Friends at a very large software company once referred to me in a category they called “influential end user.” I think that means I have no actual authority regarding purchasing decisions (or anything really), but I can convince people to do things (including change health care maybe?).

I think that’s happened recently with the iPhone, as I just received a note from Richard Baron, MD, from the great ABIM Foundation, who said he heard the words “have to” from my mouth echoing in his head about whether he should get one. The “have to” part is about using what are patients are using, and learning about it with them, rather than telling them not to use what we don’t understand.

So, he got one, and maybe a few other people I recommended the iPhone to did, as well. I thought I’d post which iPhone Applications I’m using on my iPhone to give people a head start. Try them out, see what you think. And kudos to all the health care professionals out there who say “yes” to trying new things so they can perform better for their patients.

A little info:

• DC Weather is a hyperlink to the hour-by-hour of Washington, DC. You can customize for your city.
• Tipr is also a hyperlink to a web-based Tipping application. It gives you the results in palindromes, so you can check for manipulation. Nifty.
• Remote is Apple’s iTunes and iTV controller. Very cool.
• RSS is a hyperlink to Google Reader. It’s what I use for RSS now. Well optimized for iPhone and the Web (sorry NetNewsWire, I had to switch…)
• Where is a helpful assist for my Starbucks-dar. Maybe also useful for Zipcar (when I have to drive, Metro is really my automobile)
• Loopt and Twinkle are my preferred location aware friendfinders/lifestreamers. Just testing them now.
• Twitterific is where I post to my Twitterfeed. Give it a try. Follow me.
• Urban Spoon, Restaurants, and Yelp are my food finders, except I am not much of a foodie, so I am mostly interested in these for their health promotion potential.
• Mobile News is as it says. I am really not much of a news junkie (Andrew Weil, MD recommended awhile back that too much news is unhealthy, I’d rather just make my own news)
• Cuberunner is just a game to demonstrate the accelerometer functions - for the “Isn’t this device cool” factor. Thanks to Jody Pettit, MD, fellow i-enthusiast for the tip.
• 1Password is useful for storing Web passwords securely. It has a built in web browser so will enter them for you.
• Epocrates is just a cool medical application that shows the promise of the device. Imagine using this as a tool for medication reconciliation and adherence - like how about a patient version, a pharmacist version, a nursing version, that delivers the med list graphically to the patient?
• AOL Radio and Last.fm are experiments in finding music online.
• MyLite is the electronic flashlight. I like the rock concert effect. Works really well in a power outage.
• Google is google. I should use this app more - it does really nice searches of contacts on the phone.

You can get a sense of how I do things from this list, I realized. I don’t have an electronic to-do list, task manager, etc. I’ll post separately about what I do for that. Paper is really good for a lot of things.

What apps am I missing? What do you think of these?

While visiting with friends recently, I was asked something along the lines of what the expectation for healing should be for a friend who twisted his ankle recently.

There happened to be an Apple iPod Touch on standby with a good Wi-Fi connection, so in a few seconds I dialed this up and said, “Why don’t you read through this and see if it fits what you are experiencing, and then decide what your next steps should be.”

I think the iPod Touch is going to be an underdog in Health 2.0 applications….