Top 10 Family Medicine apps for iPhone and Android

2) Drug Wars: Epocrates or Micromedex or Lexi-Comp

Epocrates has been my go to drug guide since I was a medical student. It has changed a lot over the years, but the most important feature has remained the same: it simply has the friendliest, fastest user interface of any of the comprehensive drug guides. If you purchase the premium Epocrates Essentials you also receive a fairly useful medical calculator, point of care tables, alternative medicines, and a disease content section developed in conjunction with the British Medical Journal.

However, for the most detailed and complete drug information available you simply cannot go wrong with Lexi-Comp. I find that I use Epocrates more in clinic when I need its speed and Lexi-Comp when I am on the wards and need more detail about a particular medication. Further, while Epocrates might have a free version, they do have a closer relationship with pharma, as we have highlighted in a prior article: “Why free medical apps aren’t really free“.

An outstanding and significantly cheaper alternative to Epocrates Essentials or Lexi-Comp is Micromedex. This app may be available to readers via institutional subscription, but can be obtained on its own for a small annual fee. Micromedex provides a similar level of detail as Lexi-Comp on issues such as pharmacokinetics that are missing from Epocrates.

Epocrates
Price: Basic: Free Epocrates Essentials: $159.99/year
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