Epocrates is a well-known web-service and mobile application used by healthcare professionals. The service initially grew in popularity as a pharmacology reference but more recently has expanded to include a variety of medical reference materials. From medical calculators to adult and pediatric reference tables, the application today spans a large variety of clinical decision support tools.
Expectedly, the free version of Epocrates centers on pharmacology. Most healthcare providers trained in the past decade or experienced practitioners with tech-savvy will be readily familiar with the service. Epocrates is a reliable, comprehensive, and easily navigable service for looking up information about medications: uses, dosing, contraindications, reactions, interactions, pregnancy, pharmacology, and more. The search function works well and is forgiving for the poor speller. With a finger tap, information from a given category can be expanded or one can easily navigate through linked keywords to other medications or diseases.
For the EMT this app can be very handy. From learning on the go, to it’s most valuable function for the EMT which is the Pill ID feature. You can quickly look up medications based on their visual characteristics. In addition, being able to lookup information that can aid in your report writing after a call is valuable as well. And it’s free! There is a paid version that extends it’s features but the free version is quite extensive and should provide anything an EMT would need.
APPs & Other Downloads
Download Epocrates on Android
Download Epocrates on iPhone
Use Epocrates Online Pill ID (Browser based)
You will have to register an account before you can access it’s features, but like I said it is free and well worth the time!
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