Top 10 Free iPhone Medical Apps for Health care Professionals

by Iltifat Husain
on Feb 15, 2010

1st photo If you’re a physician, medical student, or in any other health care related field, trying to find the best free medical apps for the iPhone is a hassle.  Apps such as “Dream Meanings”, “Relax Ocean waves”, and “Stool Scanner Lite” dominate the Top Free Medical Apps list in the App Store.  Our top 10 iPhone medical apps list contains no such app, and this isn’t a re-hash of the top downloaded free medical apps either.  Rather, this list contains the top 10 free iPhone medical apps health care professionals and students can actually use on a day to day basis.

1) Medscape

We mentioned this app when it was released in the summer of 2009.  At the time I doubt many thought it would ever eclipse Epocrates in the top free medical apps section of the App Store, but with significant recent updates it’s accomplished this feat.


medscape 1 medscape 2

This app always had a great drug reference section, with over 6,000 generic, brand, and OTC drugs, along with a drug interaction checker.  But with recent updates, Medscape now has a Diseases and Conditions section, along with a Clinical Procedures section.  These added sections aren’t just fluff, they actually contain concise and useful information, with videos and pictures to boot.  We plan on doing a full review in the near future.

Links: iMedicalApps Review, Website, iTunes
Cost: Free

2) Epocrates

The free version of Medscape might be ranked higher on our list, and in the App Store, but I guarantee almost every medical professional still has at least the free version of Epocrates.  My peers and I often joke about how Epocrates is the “most trusted name in Medicine” – because it’s the one app med schools and medical institutions aren’t afraid of pushing.  We recently did a full review of Epocrates.


epocrates 1 epocrates 2

The free version, called Epocrates Rx, includes: Drug interactions, Pill Identifier, Drug Info, and Medical Calculator. Surprisingly, Medscape doesn’t have a medical calculator, you would think this added functionality would be easy to do.  In our review of Epocrates, we go over all the different versions in details, along with pricing – we were definitely impressed.

Links: iMedicalApps Review, Website, iTunes
Cost: Free

3) iRadiology

This app is a must download if you’re a resident or a medical student.  Even if you’re not in that category, you might want to download this app just for fun. iRadiology has a catalog of over 500 radiology cases designed to help medical students and residents improve their plain film, CT, and MRI reading skills.  We did a full review of this app recently.


IMG_3049 IMG_3062

The cases are derived from Dr. Gillian Lieberman, who is currently the Director of Harvard Medical Student training and Associate Director of the Residency Program at Beth Israel Medical Center.  We interviewed her when iRadiology was released – and she provided some great insight into the inspiration for the app.

Links: iMedicalApps Review, Website, iTunes
Cost: Free

4) MedPage Today Mobile

What’s not to like about MedPage Today?  The website is a fantastic resource for medical professionals, and a lot of the content is in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine – further securing its academic credentials.  Their motto is, “Putting Breaking Medical News Into Practice”, and this app helps you with this cause via mobile access.


medpage today1 medpage today 2

In addition, you can get audio and video through this app, allowing you to get CME credits while using MedPage Today mobile. With the most recent update, MedPage Today mobile now allows you to do a full text search of all articles published on their website since 1/1/07, definitely a welcome addition.

Links: iMedicalApps Review, Website, iTunes
Cost: Free

5) Medical Radio

This is a product of ReachMD, probably most famous for its XM Satellite Radio broadcast feeds  (XM 160) of medical information – and these feeds are available live through this app.  MedicalRadio allows you to keep up to date with changing clinical guidelines, and I’ve found the medical talks to be informative and useful.


medical radio 1 medical radio 2jpg

We haven’t done a full review of this app, but the original iteration of this app, ReachMD CME, made it into our old top medical apps list.

Links: iMedicalApps Review (old version of app), Website, iTunes
Cost: Free

Next Page →

Pages: 1 2

News, Popular, Top 10, , , , , , ,

Comments:

  • Rusubena
    I'm looking to buy an Ipod Touch for med apps mainly as my old Palm can no longer access Epocrates. Do you recommend buying the 8GB or more expensive 32 GB one?
  • Alexander David092
    Hi!!! I am surprised that Skyscape is not featured in this list. I have been using the skyscape med apps on my iphone and over the time they have proved very useful and resourceful.
  • Frank
    Thanks for the post.

