Mobile Apps & Resources: Case Medical Research

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To keep you updated on the go, our ‘app of the month’ highlights one free informational app every month!

Preamble

Librarian reviewers consider the audience and purpose of the apps, as well as highlighting additional features:
 
  • In the ‘Evidence’ section, we assess how easily an app user can identify the app’s currency and support from the evidence
  • In the ‘Usability’ section, we assess the organization of information and other usability factors that may contribute to user experience

Our complete grading criteria for evidence and usability are embedded in the review.

Please note that the reviewers are not healthcare professionals, and so cannot appraise the quality of any recommendations within the app. The reviews are not endorsements.

View the AHS policy on Mobile Wireless Devices and Services.

 

 

Case Medical Research

Reviewers

Lance Fox (LF) and Marcus Vaska (MV) 

Version reviewed

Android version 2.26.1 (LF); iOS version 2.25.4 (MV)

Device & OS used

Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 5.0.2 (LF); iPhone 5s iOS 10.3.3 (MV)

Date of review

Date of review: February 13, 2019 (LF); January 28, 2019 (MV) 

Image Source: AIDSinfo HIV/AIDS Guidelines, Apple App Store. ​Retrieved on February 5, 2019 from https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/case-medical-research/id1049999731?mt=8

App developer

Company Name: Kernel Networks, Inc.

Avikk Ghose, CEO Ryan Idryo, VP of Engineering, Eric Kowalchyk, VP of Product Management, Ricardo Marquez, VP of UX and Design

Contact

E-mail: support@casemedicalresearch.com

Website: https://www.casemedicalresearch.com

Devices

 

iPhone/iPad/iPod touch 
iOS 9.0 or later

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/case-medical-research/id1049999731?mt=8

Last updated (as per App Store listing):February 14, 2019 

 

Android Smartphones & Tablets 
4.1 and up  

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.kernelnetworks.casejournals&hl=en_US

Last updated (as per Google Play listing): February 14, 2019 

Country of origin

United States

 

Size

 

17 MB (iOS) 12 MB (Android)

 

Specialties/
Disciplines

No specialty 

Clinicians and researchers 

Comments

No specific specialty listed

 

Stated Purpose  

“Case scans thousands of medical journals (NEJM, Lancet, PubMed, etc) and YouTube to bring you the latest in a disease, drug, gene, pathway, protein and more. “ (iTunes store listing) We use the NIH's MeSH medical terminology database so you can follow research across 274,482 topics. For example, an oncologist can follow acute myeloid leukemia, tumor suppressor protein p53 and targeted therapy midostaurin. Any research matching your topics will be displayed in your feed in real-time.” (iTunes listing) 

 

Notes

According to the app listing, Case Medical Research allows the user to: (iTunes listing)

Read, Watch, Listen (view abstracts in 100 languages; watch medical research videos; listen to audio transcriptions of abstracts)

Search, Save, Share (access 19,000,000+ journal articles via PubMed and other sources; search via Altmetric score, citation count, publication type; save and read articles offline

Personalized Notifications (weekly updates on new research matching area of interest; drug alerts and device approvals; search alerts for specific search queries) 

Certain journals may require a subscription to access the full article on the publisher's site. Open-access articles are freely available in Case.”

-Retrieved from Google Play Store listing

 

Part 1: Editorial committee, content updates, and evidence grading

The Case Medical Research website contains complete biographies, including accreditations and career backgrounds, of the 3 co-founders.  With an easy-to-navigate interface, entries are clearly dated, and the app as a whole is updated on a regular basis.  According to the app listing, users can read abstracts in 100 languages, watch medical research videos, and listen to audio transcripts of abstracts, while also saving favourite articles and establishing personalized notifications with just a few taps on their mobile device. 

As the app functions more like a web crawler, bringing forth the latest research in a variety of disciplines, a ranking or grading system is not evident.  

Part 2: Source and authorship information for 3 entries

This app is intended for searching over merely browsing.  As such, a specific search query must be entered first.  A citation list if provided after clicking on DOI entry (provided full-text of the article is available), however this is not evident from the entry.

Since Case Medical Research functions as a web crawler, a wide variety of evidence source types are included, including systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, case-control studies, cohort studies, textbooks, reports, and conference presentations. Further, authors of each entry are listed under a separate View Authors section.

While an account is required to use the app, this does have the added benefit of tracking user activity (articles viewed), setting up notifications (via e-mail or text alerts), and specifying language (up to 100 languages possible for audio abstracts)  

 

Organization      of Information

 

The app has an easy-to-navigate, intuitive organization.

The home page provides the following links:

  • Latest Research, subdivided into Latest Videos and Latest Articles

As the app encourages searching as well as browsing, entries retrieved from a keyword search include:

  • Latest
  • Best Match
  • Citations
  • Altmetric Score
  • Impact Factor
  • Ability to set up Search Alerts for each topic entry 

 

Navigation

 

It is relatively straightforward to navigate through the app’s Latest Research feature, or to customize an individual searching experience (specifying search topics) 

 

Extras
  • My Profile
  • User Activity (articles read vs. articles liked)
  • Ability to search for information within an article
  • Ability to personalize results
  • Sign in via e-mail address only (no need for a password)
  • Topics of interest can be added from Search Topics directory
  • Individual journals can be followed
  • Study types can be followed
  • Advanced searching (combining topics using “+” or “l” or using quotation marks)


Internet connection required for use: Yes
Text search field: Yes; Browsable content by subject: YesAdvertisements: No; Pop-up advertisements: NoIn-app purchases: No

 

 

 

No additional features, other than the Search Alerts and Customization options.