Technology Best 3 Med PDA programs?

Yeah, I'd like to know?

BlondeCookie said:

What are the 3 most useful medical PDA programs for clinicals?

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For me...

1. iSilo (with all the relevant e-texts, of coz!)
2. Skyscape 5MCC
3. Skyscape DrDrugs

epocrates free edition - but the pay for version is real nice with DDx
isilo - with enough texts that my palm should weigh in at over 100lbs
medcalc - for all your quick equation needs

and Stedman's as a crutch when you just can't remember that word

1. ePocrates Essentials (the name says it all - the best pharm reference)
2. PEPID EM (specific to emergency medicine, but other specialties available)
3. MedCalc

PEPID is great software that gives bulleted points about epidemiology, clinical signs/symptoms, laboratory and diagnostic imaging tests to order, treatment, etc.

BlondeCookie said:

What are the 3 most useful medical PDA programs for clinicals?

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1. UpToDate (which also includes a drug database)
2. Stedmans
3. Archimedes (helped me remember the equations or just plug in play if I wanted).


Wook

UpToDate was porting their software to PalmOS. I wonder what happened since I have yet to see a PalmOS version. Their customer support representatives said 2 years ago that they would have a PalmOS version "soon."

southerndoc said:

UpToDate was porting their software to PalmOS. I wonder what happened since I have yet to see a PalmOS version. Their customer support representatives said 2 years ago that they would have a PalmOS version "soon."

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Yeah, I think I heard the same thing about 2 years ago, and the they still don't support PalmOS.


Wook

no I believe 5MCC is much better than diagnosaurus which just lists a bunch of DDx possibilities based on a Sx. 5MCC takes you through much more and is based on the books, they also have specialty versions available. Skyscape has a lot of nice software, it's just expensive.

J

If I could only have three programs they would be:
1. Lexi Complete (includes drug info, 5mCC, tox, abbreviations, dictionary, etc)
2. iSilo (not strickly a medical program)
3. PIER - slow, and doesn't have every disease in it, but it really does a great job of going in-depth into what it covers and backs up what it says with evidence.


Runner ups
4. a handbook of some sort - Washington, Ferri, Osler (2nd ed), or MGH Pocket Med. All are good and fit slightly different niches. I think Washington is a bit too simple for anybody but 3rd year students, but simple is great at 3 am.
5. Diagnosaurus/MobileDDx (same info) for getting a good differential diagnosis down
6. Some lab testing reference book

FYI: epocrates is on sale this week until june 30th!
40% off!

ramonaquimby said:

FYI: epocrates is on sale this week until june 30th!
40% off!

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Do you have a link for that? I can't seem to find the info.

Thanks!

Spang said:

Do you have a link for that? I can't seem to find the info.

Thanks!

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sure...here you go

Offer Details

This offer is valid for 40% off a 1-year or 2-year subscription to Epocrates Essentials until Midnight PT on June 30, 2006.
The offer will be automatically applied in the shopping cart. If you do not see the discount, enter code SUMMER40.
Premium Subscribers: If you already have a subscription Epocrates Rx Pro premium drug reference, Epocrates SxDx disease reference, and/or Epocrates Lab diagnostic reference, you will receive the 40% discount AND a rebate for the remaining value of your current subscription when you upgrade to Epocrates Essentials.

enjoy! i know i LOVE a good deal!

ramonaquimby said:

sure...here you go

Offer Details

This offer is valid for 40% off a 1-year or 2-year subscription to Epocrates Essentials until Midnight PT on June 30, 2006.
The offer will be automatically applied in the shopping cart. If you do not see the discount, enter code SUMMER40.
Premium Subscribers: If you already have a subscription Epocrates Rx Pro premium drug reference, Epocrates SxDx disease reference, and/or Epocrates Lab diagnostic reference, you will receive the 40% discount AND a rebate for the remaining value of your current subscription when you upgrade to Epocrates Essentials.

enjoy! i know i LOVE a good deal!

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Sweet! I just ordered it and you saved me $60. How can I ever repay you?

Spang

type in this code and you get a 50% discount for epocrates: APA95014STU

Is isiLo free? and how do I get the texts for it? I was also wondering how to get free complete books on my pda. Someone shed some light on this.

GuP said:

Is isiLo free? and how do I get the texts for it? I was also wondering how to get free complete books on my pda. Someone shed some light on this.

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Not many things in this world come free. iSilo costs USD19.99. However the FREE iSilo texts can be obtained from www.memoware.com !

