Few content providers know more about longtail content than newsrooms. Journalists have been trying to find ways to make their archives valuable for their users.
Merck has been publishing it’s Manual since the late 1890s. In the mid-1990s Agile Partners helped Merck publish that data on the Web. But even portable laptops are not always available when users need medical data. So in 2009 I teamed up with Agile Partners and Merck to create an on-the-go iPhone app.
The app makes it easy for home users to handle emergencies and for medically professionals to diagnose patient symptoms.
The Home Edition version of the app has been a regular in the iTunes Store’s What’s Hot list. Here are some of the things reviewers have said about the app design:
- iMedicalApps: What I liked:
- - Navigation and User Interface are beautifully designed
- - Ability to E-mail or copy portions of selected articles is a nice touch
- - Bookmarking of your favorite articles
- - Can manipulate text size
- - Could see this actually improving a patient-physician relationship
- MedTapp: Thumbs up for…
- - easy navigation
- - neat interface
- The New York Times Gadget Blog: If you are think you suffer from something slightly more exotic, the Merck Manual of Medical Information is now available as a $9.99 application for the iPhone. It lists enough illnesses to stump even Dr. Gregory House. it covers everything from Abetalipoproteinemia to Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome. A section on Emergencies and injuries offers practical information on treating everything from life-threatening injuries to bug bites.
Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper
Miracle at Midway