    Just wanted to let you know that Radiopaedia has a total of 6 volumes currently available, each with a free version.

    http://radiopaedia.org/articles/iphone-app

    We are also working on bringing each one in HD to the iPad http://radiopaedia.org/articles/ipad and Android platform.

    Cheers, Frank

    Frank Gaillard
    Radiopaedia.org Editor
  • Simon22
    Can you recommend good apps for ophthalmologists?
  • Iltifat Husain
    Added to this list should be the New England Journal of Medicine iPhone app - just released. The app is free to download, and for a limited time all the content is free to access! Download it asap, eventually they will require a login though...

    http://www.imedicalapps.com/2010/06/new-england...
  • paulestorey
    Re number 9. Naming conventions for medical eponyms no longer use the possessive "s" so it is Bell Palsy NOT Bell's Palsy. US has signed on with SNOMED CT as the standardised nomenclature, and as it is a translatable nomenclature the 's does not work and builds confusion. It is also considered dangerous in a quality medicine sense, bad luck if your name is Altzheimer and some one talks about your disease and it happens to be cancer!
  • Melissa
    ePocrates formularies knocks all others out the running. Saves so much time by avoiding formulary change requests, prior authorizations, etc.
    Also, the best app I've found lately is AHRQ ePSS. It is amazingly useful, has all UPSTF guidelines and clinical rationale at your fingertips. Can enter patient characteristics and get all screeing guidelines for that patient.
  • Iltifat Husain
    Melissa -

    I was JUST about to mention the AHRQ ePSS app later this week! Its a great free app, and I wish I would have found it before I made this top 10 list, otherwise it definitely would have been up there. The USPTF guidelines are great to have on hand, and the app does a great job of breaking down the guidelines by the categories.
  • middsurg
    Can anyone tell me if these apps will load on an i touch?
  • Iltifat Husain
    Middsurg-

    They apps will run on the iPod Touch. We touched (no pun intended) on this in another one of our posts:

    http://www.imedicalapps.com/2010/01/should-medi...
  • bradrichards
    would you recommend Medscape over Epocrates? Is Medscape's "free" version more attractive than Epocrate's premium products? Curious to know your thoughts and whether Epocrates will have to give away more functionality to stay competitive.
  • Iltifat Husain
    Bradrichards-

    Great, great comment. Its going to be interesting to see how this plays out. Initially Epocrates was dominating the "free medical app" list, in terms of downloads on the App Store. Recently, with all the functionality being offered by Medscape, it makes sense they took over the top download slot for the "free medical apps" category. I don't know if its necessary for Epocrates to offer more functionality though - their bread and butter are their premium versions of their medical app, whereas Medscape is really just concerned with getting more medical professionals to use their products - necessitating them to offer more functionality. I'm going to look into the Medscape app in more detail though - some of the new features they are offering are really in a different league than their competitors.

    Notice how medscape still isn't on Android though, unfortunately. Further showing how far back the App Market for Android is in terms of medical software in relation to the Apple App Store....
  • SMisra
    Thats a great question and we actually have a head-to-head review in the works. Check back soon!
  • Iltifat Husain
    jSmith - Yes, I too was pleasantly surprised with how great iRadiology is, and the fact that its free is amazing. Not sure if Epocrates will offer more feature for free, their main angle are their premium services, and even with the additions Medscape has made, the premium versions of epocrates still contain significantly more info.

    Karis- The pill ID feature is a lot of fun, but you're right, I haven't used it that much in clinic. But on those rare occasions I have, I've always gotten a "wow".
  • karis
    jsmith, don't forget, medscape doesn't have the pill ID feature epocrates does......although, i have never really used that function with patients before.
  • jsmith
    I didn't know medscape had added all those extra features. I wonder if epocrates will offer some more features now in their free version? I too am surprised Medscape doesn't have a medical calculator! The interview piece with iRadiology professor was interesting, can't believe its free.
blog comments powered by Disqus
medGadget    iMedicalApps