Medication Apps

[AAA13]

I’m a new medic starting out and I am looking for an app or program to help me as I pass meds in the field and double check correct doses etc. Does your company provide a program like lexicomp or Micromedex? Or do you use an app on your phone? Which app would you suggest? Thanks!

 

[NomadicMedic]

I have both micromedix and epocrates. I find I don't use them much anymore unless I come up on a med I don't recognize. (Most people are on the same stuff.)

 

[Carlos Danger]

I have both micromedix and epocrates.

Yep, these two are must-haves. Excellent apps, tons of info, and free. There are lots of other EMS-oriented apps out there as well.

If you are primarily worried about checking the drugs that you give, here is what I would do: spend the time to make a neat, well-organized drug chart on excel or word. Use doses (and indications/contraindications, if you want) per your local protocols. Then print it, shrink it, laminate it, and keep it in your pocket. Or convert it to a PDF file and put it on your phone.

That way you'll get the exercise of reviewing everything thoroughly as you create the chart, you'll have it in a format that you designed and find intuitive, and it'll be perfectly inline with your protocols. Plus no matter how good an app is, it's quicker to just look at a simple chart.

 

[Ewok Jerky]

Epocrates for quick reference. It's free and easy to use. I have micromedix but I've never used it.

I like @Remi 's idea of making a chart. Ideally you can commit the drugs in your protocol to memory.

I use the app when I am looking up a home med or looking for an interaction. Many generic names can clue you into the mechanism, but I'm sure you know that.

 

[Gurby]

Every time I come across a new patient medication, disease, anything I don't know about or understand, I make a note of it. Later I go do internet research and make a handful of flash cards. Go through 10-20 cards every day to keep info fresh in your head. Before long, there won't be too many things you don't recognize and know at least a little bit about.

For drugs that we give, I like having the PDF of the actual protocol right there on my phone so I can pull it up and point to an official document if need be.