Written By: Rod Story, M.D. La Crosse, WI
I would be hesitant to provide an endorsement for most any product, particularly given our desire to avoid more marketers these days. But I must whole-heartedly cheer the evolutionary leap that has happened to ePocrates with the addition of Griffith's 5 Minute Clinical Consult (5MCC), the premier rapid-access clinical reference. Let me share some of my thoughts as I beta-tested this new product in my own practice and perhaps you'll be excited as well.
Many of you, like myself, have been using ePocrates software since its inception several years ago. We've all discovered ePocrates Rx to be the medical killer-app for the Palm, with a free drug database and formularies that are easily updated. You've realized the benefit of point-of-care access to drug dosages and cheered the addition of ePocrates Rx Pro with ID, alternative medicines, tables and a medical calculator. And yet our Palms are cluttered with many other clinical programs out there, including helpful medical texts such as 5MCC. A couple of episodes of switching applications on a Palm just to find a list of medications and dosing guidelines for a particular condition and you're left exasperated with your patient wondering where you went to medical school.
Now imagine the marriage of ePocrates software and 5MCC and you've captured the essence of why pocket computing has become indispensable in clinical medicine. Visualize looking up a diagnosis, quickly accessing clinical pearls, one-clicking your way to your medical therapy of choice, even calculating the weight-based dose, and you have the most useful handheld medical program to date, ePocrates Dx.
A quick tour of ePocrates Dx demonstrates just how well thought out this program is. At first glance you'll notice that ePocrates familiar format has been maintained, with it's quick search Look Up: line, ability to view meds by class, and useful MultiCheck function. Newly placed at the top are the components of the ePocrates Clinical Suite, readily accessed by hot-linked tabs. Just a quick click on the Dx tab takes you to ePocrates 5MCC program, with the same quick search Look Up: line on the bottom of the screen. Once a condition is selected, multi-layered clickable headings are easily accessible at the top of the text or from a pop up menu on the bottom of the screen. These include signs and symptoms, diagnosis (with a thorough differential), and the golden nugget medications. Another quick click on the medication of choice seamlessly links back to ePocrates Rx and the core drug data we've learned to rely on. To complete the package, ePocrates Rx Pro adds the infectious disease portion (also hot-linked) and a new integrated weight-based dosing calculator.
How does this edition compare to other 5MCC products on the market? Having used both Skyscape's product bundled with Lexidrugs and Handheldmed's version, several differences are readily apparent. ePocrates Dx is comparatively streamlined with less on the screen and cleaner menus. Jump links are present within each topic, facilitating rapid selection of related topics. Regular automatic updates are reportedly available. And the program file is smaller which should please all of us still hanging on to our Palm V's!
All-in-all an excellent product and one worth having on your Palm. I know I'm looking forward to the full release!
--Rod Story, M.D.
To purchase this product at a special price available only at pdaMD.com, click here! pdaMD.com/ePocrates Dx Bundle