ArticleDrug safety2013
A comparison of the reliability of smartphone apps for opioid conversion.
Article in Drug safety, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 97 citations in OpenAlex.
- Smartphone Apps for Patients With Hematologic Malignancies: Systematic Review and Evaluation of Content.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- What smartphone apps exist to support recovery from opioid use disorder? A content analysis of publicly available opioid-related smartphone apps.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2025Article
- The modern anesthesiologist's manual: the development and maintenance of an anesthesia case reference application.Journal of clinical monitoring and computing · 2024Article
- [Support of opioid rotation using online apps : Evaluation of applicability and comparison to the LONTS guidelines].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2023Article
- Adopting mobile health applications by nurses: a scoping review.Journal of research in nursing : JRN · 2022Article
- Mobile health applications for pregnancy in Iran: Current state investigation.Journal of education and health promotion · 2022Article
- Mobile Applications in Clinical and Perioperative Care for Anesthesia: Narrative Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Review
- Evaluating the quality and safety of health-related apps and e-tools: Adapting the Mobile App Rating Scale and developing a quality assurance protocol.Internet interventions · 2021Article
- Review of Popularity and Quality Standards of Opioid-Related Smartphone Apps.Current addiction reports · 2020Article
- Opioids, Polypharmacy, and Drug Interactions: A Technological Paradigm Shift Is Needed to Ameliorate the Ongoing Opioid Epidemic.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Technologies for Opioid Use Disorder Management: Mobile App Search and Scoping Review.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2020Article
- Selecting Evidence-Based Content for Inclusion in Self-Management Apps for Pressure Injuries in Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury: Participatory Design Study.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2020Article
- The Safer Prescription of Opioids Tool (SPOT): A Novel Clinical Decision Support Digital Health Platform for Opioid Conversion in Palliative and End of Life Care-A Single-Centre Pilot Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- The Regulatory Challenge of Mobile Health: Lessons for Canada.Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante · 2019Review
- WhatsApp in hospital? An empirical investigation of individual and organizational determinants to use.PloS one · 2019Article
- How can clinicians, specialty societies and others evaluate and improve the quality of apps for patient use?BMC medicine · 2018Article
- Utilization of Smartphone Applications by Anesthesia Providers.Anesthesiology research and practice · 2018Article
- High intraoperative inspiratory oxygen fraction and risk of major respiratory complications.British journal of anaesthesia · 2017Article
- European Pain Federation position paper on appropriate opioid use in chronic pain management.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMany medical professionals use smartphone applications (apps) on a daily basis to support clinical decision making. Opioid switching (conversion of one opioid to another at equianalgesic dose) is common in clinical practice and often challenging for doctors. Apps providing an opioid conversion tool can therefore be a useful resource. Despite rapid growth in the use of medical apps, the lack of robust regulation and peer review to ensure the accuracy and reliability of app content is currently an area of concern.
methodWe searched major online app stores for apps providing an opioid dose conversion tool. We assessed output variability between apps in the dose calculation of seven opioid switches, as well as assessing the level of professional medical involvement in the authorship, creation and design of the apps.
resultsOf 23 different apps identified, more than half (n = 12; 52 %) had no stated medical professional involvement and only 11 (48 %) apps provided direct references to primary sources for their opioid conversion ratios. Conversion of 1 mg of oral morphine to oral codeine demonstrated the largest conversion output range (median 6.67 mg, range 3.333-12 mg). Conversion of 1 mg of oral morphine to methadone ranged from 0.05-0.67 mg, with only 44 % of methadone-converting apps (n = 4) commenting that the conversion ratio changes with magnitude of methadone dose. Overall, 35 % of apps (n = 8) did not warn the user about the standard practice of dose reduction when opioid switching. There was a statistically significant difference in the mean conversion output for hydromorphone (oral) between apps with and without medical professional involvement (0.2256 vs 0.2536; p = 0.0377).
conclusionsThere are significant concerns with regard to the reliability of information provided by apps offering opioid dose conversion, with lack of information regarding evidence-based content and peer review in many cases. It is crucial that better regulation of medical apps is instigated in order to ensure that patient safety is maintained.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.