OK - I'm all about the free goodies and if you search you can find almost all you need - for FREE

1. Merck Manual - just like the book for your PDA (FREE) ... plus has a great lab tool that helps decipher common labs - http://www.merckmedicus.com/pp/us/hcp/templates/tier2/PDAtools.jsp

2. Epocrates - for meds but I have found that having the PDR also is a good tool - http://www.pdr.net/mobilepdr/mobilepdr.aspx

3. Even though I like 5mcc differential diagnosis calculator I think that diagnosaurus is pretty good (for being FREE) - http://books.mcgraw-hill.com/medical/diagnosaurus/index.html

4. OK, I know you said three but, with the free programs you sometimes have to download more so here is an antibiotic quick reference (short and sweet) and also a pain managment tool (conversions and what not) - the link is on merck manual page (look for thera doc)

The Johns Hopkins Antibiotics guide is awesome....

http://hopkins-abxguide.org/

outline of clinical medicine (OCM)
A2ZDrugs
5MCC

spinosum said:

For me...

1. iSilo (with all the relevant e-texts, of coz!)
2. Skyscape 5MCC
3. Skyscape DrDrugs

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I use 2 and 3 on the wards all day every day. I havent heard of number 1 though. What is it?

Adcadet said:

If I could only have three programs they would be:
1. Lexi Complete (includes drug info, 5mCC, tox, abbreviations, dictionary, etc)
2. iSilo (not strickly a medical program)
3. PIER - slow, and doesn't have every disease in it, but it really does a great job of going in-depth into what it covers and backs up what it says with evidence.

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Lexi-Comp is now offering a special student price on their medical package which includes their #1 rated Lexi-Drugs, Lexi-Interact, Lexi-Lab & Diagnostic, Griffith's 5-Minute Clinical Consult, and Lexi-Calc:
www.lexi.com/medstudent

I currently have a bunch of freebies including:

Hopkins ABx Guide
Palm EKG
Diagnosaurus
Epocrates
UCSF Hospitalist Handbook (for iSilo)

I paid for:

iSilo
5-minute Clinical Consult
5-minute Peds Consult
AMStedmans (essentially free with above two)

The best three for me were (in order):

1) UCSF Hospitalist Handbook (Couldn't have expected more and it's free)
2) Epocrates (Free, and it comes with the useful calculators if you choose to download them)
3) Hopkins ABx guide (very good for learning the alternative Abx and often allows you to play STUMP THE ATTENDING)

Most of the others are useful occationally, but the "5-minutes" aren't really worth the $60 they cost (I was desperate when I bought them). They aren't very in-depth so you can't really use them for true reading, and they don't give the proper information or layout to use them for management. The Stedman's is very useful. Diagnosaurus isn't (information overload).

Next I will try:

1) Clinical Pediatrics ($15)
2) Washington Manual ($60)- Hopefully it will give me what the 5-minute Clinical Consult is lacking (clinical management for patient's on the floor).

Does anybody know if the UCSF Hospitalist handbook has been updated since 2002?

there's this great new website called www.google.com. it helps you find things you're looking for on the internet.

http://medicine.ucsf.edu/housestaff/handbook/index.html
http://www.meistermed.com/isilodepot/isilodocs/isilodoc_s_ucsf_hospitalist_handbook.htm

(sorry about the sarcasm, I couldn't resist)

KentW said:

If you're already an UpToDate subscriber, there's no additional charge for the Palm OS version. You just have to request the DVD from customer service. According to the documentation, the program has only been validated to work on the Treo 650, Treo 700p, TX, and LifeDrive. However, I imagine there's a chance it may work on other models. It can't hurt to try.

You'll need a 2GB SD card (I found a PNY brand card on sale at CompUSA for less than $30), but the UpToDate files will occupy only a little more than 1GB, leaving plenty of room for other stuff. The program is a little slow to load on my 650 (it takes about 5 seconds to start up), but works well otherwise. I'm impressed by the amount of information that it contains.

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UpToDate will NOT work with the Palm Tungsten T5. I thought it would since it would work with the TX. There is some HTML file that is required that the TX has but the T5 doesn't. UpToDate's customer service states there is no way to add the file because they've tried.

So, I would recommend you email UTD's customer service before buying a new PDA or subscribing to UTD (if you aren't already a subscriber).

1) epocrates
2) skyscape program that applies to your rotation
3) shots 2007

Eponym said:

Well, in that case I won't even try. My Treo 600 doesn't even support NVFS and all the models listed do. I guess I will be forced to upgrade.

