We at Appstruck like reviewing iPhone apps. In fact, we love it. Getting down to the nitty gritty, laying it bare, showcasing the best and most interesting for our readers, so they don’t have to plow through deep space just to find a decent app. Really, researching applications is tedious, but great.

But, let’s not forget the genius behind the apps. After all, they don’t simply appear out of thin air. Someone had the insight, the talent, and the capacity to create these iPhone apps so that we may use them to their full power.

Starting off our Developer Series, we have the medical talent behind Symptom MD, David Thompson, M.D. FACEP. We reviewed Symptom MD several weeks back with high commendations, knowing it to be a good insight into when you should self-treat or when it’s appropriate to seek medical attention. While your doctor’s advice and your good judgment should always take precedence over any guidelines, having Symptom MD can help you make clearer decisions. For those times when you’re not sure what to do when you twist your ankle, or if you should be concerned about the sinus congestion that has lingered for longer than three days, Symptom MD helps you make appropriate decisions on what level of medical care is needed, and how to provide symptom relief for minor illnesses and injuries at home.

As indicated by my glowing review of Symptom MD on Appstruck, I highly recommend it to others. Can you talk about why you made the decision to create Symptom MD? Where did the idea come from?

The iPhone is a remarkable device. It, like the internet, are transformative in the way that they are able to provide immediate access to information. People are looking for access to health information, in particular decision support; having medical advice at your fingertips is convenient for the person on the go, helps reduce stress, and may improve individuals’ health care decisions.

I found Symptom MD to be very straightforward and instinctual in its design. What inspired you to create this layout, and how did you design it?

The SymptomMD App has three main purposes. First, it is designed to help individuals determine if they are OR their child is sick. The second purpose is to help individuals decide when and if they need to call their doctor. And third, the App provides helpful information for treating symptoms of mild illness and minor injury. The layout reflects these three purposes with tabs for “Definition”, “When to Call”, and “Care Advice”.

Symptom MD bears a few striking similarities to WebMD’s symptom checker, which was released for the iPhone a year earlier, and is available for free through iTunes. When comparing their layouts and information, I noticed Symptom MD has a more authoritarian approach, directing the user specifically on what to do, including the various stages of calling the doctor. What made you choose this approach?

Both of the authors are practicing physicians and know through experience that sick or injured people want precise advice on how to alleviate their symptoms. SymptomMD is a decision-support tool not a decision-making tool. Individuals must use their best common sense when they are ill or injured. SymptomMD tries to provide helpful information to aid individuals’ natural common sense. As for which came first, SymptomMD has been available on hospital websites since 2001 and is updated yearly. (Please feel free to visit http://www.selfcare.info)

There are numerous medical apps for the iPhone, including iTriage, FirstAid, Epocrates, WebMD Mobile, and more. How do you feel Symptom MD stands apart?

Many of the Apps that are available focus more on Health Information. Our approach is to instead focus on symptoms and provide straightforward, usable, and actionable information. Also our the content on our App is a derivative of the clinical protocols we authored for use by nurse who staff medical helplines. The content has been tested in more that 15 million calls – so we have a lot of real life experience which has helped us fine tune these protocols.

What is your opinion on these other medical apps?

We think that ours is the most practical and helpful App for the sick or injured patient. Someone other than us needs to do the comparisons.

My father is a Physician, a Cardiologist for Kaiser Permanente, so in childhood I became familiarized with medical terminology, endowed with a premature medical prowess if you will, and thus have a different perspective from most laymen when faced with illnesses, symptoms, and the like. Did you create Symptom MD with this general population in mind as your demographic?

Absolutely. SymptomMD was created for the general population, that is, folks with no background in healthcare.

There are many doctors in the world today, of all different specialties and concentrations. What is your background and what kind of research went into the production of Symptom MD?

Dr. Schmitt is a board certified pediatrician. I am board certified in Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine. Dr. Schmitt and I provide telephone triage protocols used by nurses in hundreds of medical call centers across the United States and Canada. These protocols are developed using published medical literature, reviewed by a panel of experts, and updated annually using feedback from medical call centers. The SymptomMD guidelines are directly derived from these telephone triage protocols. (Please feel free to visit www.stcc-triage.com)

Do you agree with the Alexander Pope’s adage that sometimes “too much information can be a dangerous thing” and that medical apps like iTriage, in their quest for consumer-driven healthcare, can lead patients in the wrong direction?

We believe that informed and empowered consumers will make better health care decisions. We also believe that the best source of individualized health information is the face-to-face encounter between a patient and his or her personal physician.

What were some challenges or difficulties you encountered in designing this app?

One of the most significant challenges was designing an easy to use interface for the small screen size limits of the iPhone. I think that with ITR’s input and assistance we were able to develop an application that is usable, readable, and, intuitive.

I would like to see the Dosage information expanded to include a wide range of prescription medications, or even have more symptoms included. Do you have any plans on expanding the information in Symptom MD? Potentially any future updates?

We may add additional information about common over-the-counter medications. We have no plans to add information about prescription drugs. We are certainly considering expanding the list of symptoms covered and may also add more detailed information on First Aid.

On a more philosophical note, I have countless conversations with my father about the present state of medicine and how it will change dramatically in the next few decades. How do you feel about the future of medicine, and doctors? We talk about doctors as we see them today changing vastly, with individualized medicine making breakthroughs.

I have no comment for your website on this topic. On a personal note, I feel positive about the direction medicine is heading, enjoy my patient care time, and am very glad that I chose medicine as a career.

I noticed in Symptom MD there aren’t many symptoms surrounding digestion or bowel movements. I always like to point out that tarry black stool is often a benign symptom of ingesting bismuth, an ingredient in Pepto Bismol, when most medical apps immediately highlight more extreme conditions, like anal cancer, colonic diverticulitis, or Crohn’s Disease, the latter of which affects only 1.5% of the population in North America. Black stool is more likely to be a case of upper GI bleeding than anal cancer. What do you suppose is the reason for this?

Dr. Schmitt has just completed the care guide “Stool, Unusual Color”. It will be added in an upcoming update.

Obviously, treatments for adults and children can differ greatly, but no other medical app I’ve seen, aside from First Aid, contains a specific section for children. Not to mention you also developed an app specifically for Pediatric care. Do you think Symptom MD will pull a greater interest from parents because of this?

An adage that is quoted within the medical community is that “children are not just small adults”. Doses for over-the-counter medications must be age-weight adjusted. The types and frequency of illnesses that can occur at age 1 month, 1 year, and 10 years, 30 years, and 60 years vary substantially. The causes, appropriate triage, and care advice for fever in a one month old is completely different than fever in a 25 year old. This is true for most symptoms (e.g., cough, earache, abdominal pain, chest pain). Parents love their children and want to do the best towards preserving or restoring their good health. I think the pediatric specific application will convey our advocacy of children’s health.

I always include a quirky anecdotal account in my reviews, just to make our readers identify with my writing and feel more casual. On a final and less serious note, what do you, illustrious Dr. David Thompson, do in your spare time when not creating iPhone apps of excellent caliber?

I enjoy outdoor activities like camping, canoeing, hiking. I have been actively involved in Scouting and have served as both a Cubmaster and a Scoutmaster.