Back in January we told you about Cephalon’s submission of their sleep disorder drug, Nuvigil, to be approved as a treatment for jet lag by the FDA.  The FDA has completed its review, but they have not approved the application because of questions pertaining to some of the data submitted.  Cephalon is already following up with the FDA to clarify the points in question and we’ll continue to track its progress through the process.

Back in November, I posted about our first iPhone app, mPassport Paris, and I am happy to announce that we now have an additional seventeen (17) available in the store.  The new destinations are (grouped somewhat geographically):

• Barcelona, Budapest, Dublin, London, Madrid, Prague, Vienna
• Cape Town, Nairobi
• Buenos Aires, Lima, Mexico City, Quito
• Bermuda, Nassau
• Beijing, Hong Kong

Next week, Rome and Florence should also go live.  The old post sums up the apps well, and we have made many improvements since then.  All will soon be iPad compatible, and (drum roll please) all are free for now.  So don’t wait to get one or more of these on your phone.

Finally, the mPassport tools and services are available on a worldwide basis through a subscription.  This gives you access through mobile and desktop web sites that should work on any device.  Learn more about this at http://www.mpassport.com/entry_basicInfo.cfm.

We would love to hear about your experiences using mPassport so get out there and get sick (ok, just play with it and tell us what you think).

This post introduces a new weekly feature of the Healthy Travel Blog – App Rap.  Each week we will attempt to post about the latest travel apps that focus on health and safety.  It may not always be easy to find relevant information for this series, but this week is what some call a ‘no-brainer’, and I won’t even talk about the soon-to-be introduced iPad tablet from Apple.

Of course, the Haiti earthquake has been the big news ever since it first hit back on the 12^th.  CNN recently reported about a survivor who relied on his iPhone while he was waiting to be rescued.  Aside from a phone’s normal functions, his iPhone had an app from Jive Media called Pocket First Aid & CPR that enabled him to treat his wounds with confidence.  He also used his phone’s alarm to wake him up every twenty minutes, as the app had warned him not to sleep if he was experiencing shock.  While there are other free apps that duplicate some of this information, this one is particularly comprehensive and well worth the $3.99 price.  It even includes the ability to load personal medical details for you and your family members.

In other news, I read about a free app from Dr. Sam Pejham called AsthmaMD.  While the features that allow users to log their asthma attacks, medications, and peak flow meter readings and then send them on to their physician are useful, I was most intrigued by its ability to aggregate data across users.  Because its data is real-time and location-based, this app can become an amazing source of data for asthma researchers.  Sure, it might be cool to receive a location-specific coupon on your phone as you walk past a store, but this app, along the lines of IBM’s “Smarter Planet” initiative, uses this data in much more significant ways.

Finally, in an update to our previous posts on mPassport, HTH Worldwide has launched its second destination, mPassport London.  By the end of March, there will be twenty destinations available!  London is currently free, so please download it, check it out, and let us know what you think.

We will be doing in-depth app reviews in the future, so also send us your favorite, and we will give you our take on it.