PPC lost its one and only advantage over Palm. With UTD on Palm, PPC really has nothing to offer (I think PPC overall is a more comprehensive platform, but when it comes to medicine it has no advantage)

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I've used both (Tunsten C and Axim x51v), even in the same ED shift. While the Palm is faster in single tasks and has more software for it, I like the ability of Windows Mobile to let me have multiple applications open at once. On ED shifts in particular I would have 3-5 programs open at once and just shift between them. With Palm I would have to re-launch them. Not a major deal, but I do think this is one advantage for PPCs.

No, it's not.

I just did the comparison again on my Tungsten C and Axim x51v, and I carried both my Tungsten C and Axim x51v around on multiple ED shifts and frequently made the comparison there as well. And like I said before, it's quicker on the Axim in the real world, but for single applications the Tungsten is faster. They keyboard on the Tungsten can also sometimes save me a little time, but that's a bit outside of what exactly we're discussing.

When I want to use multiple applications the Axim wins. On the Axim I have one of the free task switching utilities that lets me switch apps with two screen taps (assuming one of the apps isn't mapped to a button). On the Tungsten C when I want to get out of a program and into another (assuming its not mapped to a button) I have to hit the "home" button (1) on the keyboard then find the next program I want which usually requires me hitting the category icon (2) in upper right corner and choosing the appropriate category because it doesn't ever remember the category (3) then frequently scrolling down (4) on the window then clicking the application once I find it (5). If I'm lucky I can omit the scrolling, and in theory if I wanted to launch an app that's at the very top of my programs list I could skip steps 3 and 4 (its rare, but has happened a few times but I'm so used to hitting the category button I usually do step 3 anyway). And then when I want to go back to the first application on the Palm I have to repeat all 5 steps, and its forgotten where I was in the first application so you'd have to add in that number of clicks as well, which is variable.

Now, even if you mapped all the applications to buttons and eliminated all those button clicks, because of the way the PalmOS does not allow you to multitask (run multiple programs at the same time, even), the Palm will forget where it was in each program, whereas the truely multitasking Windows Mobile (at least since 2002) does not.

Real world winner for single applications: Tungsten C
Real world winner when switching between programs: Axim.
Real world winner per IM call night or ED shift: too close to call

Yes, but when you switch applications you loose where you were in the app. For me this is annoying.

In many ways I actually prefer Palm. I would much prefer supporting Palm, Inc than Microsoft (and yes, I run Linux at home where I can). Palms are simpler and have less fluff which I appreciate. When friends as me what to get, I usually recommend a Palm. I largely bought a PPC because I wanted a device that did a broader range of things better - jack of all trades, master of none, so to speak.

BlondeCookie said:

In the real world, it is faster to switch applications if you are using Palm, even though you can have multiple programs open in Windows Mobile. For instance, it takes me two taps to get from one program to another with a Palm. Count how many taps its going to take you get to from one program to another using a Pocket PC. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that it's more than two. So, wouldn't that seem to indicate that the advantage for multi-tasking speed and efficiency lies with Palm?

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I set up some of the buttons to launch ePocrates, DrDrugs, etc. So, it only takes me a click of the button to get to new programs....and I never have to use the stylus. I love my full QWERTY keyboard!
I'm not so concerned about going back to where I was in a program because I'm probably with a new patient, looking up another medication, or reading up on a new problem from Griffith's, etc.

ACP members (free for students) get web access to PIER. Skyscape also offers PIER for PDAs.

PIER vs. UpToDate...well, I haven't done a real head-to-head comparison, but PIER seems much better referenced and evidence-based. Sometimes the format is a bit slow to muddle through. UpToDate articles are better linked to related topics and is better setup for approaching patients (you read "approach to the patient with liver disease" then when some LFTs come back you read "approach to the patient with hyperbilirubinemia"...).

thanks for posting about Mcphling, seriously helpful program there, been looking for something like that for a while!

BlondeCookie said:

Adcadet, seems like you like your PocketPC lots. I used to have one, but my personal preference is Palm. For me, it's easier and faster to use. Two taps to switch applications- I hit the home button and then the app I want without needing any extra task-switching utilities. To each his own though. PocketPC is good too.

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you can use a manager for wm such as ''magic button" and it's gonna take you only 1 tap to switch between applications.

Quick comparison question...My school provides us with a subscription for epocrates essentials which includes a diagnostic suite along with the drugs and calculator, etc. I've heard good things about UpToDate, though, so I guess I'm wondering if anyone had some thoughts comparing the two. Is essentials good enough to go without the UpToDate. It's kinda expensive, even with the student discount so I don't want to pony up the cash and then realize that my epocrates is "good enough"

Thanks.

As for the multi-tasking...the reason why it is best is the hardware is superior to what is out there (I think it still is, even though they dc'd it).

-t