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Hypertension Canada Guidelines
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Image Source: Hypertension Canada Guidelines, Apple App Store. Retrieved on April 27, 2018 from https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/hypertension-canada-guidelines/id1151658843?mt=8
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App developer |
Hypertension Canada;
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Contact |
General Contact: Chi-Ming Chow (CEO USquareSoft): Edward Brawer (COO USquareSoft):
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Devices |
iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch Android OS |
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Country of origin |
Canada |
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Size |
13.8 MB |
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Specialties/ |
Cardiovascular Health (focus-Hypertension) Primary care/community care physicians, other HCPs, educators, and patients interested in cardiovascular health. |
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Comments |
In App, the audience of the material is not always clearly labeled. |
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Stated Purpose |
Website:
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Notes |
Provide a portable version of the Hypertension Canada Guidelines available through http://guidelines.hypertension.ca/ The website has an interactive tool to determine if a patient exceeds the threshold values for initiation of pharmacological treatment and to determine recommended treatment targets, but the App does not have this. |
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Part 1: Editorial committee, content updates, and evidence grading |
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Although the App lost marks for the grading system not being explained in App and unclear dates in the summary section, this information is available outside of the App on the corresponding website. Similarly, the editorial committee information is not clear in the App, and requires external links to be followed, after clicking into publications (available in App) the information is retrievable and is detailed in nature. Additionally, the lead author of the Guidelines is receptive to questions and responds to inquiries quickly.
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Part 2: Source and authorship information for 3 entries |
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The overall score is being lowered by the summary/ recommendations section receiving a zero. If the corresponding summary/ recommendations section is viewed on the website instead, the source and authorship information is very clear. The guidelines themselves are created using a rigorous process, and the authors are well respected in their fields, and are affiliated with recognized and respected institutions. If possible, viewing the guidelines in a web browser through http://guidelines.hypertension.ca/ gives the viewer better clarity on source and authorship information (unless the App is used for viewing the PDFs in the library section, but the website is more interactive and has better ease of navigation).
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Organization of information |
After the home screen and clicking into the guidelines, the App is divided into three sections (summary, library, videos). The summary section is the POC tool with recommendations on diagnosis, assessment, treatment, and prevention). The Library section has PDFs of the Hypertension Canada publications. The video section contains one video related to the 2016 guidelines. Hierarchical structure is used, and the summary sections are divided into topical subdivisions, and then chapters within topics. The library section has topical subdivisions but within those the publications do not appear to follow a specific scheme.
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Navigation |
The navigation is simple and basic, and does not require much effort to learn. However, once going into some of the content it becomes difficult to figure out how to get back to the main page (e.g. if looking at a chapter, have to exit and reopen the app.. |
User account required: No Internet connection required for use: Yes; Text search field: Yes There is no search field in the app initially, but you are able to search with chapters.; Browsable content: Yes The summary/recommendations is broken into two categories “diagnosis and assessment” and “prevention and treatment” and each are further divided into subjects.; Advertisements: No; Pop-up advertisements: No; In-app purchases: No
There are PDFs for patients for logging their blood pressure measurements of they are doing at home monitoring.
