Cardiology fellow Satish Misra has tried hundreds of apps since 2009. That’s when he and Iltifat Husain of Wake Forest School of Medicine co-founded iMedicalApps, a website that reviews apps created for health care providers and their patients.

Since then, the founders and a team of volunteer reviewers have evaluated roughly 2,000 apps offering everything from treatment guidelines to three-dimensional anatomical models.

“We’re like a discovery service that identifies potentially useful apps and less useful or even dangerous ones,” says Misra, who curated this month’s Tech Envy column on must-try medical apps.

While health and medical apps offer a wide range of functions, Misra finds the majority do not meet their stated goals. When this is the case, the apps are not reviewed on the iMedicalApps website. 

But what does Misra think makes a great medical app?

It does what it states it will do in the simplest, most intuitive way possible, he says. The app is transparent, providing users with the information they need to decide whether to trust the app or not.

The app includes its sources of information, background on its developers and how a user’s personal data will be utilized. In addition, a great app is kept up to date by its developers to ensure its safety and usefulness.

Each month, iMedicalApps gets 400,000 online views, and Misra and his team are hoping to build on that success by launching a new website called iPrescribeApps. The HIPAA-compliant site will allow physicians to search for devices and apps relevant to a particular disease, then email or text their patients information and instructions on how to use them.

To submit an app for review, visit imedicalapps.com, click on “About” and then “Contact.”