As a busy healthcare professional, it pays to take advantage of your smartphone or tablet computer so you can remain productive while you are on the go, whether while walking between facilities at your medical organization or when you are away from the office.
With their touch-sensitive displays, ability to access the Internet via secure Wi-Fi hotspots as well as through cellular data networks, smartphones are ideal when you need to look up some crucial information, reply to a colleague or make notes on the fly about a patient’s condition. In many cases, apps for smartphones contain a treasure trove of information that you can access even when offline.
With that in mind, here are six free useful apps for healthcare professionals that you will want to consider using.
Evernote
One of the banes of any medical professional’s existence is managing the numerous documents and reference files that are needed to stay on top of your game. For this reason, many professionals use Evernote, an app to store and keep track of PDF files as well as all your medical notes. You can even incorporate the medical notes of other Evernote users with your own records. It’s also great for taking photos of medical handouts so you can review them at your leisure all at once.
Medscape
Medscape boasts more than four million users, making it the top mobile platform for medical professionals. Use Medscape to look up information about pediatric and adult dosing data, check for potentially dangerous medication interactions and use the built-in medical calculators. You can check the evidence-based disease and conditions reference as well as get the latest breaking medical news, sorted by specialties.
Epocrates Rx
The free Epocrates Rx app provides mobile device users with quick and easy access to all essential medication info, making it the top mobile drug reference for physicians practicing in the U.S. Look for drug interactions while you’re away from the office and need to answer a patient’s question, or quickly identify mysterious pills based on visual records provided by the app.
Skyscape
If the work you do frequently requires you to make calculations, the Skyscape app may be just what you’ve been looking for. It has a number of medical calculators via Archimedes, as well as access to medical news alerts, guidelines for various practices, monographs on diseases and informative drug reference materials. You can also use this app to access paid medical textbooks.
Read by QxMD
Medical professionals will find in QXMD’s Read app a one-stop place for discovering new research information and thousands of topic reviews. You can also use the app to search through millions of informative PubMed articles, as well as read medical journals or browse through collections of articles. If your medical organization already has a subscription to publishers, you can use this app to access full text articles, using the simple and intuitive interface.
MicroMedex from Thomson Reuters
The MicroMedex app gives you access to a number of highly trusted medical databases, including DRUGDEX, DISEASEDEX Emergency Medicine and DISEASEDEX General Medicine, as well as IV INDEX, POISINDEX and Index Nominum. Professionals can use the app to obtain summaries of clinical evidence content, which will be updated every time you sync your mobile device.
As you can see, it makes eminent sense to use apps on your smartphone or tablet computer to make the most of your time, boost productivity and access important information no matter where you are.
Key Takeaways
- Many useful apps for healthcare professionals are available free of charge and will work on the most common smartphones.
- You may need to access the Internet via Wi-Fi or a cellular network to take full advantage of some apps, but they often will work well when you are offline.
- If you need to look up information about a particular medication, syndrome, illness or treatment, an app on your mobile device can help you get the data you need, when you need it even when you lack access to a desktop computer.
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