So You Want to Develop an App for Radiology Education? What You Need to Know to Be Successful

Apple changed the communications landscape with its 2007 introduction of the iPhone. In little more than a decade, most Americans have become smartphone owners. With more than 200,000 applications (apps) for education available in the Apple App Store, we can infer that many smartphone owners use their devices to learn. Several surveys of medical students reveal that apps do indeed enhance clinical knowledge and provide comparable training with textbooks. We launched our first iOS app, the CTisus iQuiz, in 2010 in response to the growing number of portable devices, and with an intention to grow alongside technology. We now have 17 apps available for free on the App Store, and present tips here on how to successfully develop apps for radiology education. Furthermore, we detail the steps necessary to advertise a new app and use analytics to assess how the app is performing. Generating apps for radiology can play an important role in continuing education. As the medical and education fields are integrating increasingly with technology, it is essential that we use technology to reach and interact with its users. Creating iOS applications and using analytics to understand how they meet the goals of the developer can expand the reach of the medical and education communities and render information more accessible on mobile devices on a large scale.