Review: MediTour app (Android / iDevice)

Brought to you by the Korea Tourism Organization, the MediTour app (Android and iDevices) offers ample information for those bound for a Korean medical tourism trip. With versions in English, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian, there’s no language barrier and few language issues to speak of. While good if you’re already coming to Korea or desiring more information, it’s missing a few things to give it the highest recommendation.

Medical tourism is a booming market in most Asian countries, and Korea is no exception. While I don’t (currently) have a need to get something inserted or extracted, it’s nice to know the information is all right there, partially available offline. Some missable videos are available, and the app knows all the phone numbers to help you call them.

Start by choosing ‘Smart / Medical / Korea’ from the Home screen, where an introduction on Korea’s medical care and history awaits. Nothing too fancy here, but graphics flow with text nicely. I’d love to see a larger font size here, or at least the option to change the font size for those who might find 8 point text hard to read.

Perhaps the highlight of the app is the ‘Hospital Information’ button. Select from over a dozen general categories of treatments, then browse a list of Korean hospitals able to perform that sort of work. The ‘Basic Information’ tab covers the hospital’s address and specialties easily enough, but the intro of each seems copied-and-pasted from the PR department. Another issue:

The ‘Charge/Professionals’ tab shows the supposed price tag that comes with a respective surgery, some in US dollars, some in Korean won. The doctors at each respective hospital are mentioned by name and e-mail, though I sort of wonder what would make me choose one semi-smiling face over another.

It’s nice to see all the hospitals in an unranked system, and the ‘sort’ function serves to narrow the options by category, region, partnership, and “quality certification”. The latter two categories seem to show who has provided the correct information; there’s also no on-app information on how a hospital qualifies for these.

A couple glitches were found with the wheels – scrolling them takes just the right touch, and the results don’t always match up with the region.

Mentioned at the bottom of every screen is a shortcut to the @KoreaMedicalEng Twitter account… which as of this review has posted exactly zero tweets. The ‘news’ button is unpopulated as well – perhaps it’s taking a bit more time to get this out there…

For Android devices, go to the Market on your device, the AppBrain store for more information, or snap a picture of the QR code below:

For iDevices and Apple customers, click this link to learn more.

Please, send an e-mail to [email protected] if you have any inquiries or suggestions.

Ratings out of 5 taeguks – How do I rate apps?

Usefulness / helpfulness: (is it useful / helpful?)

Return on investment: (is it worth the time / money to figure out?)

Intuitiveness / Ease of use (can you pick it up and use it, or do you have to tinker with it?)

Looks / Design (while not every app is elegant, do you want to stare at it for an hour?)

Overall: (keep it or delete it?)

Creative Commons License © Chris Backe – 2011

This post was originally published on my blog,Chris in South Korea. If you are reading this on another website and there is no linkback or credit given, you are reading an UNAUTHORIZED FEED.

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