Epocrates online

Epocrates online is not only a useful drug information source, but it also includes other tools that can be used by many health care professionals, and the service is free to sign up for at their website (www.epocrates.com). From this site, you can create a free account which allows you access to all aspects of the regular version of Epocrates with the exception of the medical calculator and medical tables, which are available only if you purchase the premium version of Epocrates. Despite the fact that you cannot use the calculator or the tables, there are many other important and valuable tools that can be used including the drug information source, drug interaction check, and pill identifier.

The drug information part of Epocrates is very useful. It has drug information divided into certain aspects including black box warnings, adult and pediatric dosing, contraindications and cautions, drug interactions, adverse reactions, safety monitoring, pharmacology, prices, patient education, and pill photos. The way the monograph is divided on the right hand section box is very useful to find the information you want. If you go to Epocrates online and just want to know dosing information or contraindications to a drug's use, instead of searching through the entire monograph you can click on the information you want to access it right away. This will decrease the amount of time spent looking for information, which is imperative for most people in health care.

The multiple drug interaction check is another useful tool that is offered in the free version of Epocrates online. This tool allows you to enter all the drugs that a patient is currently taking and it lists all the possible drug interactions that could occur. It not only explains the drug interaction, but also splits them up based on how serious the interaction is deemed. Serious interactions are under the heading of avoid/use alternative while those less clinically significant interactions are under the heading of monitor/modify treatment. Besides being divided under these headings, there is also important information under each interaction that explains the action that should be taken in regards to the interaction as well as how the interaction occurs. This could be a very useful tool for the pharmacist who has a patient on a lot of drugs. Instead of checking the interactions of each drug individually, all the drugs can be added to the list to find interactions that could occur in therapy.

The pill identifier tool is also a nice tool to have in community pharmacy mostly. Here, you can search for an unidentified pill by shape, color, score, coating, clarity, and imprint codes. It is an easy tool to identify a pill you find out of its bottle. This is especially useful for pharmacists in a community setting who have many pills and pill bottles. It is common for a pill to get lost out of its bottle, and this free tool from Epocrates allows the pharmacist to figure out what drug they have found.

Epocrates online is a free drug information source that anyone can get access to just by obtaining an ID and password. The free service offers multiple drug information tools that can be used by pharmacists to access drug information, check for drug interactions, and identify misplaced pills. The best part of this site is it can be accessed anywhere in the world with an Internet connection provided you have a profile set up. This is an advantage over many other drug information sources that we have to be on campus to access or figure out the new remote desktop application that the University has established. If you need a reliable, easy to access, and very useful drug information source, get yourself a profile at Epocrates online and take advantage of this free drug information source.

PDAs and Cell Phones vs Smartphones

To combine, or not to combine, that is the question. Is it better to have a PDA and cell phone separate or is a smartphone the way to go? Both sides have valid arguments. Let's look at the viewpoint of PDAs and cell phones separately being better.

If you buy a smartphone through one company, and let's say you get fed up with their service, you might not be able to switch to another phone company without having to purchase a new mobile device (either a PDA or another smartphone). A smartphone has twice as much value as either a cell phone or a PDA by themselves. Not just monetarily, but also with respect to work and social life. Many people are somewhat abusive with their cellphones, taking them everywhere they go. PDAs are usually reserved for work and work-related issues. Having a smartphone would mean that you would have to take it with you everywhere, increasing the likelihood of damaging or losing the more esteemed mobile device. Smartphones are bigger and clumsier than regular cell phones. Smartphones could be more hazardous for drivers too.

On the other hand, smartphones do have their advantages over the separate PDA and cell phone. The most obvious advantage is the fact that you only have to carry around one device with you instead of two. The convenience of being able to talk and retrieve information from the same device is great. Some businesspeople just need a cell phone that has contact storage and email capability instead of all the other riff-raff that PDAs can offer. One sleek smartphone is also more stylish than carrying around two mobile devices.

Overall, both of these viewpoints have their advantages. I myself would probably go with the separate scenario because of the cost and the fear of losing a smartphone versus just the PDA or my cell phone by themselves. Also, I would like the flexibility of being able to switch plans without having to purchase another mobile device in order to be compatible with the new company.

Smart Phones - Blackberry vs Palm

There are many smart phones out there today and I thought it would be beneficial for some to compare 2 popular choices in today's market. Blackberry and Palm each have their versions of smart phones and as you will see they are very unique.

The Blackberry that I will be using for the comparison is the BlackBerry® Curve™ 8300. This smartphone is the smallest and lightest BlackBerry® smartphone ever to come with a full QWERTY keyboard.
It’s features include a camera, BlackBerry® Maps, a media player, expandable memory, Voice-Activated Dialing, tethered modem, trackball navigation, email and text messaging, instant messaging, web browser and advanced phone functionality. This smartphone's dimensions are: 4.2"/107mm (Length) 2.4"/60mm (Width) 0.6"/15.5mm (Depth) and 3.9 oz/111g (Weight). It has a battery life of: Up to 408 hours or 17 days (Standby time) or up to 240 minutes or 4 hours (Talk time). It also has 64 MB (Flash memory) with the option of expandable memory – support for microSD card. The major downfall of this smartphone is that the only available software for pharmacists (that they would want) is tarascon.

The Palm that I will be using for the comparison is The Treo 750. The Palm® Treo™ 750 combines a world GSM phone, email, messaging, and web with the power of Windows Mobile® in one easy-to-use, stylish device. This Palm comes with Windows Mobile® 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition with Direct Push Technology, but there are also Palm's available with Palm OS operating systems. The battery life of this smart phone is also up to 4 hours (Talk time) or Standby time: Up to 250 hours. The dimensions are 4.44" H x 2.3" W x 0.8" D111mm x 58mm x 22mm and it weighs 5.4 ounces. The Treo comes with 128MB / 60MB persistent user storage, non-volatile flash with available miniSD card slot; up to 2GB card supported. This smart phone can use CP onhand, epocrates, and every other resource that is available for windows mobile, that is if you purchase enough memory!

Both smart phones seem flashy and cool but only one would help you keep cool at the workplace. The Blackberry just does not have access to any of the big name and big information resources that many pharmacists will need. I say this is a no brainer, if you need information from a big time resource don't get a Blackberry.

The New Clinical Pharmacology

The new clinical pharmacology user interface offers many advantages over the old interface which makes the website much more user friendly. First, the new interface has many more ways to search for drug information from the main screen. You have the option of getting drug interaction and IV compatibility information from the drop down box titled Reports. Many pharmacists can use this way of searching as an easy way to look up potential drug interactions for their patient as well as needed compatibilities in hospital pharmacies. You can also specify your search to look for drugs based on indication, adverse reaction, or contraindication by using the Find/List drop down box. This type of search is especially helpful when given a diagnosis of a patient to determine which treatment option may be the best. The new site offers a Resource Center box where you can look up information on lab values as well as find ways to contact the manufacturers of drug products. Lastly, there is a Patient Information drop down box that is helpful for people not in the health care field who want certain drug information for drugs they take or are interested in taking. Information found in this area is great for patients because it gives them the necessary information they are looking for without all the unnecessary pharmaceutical information that those not in health care field won't understand anyway. The old interface of Clinical Pharmacology also offers many of these advantages, however it is much harder to navigate around the website to find the information you need. This version has the old right hand side search box, which I believe is outdated and not very user friendly. Both sites offer the same vast variety of clinical drug information that is considered the "gold standard" of drug information sources, however their decision to upgrade the website and ways to search for information will make this new interface much more useful and user friendly for health care professionals in need of accurate and quick drug information.