iLiver is a free essential app for internal medicine physicians and gastroenterologists

iLiver, developed by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), is an iPhone/iPad application for professional use.
It delivers instant medical information and clinical recommendations to hospital doctors such as hepatologists, gastroenterologists and internal medicine specialists on specific liver diseases.
Below is our full review of the app.

The iLiver app contains rigorously reviewed and updated information written by experts in the liver field, independently reviewed and approved by the EASL Governing Board.


iLiver currently covers 19 liver diseases and another 6 are expected soon. The full list of diseases covered is shown in the screenshot below.


Each disease contains concise information related to:

• Definition
• Clinical Presentation
• Diagnosis
• Differential Diagnosis
• Scores
• Complications
• Management
• Links of interest.

Some of these, such as Clinical Presentation, further break down into Signs and Symptoms while others such as Diagnosis break findings down into modality e.g. Radiological, Endoscopy etc. The information provided is clear and relevant to that particular disease and is certainly of use in finding out more about a particular liver disease.


There are useful algorithms included and there is relevant information on medications including interactions side effects and more.
One strength of this app is also one of its drawbacks; by focusing purely on Liver disease, the app offers no information on other diseases that may present in a similar fashion e.g. Pancreatitis. An approach that included all parts of HPB or Hepato-pancreato-biliary may offer more advantages to a practicing clinician.
The other major section is a medical calculator section which contains a large number of relevant calculations. These are easy to use and it is extremely helpful to include a short section explaining the test and any particular references. I did find that this section had one or two rough edges where it doesn’t seem to have been fully completed e.g. BiLE and Banff Schema – Rai tests were both empty and inaccessible while in others, I found there were figures referenced but not included until I had manually downloaded them (See screenshots).


The app is completed by a helpful search section and complemented by the ability to “favourite” certain diseases (not calculations)

Price:

• Free

Likes:

• Comprehensive free resource
• Well designed application with a good user interface
• Automatically updates to latest content

Dislikes:

• Some medical calculator scores didn’t work properly (see screenshots)
• The key focus on liver disease means that iLiver doesn’t contain any information related to conditions which may present in a similar fashion e.g. Acute Pancreatitis

Overall Rating:

• iLiver is a useful, well designed free app for those who are interested in liver disease
• Its pure focus on this can be a drawback and there are certainly one or two areas of improvement
• Despite this, it is still a first-rate app and worth downloading

iTunes link