Website: www.epocrates.com
iPhone site: N/A (was one earlier, but now I cannot locate it)
App Store link: [1]
Cost: Free for software & basic account (website registration will be necessary)
If you’re not involved in the medical or nursing profession just walk on by. No, I mean it. This was geared toward physicians, but also tweaked so nurses and pharmacists can make use of it as well. I use this frequently. I started using the Palm version of this software back in nursing school circa 2000 or 2001. It was much smaller to carry around with me and I could locate a drug much quicker than my classmates. They all marveled at my technological prowess. I used to look up drugs just for fun with epocrates (yes, I was the geek of my nursing school). Also it had the student friendly budget account of $0. Back in school I used to have physicians ask me for a drug book and I’d hand them my Palm. Quite a few asked “Is this epocrates?” So I knew they had heard of it even if they hadn’t used it before. I’d like to think I influenced a few of the Memphis physicians to get a Palm with epocrates on it. Also the market of drugs changes. Most traditional drug books are updated and rereleased every year or two to reflect new drugs on the market or drugs that have been removed from the market. With this, updates are free. So you no longer need to purchase a new drug book every year or two. It also features a drug interaction check which is quite handy and a Pill ID option so you can identify that little white pill that your patient is describing to you.
