Take QuickBooks for example: Millions of business people use it, but what percent really love it?

On the BestVendor beta site, we ask people to share three favorite “work apps” they recommend, along with other products they use. Nearly 3,000 startup and small business professionals have signed up so far.

Using their data, we compared applications based on how much they are recommended versus how much they are used overall. We only included products that were used at least 20 times.

The results reveal a ranking of “belovedness” — a NetPromoter-like score for work apps. While our results are early and we’re just getting started, here’s a list of the top 25 at this point. If you haven’t already done so, be sure to check out these rising stars of the work world.

Jeff Giesea is the founder of BestVendor.

[Laptop image via Shutterstock]

SafeMed, founded in 2000, is developing Web services that can help doctors identify and order appropriate diagnostic tests and drug treatments for patients based on the analysis of a patient’s symptoms, health history and insurance coverage. The system is also designed to flag possible medical errors or gaps in treatment according to best-practice guidelines. Or, as the company puts it:

SafeMed’s patient-specific and payer-specific analysis provides a foundation for better-informed clinical decisions, transforming the practice of medicine and the economics of healthcare. Physicians benefit from accurate and comprehensive information on therapeutic alternatives, reduced medical error, reduced liability, improved operating efficiencies, and the potential for increased revenue through payer pay-for-performance (P4P) programs.

Should the SafeMed system work as advertised, this is exactly the sort of thing that advocates of healthcare IT should love. Increasingly, improving the quality of medical care — which, contrary to popular belief, remains a serious issue in the U.S. — is likely to mean both adherence to best-practice standards and personalization of treatment in order to account for the unique circumstances of each patient. Tools that help doctors sort through what is likely to become a bewildering set of variables will undoubtedly play a key role in future medical treatment.

We’ll just have to see if SafeMed’s system is part of that vision or not.