Petal for Physicians vs The Ottawa Rules
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Petal for Physicians
This app provides a secure cloud platform for healthcare organizations to manage patient care delivery workflows. It enables real-time orchestration of all aspects of patient care, enhancing efficiency and coordination.
- Data-driven secured cloud platform
- Real-time workflow orchestration
- Patient care delivery management
- Healthcare organization empowerment
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Petal empowers healthcare organizations with a data-driven secured cloud platform designed to orchestrate all your patient care delivery workflows in real-time.
The Ottawa Rules
This app provides accessible clinical decision rules developed by researchers to help healthcare professionals make informed choices. It aims to reduce unnecessary diagnostic imaging and emergency room wait times, improving patient comfort and healthcare costs.
- Accessible clinical decision rules
- Reduces unnecessary imaging
- Decreases ER wait times
- Enhances patient comfort
- Lowers healthcare costs
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The Ottawa Rules are a set of clinical decision rules developed by Dr. Ian Stiell and his research team at The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University of Ottawa. The rules have been demonstrated to decrease unnecessary diagnostic imaging and emergency room wait times which enhances patient comfort and reduces health care costs. This app was developed to make the rules more accessible. This study aims to evaluate whether the usability of the app is related to the modality used and to evaluate whether it has any impact on diagnostic imaging rates.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: The Ottawa Rules at 100% against Petal for Physicians's 31%. The Ottawa Rules also leads on rating (5.0 vs 1.0) and monetization model (free vs freemium). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
The Ottawa Rules holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 2 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 31% of Petal for Physicians's written reviews are positive against 100% of The Ottawa Rules's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Petal for Physicians | The Ottawa Rules |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.0 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 31.4% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 50 MB | 155 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Petal Solutions Inc. | Ottawa Hospital Research Institute |
Customer experience
Petal for Physicians
The Ottawa Rules
Bugs and requests
Petal for Physicians
Reported bugs
16 issues- Frequent disconnections and server connection loss
- App freezes and requires restarts
- Login issues, requires repeated logins
- App gets stuck on loading screen
- Marketplace refreshes to the beginning when switching apps
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- App crashes frequently, especially after updates
- Unable to log in
- App doesn't open or requires multiple restarts
- Password required even when entered
- Sync issues with calendar after iOS updates
- App not adapting to iPad orientation (portrait only)
- Redirects to app from website on iPad
- Cannot see group calendars after update
- Update loop preventing login
- Continuous crashes and banner message not clearing
- Calendar not reliably loading
Requested features
9 requests- Allow account cancellation from app
- Fix constant refreshing of marketplace
- Improve iPad orientation support (landscape)
- Support password managers (1Password, etc.)
- Support Touch ID and Face ID login
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- Allow viewing colleague schedules
- Allow selecting multiple days for availability/unavailability
- Add ability to see schedules of colleagues
- Allow landscape view on iPad
The Ottawa Rules
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Petal for Physicians
No in-app purchases
The Ottawa Rules
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Petal for Physicians free?
Is The Ottawa Rules free?
Which has better reviews, Petal for Physicians or The Ottawa Rules?
Do Petal for Physicians or The Ottawa Rules have ads?
Which is updated more often, Petal for Physicians or The Ottawa Rules?
Other comparisons
