Mobile Apps & Resources: Thrombosis Canada

Specialties/
Disciplines

No specific specialty listed 

All health care professions

Comments

Stated Purpose  

The purpose statement found in the Terms of Use Agreement on the mobile app solely refers to the web app version:

“This site (hereinafrer the ‘Site’ or the ‘Website’) is a Website designed as a resource for the health care professional and accessible thought the Internet and dedicated in providing general information, furthering education and research in the prevention and treatment of thrombosis.”

Notes

Retrieved from Google Play store listing:

“Thrombosis Canada is pleased to offer this point of care clinical app aimed at Canadian healthcare providers. The clinical guides offer an up-to-date and concise reference at the bedside, written by leaders in the field. Using patient-specific information, the clinical tools provide best-practice information for managing anticoagulants in the perioperative period and how to dose the NOACs appropriately for stroke prevention.”

Retrieved from the Apple App store listing:

“Clinical guides and medical calculators for health care professionals created by Thrombosis Canada.”

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

While the app is updated regularly, there are issues with a lack of consistent information regarding authorship of the content. Further, author and/or editor information are not stated for each individual guide so it is unclear who is responsible for what or if each guide is curated as a team effort.

A disclaimer is provided when the app is first accessed and on each guide which indicates that it may be used by the public. However, it is clear that the app is not accessible to lay people.  

Part 2: Source and authorship information for 3 entries

The Guides are well organized but the lack of in-text citations and unidentifiable authorship makes them untrustworthy to a degree.   

Organization      of Information

The app’s content is organized based on a simple scheme, divided mainly into two options: Guides and Tools. The different topics under Guides are organized alphabetically, which allows for easy browsing. There is also a keyword search function for Guides. The organization of the tools content is less intuitive as it mostly organized alphabetically, but some like tools are grouped together, although this does not appear consistent. There is no search function for Tools.

Navigation is relatively straightforward. The Menu button is static and always available for quick access to the content features and tools. There are also options to move backwards and forwards within the navigation hierarchy without always selecting Menu, although accessing the Menu is necessary to move between different features (i.e. going from favorited guides to Guides by Topic search).

Depending on the device used, the navigation buttons can be obscured when accessing certain content.

The app offers the option to favourite specific guides, which are saved to the Favourite Guides function for quick access from the Menu. While the app states that the language used in the guides can be customized to French or English, this is not the case. When accessing the guides in French, no guides are displayed. Keyword searching in French also does not work. Further, tools are also not available in French.