Being a doctor is not only a physically demanding job, but also mentally draining at the end of the day. Day in and out, life saving decisions need to be made. This makes it of utmost importance that physicians stay abreast of new updates in the field of medicine. Dealing with patients with various complaints is extremely challenging and it’s quite impractical to rely on, or rather remember all what you have learned or studied from medical school alone. As the texts are so huge and vast, it is sometimes quite cumbersome to run through certain sections quickly, especially if you have only a few seconds to come to a decision or conclusion.
To make things simpler, you can use the various Android apps available if you feel you are unable to remember a particular symptom or drug; or for that matter, anything else related to medicine from the comfort of your consulting room. These apps are a blessing when you don’t have the time and need to come to a conclusion immediately. We have handpicked the best 5 best apps from a gamut available on the Google Play Store. These apps will be useful to all no matter what the field of speciality is. Click on the title to see the App in the Play Store.
Medscape
This is one of the best free medical resources, not only for clinical practice but also for paramedical staff and budding doctors. This app gives you daily updates on the latest medical news on any speciality. This app gives you full access to the entire Medscape database and news which you can save and read later offline. All medical conditions as well as procedures are updated and penned by leading physicians from all over the globe. They also carry videos with step by step procedures with various protocols.
WebMD
This is another popular free app which provides access to medical and health information. This app has unique tools that help you reach a faster diagnosis such as WebMD’s Symptom Checker, Drugs and Treatment, First Aid Information and Local Health Listings. This helps you narrow down and eliminate other conditions. In certain situations where your patient does not remember the name of the pills they taking, this app has a one-of-its-kind Pill Identification Tool which helps you identify the drug merely by entering details of the colour and shape of the pills. This app is also patient friendly.
Diseases Codes ICD-10
This app helps you have a reference for all international diseases at your fingertips wherever you go. If you are required to dispense medical advice even while on a vacation, you will always be prepared with International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. Any confusion regarding a disease can be clarified by just entering the name of the disease and its code. The Auto search option makes things faster. The repeatedly accessed codes can be bookmarked and saved. The best feature of this app is that you can access everything even offline eliminating the need of an active data connection while on the go.
Epocrates
This is a very reliable, partially free app that gives you access to any drug, disease or diagnostic information. They also have a therapeutic application called Epocrates Rx that help you with the drugs you have prescribed to your patient. It is especially helpful to prevent any drug interactions which can lead to unfortunate side effects. It has a mammoth database of drug names either generic or brand names and gives you full names of drugs with dosages. They have other premium apps such as Epocrates Essentials Deluxe, Epocrates Essentials and Epocrates Rx Pro which need to be purchased and come with additional features for the tech savvy doctor.
Skyscape Medical Library
If you need in depth medical information Skyscape Medical Resources will be the right app that will provide you with all the data required. This gives all the answers and helps not only physicians but nurses and students as well in making decisions. They have an integrated resource of not only medical diseases but also drug information, medical calculators and other clinical information. There are many interesting tools, all on evidence-based medical information, various articles and journal summaries through Med Alert. They also have 35 medical specialities covered in 600 premium resources which can be purchased.
Bonus App: Use Feedly to read the Practo Blog on your phone
If you regularly read blogs, medical or otherwise, you’d be spending quite some time switching from one blog to another. To read all your favourite blogs in one place, you can just install the Feedly app. It works on the RSS reader model, which means you’ll get instant updates as soon as articles are published from the blog. You can add any RSS feed and easily read the content of that feed on the go. Just enter the URL of that feed in the search bar. To get instant updates from the Practo Blog, just add this link to Feedly: https://blog.practo.com/feed/
It is vital to be with the times to be successful today and these medical apps will give you just that edge you need to save more time and help an extra patient. They help the physician in not only making a decision but also save time, thereby enabling a physician to provide better medical care and stay updated on the go.
– Contributed by Dr. Rachita Narsaria, MD
References
- http://mediconet.blogspot.com
- http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/content/tags/american-ehr-partners/physicians-top-5-most-used-medical-apps-smartphones
- Einerson, Brett (7 January 2011). “The most popular iPhone medical app, Medscape, is now on Android”. iMedicalApps. Retrieved 11 July 2014
- Basic Information about Samsung Apps Store. content.samsung.com. Retrieved 2013-03-06