HEAD-US Mobile App: design and implementation

More and more emerging applications are being used in the medical field. Many of them have been designed for the use of patients themselves. Care applications are also being developed to facilitate clinical decision making, to process medical information and to assist the work of the physician at the patient's bedside.

 

Other applications have been designed exclusively to facilitate the teaching of clinical aspects. For example, applications have been created to enhance the three-dimensional knowledge of anatomy, tools for simulations in emergency situations or programs designed to improve specific clinical skills.

 

On the other hand, there is a growing interest in the use of ultrasound as a tool for the assessment of musculoskeletal pathology related to hemophilia. This growing interest has led to the development of protocols for the evaluation of hemophilic joints. Among the known protocols, the Haemophilic Early Ultrasound Detection- arthropathy (HEAD-US) published by Martinolli has proven to be the most appropriate for its effectiveness and reproducibility.

 

However, while there is a consensus on the usefulness of ultrasound in hemophiliacs, training and required equipment are not always available. Besides, the US HEAD method requires an adequate training to be applied with good results. 

 

This project arises from the need of facilitating the teaching of US HEAD-method and assisting the clinician in using such a systematic sonographic evaluation. It will be made an application that facilitates clinicians to learn and use the HEAD-US method, assisting it´s users during the application of this method of ultrasound assessment at the patient's bedside.