Epocrates Rx Pro
The references and tools within Epocrates Rx Pro are indispensable to my day-to-day practice. They include the Epocrates Rx drug database with alternative (herbal) medicines with a built-in weight-based dosing calculator, Epocrates ID (an infectious disease treatment guide), Tables and MedTools—all of which are tabbed in the application for quick access.

Epocrates Rx Pro delivers immediate access to information on virtually any drug or herbal medicine on the market. It allows me to find adult and pediatric dosing schedules, with an integrated weight-based dosing calculator that lets me calculate accurate dosing without leaving the drug monograph.

Other drug information includes adverse reactions, drug interactions, and pregnancy/lactation safety. Estimated cost of the drug is another wonderful feature of Epocrates Rx—many of my patients are on fixed incomes or have no health insurance.

So being able to give them an estimate on the cost of a medication before they leave the office increases the likelihood that they will be able to afford it, and that they will indeed take it. No sense in writing a prescription for that expensive new medicine if your patient can't afford it.

One of my favorite features in Epocrates Rx is MultiCheck, which checks up to 30 drugs or herbal medicines against each other for potential drug to drug or drug to herbal interactions. Can you imagine how long it would take to cross-reference each medication or herbal individually in several different publications? MultiCheck performs this task in seconds.

The ID section is also a tremendous resource. It is one of the main reasons I use the premium version (Epocrates Rx Pro) versus the free version (Epocrates Rx). This section lets me search for infectious disease treatments by (Body) "System", "Bug" or "Drug". For example, if I select "GI" from the Body Systems menu and select "Diverticulitis", I then have a choice of inpatient or outpatient treatment. I can then select empiric vs. specific treatment. I select empiric treatment and find the treatment of choice is metronidazole and either a fluoroquinolone or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. Selecting any one of these medications launches me into the corresponding drug monograph without having to change tabs or applications manually.

The Tables section provides a wealth of easily accessible clinical tables and guidelines ranging from ACLS protocols to Lipid Lowering Agents to Vaccinations. If I select H. pylori Treatment, I am immediately presented with numerous treatment options for eradicating H. pylori.

Finally, the MedTools section includes MedMath with more than 30 convenient medical calculators, such as BMI and Peak Flow.

Summary
Although I have used Epocrates on both a Palm IIIC and Sony Clié without any difficulty, it is also compatible with Pocket PC PDAs and phones. Applications run smoothly and load quickly, the amount of data included in each section (tab) is impressive, and you can seamlessly move between sections.

I've yet to see a patient who isn't impressed with the amount of information I can look up about their medications, interactions and reactions with Epocrates. If you are looking for that one clinical program that will make your clinical practice more streamlined, look no further than Epocrates Essentials.

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James D. McDaniel has worked as a Physician Assistant since 1993. He received both his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Nebraska Medical Center through the United States Air Force, where he served for 21 years—the last 10 as a Physician Assistant before retiring last year. Mr. McDaniel has experience in Family Practice, Primary Care, Acute and Urgent Care, and currently works at a small rural Family Practice/Urgent Care center in his hometown in West Virginia.