ACOG app and applets: Tools to augment your practice

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is a nonprofit organization of women’s health care physicians advocating the highest standards of practice, continuing member education, and public awareness of women’s health care issues.¹ The organization has long recognized the impact that social media and mobile technology would have for itself as well as its membership. ACOG published a Social Media Guide in 2012, featuring a section on how to use apps in ObGyn practice and provided a list of apps for ObGyns and their patients.²

ACOG introduced its own app 4 years ago and has since updated the app several times, most recently on December 6, 2017. The ACOG app has a useful search function, a home button, and a place for users to email feedback (TABLE 1). The app most importantly contains several applets (small applications designed to perform a specific function within the main application). These applets encompass 3 types of apps for health care providers: clinical decision-making apps (Practice Bulletins, Committee Opinions, an Estimated Due Date Calculator that was featured in a prior review,³ Indicated Delivery, and Immunize) (TABLE 2), reference and information gathering apps (Today’s Headlines), and member support apps (ACOG Contacts, Careers, Annual Meeting, Districts, Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology [CREOG], and Website).⁴

This review will focus on the main ACOG app, which is evaluated by a shortened version of the APPLICATIONS scoring system, APPLI (app comprehensiveness, price, platform, literature use, and important special features).⁵ In addition, the clinical decision-making applets will be highlighted in a second table. I commend ACOG for developing these useful tools to augment their members’ practices. Of note, for the Practice Bulletins and Indicated Delivery applets, users will need to input their ACOG log-in access information.

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