2 medical apps for smart pharmacists

We are living in the world where all the things we need on our fingertips. Dr Google has become the most prominent advisor of our lives. In such case we must assure that the data we are receiving must fulfil atleast two requirements:

- Must be latest

- Must be authentic

And to check these requirements you may go through the following article:

Is every health information on internet reliable?

The world has been synchronized from computer screen to mobile screen and that's why we always ask for handy apps instead of complex websites. The things are going easy each day. Sometimes google don't provide the data we need actually and we have to filter out it manually as per our need. In such case if we are looking for a precise database, we must have to direct ourselves to the app especially designed for our requirements. Though we have too many apps on play store for the immediate medicine data like Epocrates, iPharmacy, Medplan, My therapy, Pharmacist’s Letter, Pocket Pharmacists etc. All of them are near to imperfect for the whole data. Out of this bucket I prefer two apps which almost cover the requirements of a pharma professional on a single platform.

1. Medscape

This is the all in one app. Actually all the medical professionals including doctors, pharmacists, nurses can use it to keep themselves up to date for their particular field. It contains medicine data as well as images and video of surgeries and procedures. It's a huge platform to share your ideas to others just like a social media. If you are a smart social media user, you would like it. You can ask your query to the experts and also take part to the discussion.

Medscape is managed by a team of more than 7000 physicians and pharmacists authors to review the contents and articles posted by others. All the data is also referenced by the latest international guidelines. You will find a daily news notification which keeps you alive in your field. The other important feature I would like to share with you is drug interactions checker in which you may pair two or more drugs to find the interactions with each other as well as with human body. Drug details can be accessed by directly entering the drug name or by pharmacological or anatomical classification. Details include all the things like pharmacology, dosage for different age groups, pregnacy safety data and much more. You may also go through case study challenges and quizzes on your favourite topics.

The important feature I have found on this app is CME (continuing medical education). It's just like distance learning. You may find the courses related to your aspiration and you have to go through the materials and videos provided on the platform. After that you have to pass a MCQ test related to the topic you have gone through. On achieving satisfactory score you'll receive a digital copy of a certificate which can be added to your CV. The certificates are generated from the multiple well known accreditations like Accreditation Council for Counting Medical Education, American Nurses credentialing centre's commission on accreditation and Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education.

The one and only problem with this app is that it works only online except saved articles you can excess anytime offline. Actually in this era it can't be a big problem. You can get all of above features in different apps but you have to download four or five apps to get these all features which are available on a single app, Medscape.

Download link: Medscape for android

2. India Drug Index

This is another my favourite app to access the drug profile. It only provide drug data and all the features same as Medscape provide for drug profile particularly. You can search drug by molecules, by pharmacological categories or by brand name. Though Medscape provide more data than India Drug Index, it's important for brand name search in which Medscape is not that much preferred especially for Indian brands. Another important thing for this app is that it can be used offline for drug profile access including dosage, pregnancy and lactation safety, mode of action, drug reactions and monitoring parameters except brand search options. You must have to be online for brand search option. Brand search also provide the similar brand options with price.

So you can understand why I recommend the another drug profile showing app. It's for local Indian brand search purpose only and no other app I found as rich as this app particularly for the brand data untill this date.

One drawback for this app is that it's only available for android OS, not for iOS. So iOS users stay blessed by Medscape only.

Download link: India Drug Index for android

Final Funda: I am looking for an app which can directly cure me without any pharmacological action.