We're lucky to be practicing medicine in a time where technology is readily available. As frustrating as working on an EMR can be at times, I'm thankful that my computer is there if I need to look anything up or get more information about anything. Phones and tablets have also found a place in medicine, and can be great tools to look something up quickly. Today I'll share some apps with you that I use frequently in practice and that would also be useful for rotations. Make sure to comment with any other apps that you find helpful!
- Medscape - This is one of my favorite resources for an all-inclusive source of information. When you look something up on Medscape, it includes physiology, presentation, work-up, differential diagnosis, treatment options, prognosis, and basically anything you would want to know. Even when I google stuff on the computer, Medscape is typically my go-to source if I'm not using UpToDate (which requires a paid subscription).
- Epocrates - This is a very important pharmacology app. It can be especially tough to keep up with all of the changes in medications. There are constantly new drugs coming out and changes being made in availability, and this app does a great job of staying up to date. On the free version, you can look up specific medications and find out dosing, alternate names, how it is supplied, adverse affects, contraindications, and even pictures of what the medications look like. There is also a feature that you can add all medications that a patient is on and see if there are any cross reactions.
- Figure 1 - This app is like Instagram for medicine, and it is amazing. Since I work in dermatology, and a lot of my cases depend on what I see, it's especially interesting to me. Basically, people can post pictures and descriptions of cases for discussion. Sometimes people will be looking for input into a case, or they may post something that they have seen to let other people become familiar with it. This may not be something that you look things up on in clinical, but it may be helpful if you have a question, and it can familiarize you with diagnoses you may not frequently see.
- GoodRx - This is another pharmacology app, but it is more to the benefit of your patients. You are able to put in medications and your zip code and find out the cost of the medications based on dosage. This helps to compare and see what the most cost effective option is for your patient if you are deciding between medications. There is an app, but you can also just pull the site up on your phone. You can also print out coupons for specific pharmacies that make the prescriptions cheaper.
These are the ones I use the most, but I would love to know what you use as well! And definitely check with your school or hospital and see if there are any apps that they offer subscriptions to as well.
And here are some other sites with their lists of top apps!
