When I bought my first Smart Phone three years back and started
using the popular Medical App Epocrates most of my seniors and colleagues
disapproved its use . Though most of them have never used it but as it happens with anything new they were sceptic about these Medical Apps which looked too interesting to be reliable when
compared with Classic (and often Boring and
confusing ) Text Books.
Though these apps may never supplement text books but they
have a place of their own when it comes to utility . Moreover with the Information revolution things are
changing very fast !
I take this opportunity to present my Top 5 medical apps in my three years experience with Android .
You can download all these app for free in Google /Android
Play Store
The Rank List
1 Epocrates
2 Healthkart Plus
3 BurnCare Burn Calculator
4 QxMD Calculate
5 Speed Anatomy (game)
and AIIMS Poison Information Centre Number.
What is it :
Its arguably the Most popular Medical App in
USA .
It has sections like
Drug Information: here you can find drug dose , adverse effect ,
indications etc
Doc alert : This section updates new medical news , guidelines, studies etc
Interaction Checker : here you can check drug to drug interactions between all the drugs you are delivering to your patient
Interaction Checker : here you can check drug to drug interactions between all the drugs you are delivering to your patient
Disease Reference : This is the best thing I like about
Epocrates . its gives objective and practical information about a disease
condition , its also gives treatment guide as per the Clinical Situation
Tables : contains ACLS /BLS PALS ATLS and other Important
algorithms
The app also includes a pill identifier, lab test section ,
medical calculator (for BMI, MAP , APACHE2
etc ) and many other must have features
Pros :
1 Information provided is practical, objective , clinics
oriented and is the physicians best
friend for day to day use . Its a MUST HAVE app for any Medico with a Smartphone
2 You can access all the information offline
Cons :
The free version is a trial version for one month ,
after one month some feature (most notably Disease Reference) is gone ! -
however there is a simple trick to keep it going with full features – all you
need to do is to uninstall it and reinstall it after one month with a different
email address (they don’t verify the email
address) – this extra effort is worth doing for such a useful app.
Installing Instruction :
The installing though simple is
sometimes troublesome for new users , follow
these steps
1 download from Google play for free
2 Register following
the instruction in the page but remember 2 vital things
A The password
should contain one capital Letter (upper case ) one small letter (lower case )
and a number
B When they ask you for profession don’t choose “ Physician “ choose a non clinical
profession like Research Associate etc ,
this is because once you choose Physician they will prompt you to verify your
status – though they give an option for skipping verification at times the
program hangs
3 Choose the Epocrates
Essential free option
After this the
program will download clinical content – this step will take some time – 15 mins
to 30 mins depending on your connection
4 After download process is complete a screen will come
prompting you to re register – don’t do anything just wait – after 1 minute with no response from you the app will
start by its own .
The popularity of epocrates has prompted many other similar
apps like Medscape , Web MD etc But till
date none has been as specific and objective as Epocrates .
What is it ?
Its an online alternative to Drug books like Drug today , Rx News etc
This simple Indian App gives you information about the cost of almost any drug in India , along with
the price of other brands with the same composition . There is also an option of
Buy the drug online from your local distributor .The prices are far less than
general pharmacy shops
Pros : Free Simple ,
Fast and Useful
Cons : You need to be online to use this App,
What is it : Are you always confident of Using the Rule of
Nines to accurately estimate the body
surface area in a burn patent ? if Not this is the app for you:
Simply enter patient details like age sex height , Use your finger in the touch screen to show the area burned -
the app will automatically calculate the Body surface area , use Parkland and
other burn formulas to give you the amount of fluid you need to Transfuse !!(
both adult and Peadiatric)
-
A very Innovative and useful app – in my
personal experience I have seen that their calculation is very accurate and is
preferable to estimation by a non-Burn Specialist using the rule of Nines . You
can use the App offline .
Its Developed by collaboration of clinical experts from diverse backgrounds. It has detailed references with Pubmed integration and provides comprehensive and insightful results for both medical health professionals and patients.
Select from any of its numerous calculators, grouped together for easy access. Choose whatever fits your current needs, such as general calculators, those specifically for cardiology, and many more.
The app provides tools to reduce and predict perioperative, guide treatment, determine prognosis, dose, calculate, classify, manage, stage, understand and diagnose.
If you are weak in Anatomy like me ,try this game .. Its fun.
The app is an addictive game that 
They also have versions for Neuro Anatomy and Blood vessels at a nominal price (Around Rs 200)
Useful Number
AIIMS Poison Information Centre Number:
(011) 26593677, 26589391, 26583282
By Dr Sourabh Pathak
24 X 7 hotline for
Toxicology Related Cases
If you have any queries about any Toxicilogy case you can
consult an Expert for Free ...Give them description of the poison( colour brand
name ) they will tell you what it is and what to do.
From my past experience in
AIIMS I can say that the phone operator is not a certified Toxicologist but has very good
knowledge in Toxicology and has 24 x 7
access to a toxicologist in case the
need arises.
