Epocrates for Android phones reviewed

If you work in EMS and own an Android phone, then you have probably searched for EMS-related applications with little success. I wrote a blog post a little while back on the subject. Like most people, I have had little success finding useful applications for EMS professionals. However, with the recent release of Epocrates for Android, this has changed.

Before I get into the actual review I am going to talk about the phone and operating system used to test this software. All of my testing was done on a Motorola Droid from Verizon. I currently have Android 2.1 installed with the latest version of Epocrates. Your experience may vary with different cell networks and phones. If you have a different experience, please let me know!

Installing:

Epocrates for Android is available in the App Market. The quickest way to install it is to just do a search, but it can be found under the health section as well.

Putting it to use:

This app has several different features that can be extremely useful in the field. The “Pill ID” features is great for drug overdoses or identifying pills that belong to patients who cannot communicate. You simply identify the pill by matching a number of different variables like color, shape, markings, etc. It then shows a list of matches with pictures and you select the pill that you have. It then shows you details about the medication.

My favorite feature on the app is the “Interaction Check”. It gives you the ability to select multiple medications and see if they interact with each other. For example, we all know that if you administer Nitroglycerin to a patient who recently took Viagra, that it can cause an unsteady drop in blood pressure. If you enter those 2 medications into the interaction check, it will tell you that there is a contraindication and list details on the reaction. You can enter as many meds as you want. I suppose you could put all of a patient’s medications into the checker, but it would be time consuming.

Epocrates for Android also comes with a drug reference guide, which can come in handy for looking up a patient’s medications to get a better idea of their medical history. Another neat feature is the “tables”. This is basically a list of algorithms for all types of medical situations. It contains sections for ACLS, Emergency Medicine, Cardiology, etc. I could see this being handy for study material or as a refresher, but not so great in the field. This kind of stuff should be pulled from our brains on scene of a call, not a phone. But that’s just my opinion.

One more feature is the “Med Math”. This is probably handy for nurses or doctors working in longer care environments. It is basically a bunch of medical calculators. There were a couple neat ones that could be handy in the field like a “Dosing Calculator” and a “Pregnancy Wheel”.

Possible areas for improvement

I would like to see more medical calculators that are relevant to work in a pre-hospital setting. Some quick drip rate calculators like Dopamine or Epi would be really handy. I know that there are paid versions of Epocrates software that contains more features. I haven’t had a chance to review the paid versions so I don’t know if it exists there. Other than that, I really don’t have any gripes about the program. It’s stable, fast and free. Can’t beat that.

Conclusion

After testing Epocrates at home, and having the opportunity to use it on a couple calls, I feel that it is a must for EMS professionals. I would definitely add this to my list of essential EMS apps. I do know that the software is available for iPhone, Windows Mobile and Blackberry as well.

If you have any questions or comments, please voice them below or e-mail me. Thanks!