Harvard Medical School is partnering with a Salt Lake City-based developer of online resources to create an app and series of interactive books designed to answer common heart health questions.
School officials and Orca Health have unveiled the HeartDecide app and iBooks series with the goal of giving people access to 3D animations, video and general information on everything from angina to cardiac catheterization.
"These are the first multisensory learning products designed in collaboration with Harvard to provide a new, smarter and better way to help patients with their healthcare decisions," said Matt Berry, founder and CEO of Orca Health, in a press release.
“It’s a fact that patients do better and are more satisfied when they fully comprehend their condition,” he said. “Mobile devices provide a new and vastly improved patient information experience. The multisensory learning found in Orca Health apps deepens understanding and improves healthcare decision making.”
"We are enthusiastic about this collaboration with Orca. Pairing their award-winning graphics and animations with our trusted, empowering health information has resulted in an exciting and groundbreaking resource," added Anthony L. Komaroff, MD, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Editor in Chief of Harvard Health Publications, in the release. "The HeartDecide app and the iBooks make it easy for anyone to understand the most common kinds of heart diseases and procedures, using Orca’s state-of-the-art technology that uses animations, videos and interactive tools. What happens when a person has a heart attack, an angioplasty, or bypass surgery? The app and iBooks provide answers."
The free app is available at the iTunes appstore, while the four iBooks – covering angina, angioplasty, atherosclerosis and cardiac catheterization and available for $4.99 – are available on the iPad, iPad Mini, iPhone or iPod Touch or at the iTunes bookstore. Company officials said the app will be updated and six more iBooks will be made available within the next month.
