http://doctormuggle.blogspot.com/2011/10/first-aid-q-and-question-bank.html

16) GFlashPro+ - Upload your google docs excel files into amazingly organized and test-ready flashcard sets. If you share this with some other students it becomes really useful. The Quizlet app also has a really good format you can download any flashcard sets people have posted up on the net! Just do a search for them.  - http://doctormuggle.blogspot.com/2011/06/quizlet-flashcards.html

17) Falcon USMLE Amnesia Cure - High Yeild Cases - 150ish cases with 3 questions per vinette, Diagnosis, Pathophysiology, and Treatment - then a detailed explanation. It's great.


18) Pre-test apps for ANY subject - looking really good. AND alot of these have been recently created/updated this year!







19) CaseFiles - Multiple Subjects. Havent looked into these too deep yet, but they look promising.They include bulletpoint education and a quiz on high yeild stuff.


20) Prognosis - Your Diagnosis - A really educational app, but also kind of fun too. More for clinical diagnosis and Treatment - Step 2-3/clinical stuff. Includes Pharm, Treatment, Diagnosis.

For Clinicals - You'll absolutely want Epocrates and Medscape for pill identification, drug dosages/onset/halflife/mechanism of action/brand names, procedure details, and updated disease management guidelines. 

Goodplayer and best $3 you ever spent

Just figured a way to get Kaplans USMLE Review Videos onto an ipad. Since the format is a problem, don't bother with converting. Download the Goodplayer app for $3, or get it for free if youre jailbreak savvy. 

Plug in your ipad to your computer, then click on it in itunes. Click the apps tab, and scroll down to file transfer. Select Goodplayer on the left, and drag the video files you want on your pad into the box. It will automatically sync, and fast too! You're all set. Easy. 

Note Taking Apps - Ipad 2 - Upad

So, I've been testing out Ipad apps for notetaking, and I think by-far, the one I like best is called Upad.  
** in fact, there are so many apps for note taking. Goodnote is quite good as well. Find one that works for your needs. I prefer to freehand my notes during class because its faster than typing and i don't like switching back and forth from freehand to keyboard. **

Upad is cleaner and easier to use. More responsive too and less buggy. It allows you to write zoomed in, so it looks crisp and clean on the page (notebook paper looking). A lot of these apps are getting better and better with updates, keep your eyes peeled on the appstore. 

You can draw pictures, insert pictures (incase you want to take pictures of the powerpoint slides ;) WINK!) type text or write text freehand, and it will transcribe it into text, or you can keep your original handwriting. Just check it out. Its $5 and you can send the notes straight to your email or sync it with Dropbox automatically, which is sweet so you can access your notes anytime anywhere.

Getting a Tablet - Handwriting Recognition + Typing Speed

So, I'm ready to get one finally. I think its clear now what is happening. There are 3 options.

1) The incredible Ipad 2 (Now Ipad 4 and Ipad mini (which you can fit in your white coat later on!), easy to use IOS operating system, smart software updates, with the ability to sync with your laptop or iphone wirelessly, thousands of applications, and you can easily jailbreak them in seconds.
2) All other tablets using Google's Android Honeycomb Operating System, which range in size, speed, and battery life comparable to the ipad. Acer, Asus, Motorola, Toshiba, Samsung, all have adopted this operating system. That means, if you like this platform, just shop for the tablet you like best and for the best price, they are pretty much all the same. If you haven't used it yet, go check it out at your local Computer store. Basically it still has bugs, its not quite as good as IOS i think, and it looks like a Digital Picture frame to me. I still wouldnt mind having it, but at the end of the day, its fast as hell, multitasking works really fast, theres a ton of applications out there, its customizable, and its just a cheaper (and it is cheaper) version of what you get on the Ipad.
3) Windows 7 Tablets with Stylus support. These computers are more expensive and have shorter battery lives. However, they have precise stylus support, and are able to function like a laptop... wait.. so why not have a laptop then? I can't really justify an answer.

The use of a stylus guys, I think really requires one more step. Handwriting Recognition. Once this goes mainstream with good solid software, I consider it being a very valuable tool.

Imagine this scenario... You take notes on your Tablet with a stylus... about ohhh Biochemistry... you draw a diagram with arrows showing inhibition points and write out the names of the enzymes.
Later that week you try to recall the information, but you just can't do it. You have to go back to your notes. Okay. so you do a search... no results. Why? Because the notes you did in handwriting format can not be searched. why? because it is not standard text.

If our software was able to take what we write in freehand, and accurately turn it into text, so that we could easily search for it later and catalog it, then yes, this could be a valuable study tool. The other strike against a stylus for note taking is this: it is faster to type on a keyboard than it is to write words with a pen (atleast it is for me, and im sure it is for you too). If not, goto this website, and get your speed up.

What's your WPM? -----> TypeRacer

Typing fast is a valuable, VALUABLE tool for anything these days, especially med school.

So, in conclusion.
- I am considering tablets with styluses a waste of time. A bluetooth keyboard is a much more important feature for what we do.
- That leaves us picking Andriod vs Apple. For me, its a simple choice. Its about money. Do you want to spend an extra $200 for the 32GB Ipad 2? or get the cheaper, android version for $400. That's it.

It may be interesting to see what Windows 8 does for us, offering another mainstream operating system that can be synced across all of your devices without all that extra learning how to use it stuff and setup, but right now Ipad 2, jailbroken and with a couple helpful apps and a wireless keyboard, is the best option in my opinion.

Medscape eMedicine

This website has everything you want to know about a disease. Causes, risk factors, diagnostic investigations, Symptoms, Complications, etc etc etc. Definitely bookmark this and have it for your Clinical Rotations. Looking up medication names and dosages are essential!

http://reference.medscape.com/

Also, you can get the app for free on your Ipod/Iphone/Ipad/Android/Blackberry:

http://www.medscape.com/public/mobileapp

It's great, I once looked up an analgesic I almost bought from a Pharmacist in Africa, and it turned out I was buying an antibiotic, so I gave it back.  

It also will give you all the pharmacokinetics of drugs, drug-drug interactions, and new updates and articles + more. Highly recommended for anyone in the medical field.

Remember to be connected to Wifi at first, there are a lot of updates to load
but after that, its very fast and doesn't need to be connected to the internet.