Epocrates: Everything you need to know

Have you ever come across a full Epocrates review? Tried and tested, Epocrates is one of the most reliable and comprehensive navigable services for looking up medicine-related information. It was founded in 1998 and is currently owned by Watertown.

This mobile app offers succinct clinical reference information on diagnostics, patient-management, diseases, and drugs, helping you stay efficient in daily medical encounters. It is free and can be downloaded on the App Store for iPhone users and Google Play store for Android users.

Pricing 

Epocrates has a free and paid version. The former lets you access basic features, whereas the paid version offers more in-depth services thanks to the wide range of features. The pricing of the paid version starts at 174.99 a year.

The paid version offers several decision-support tools and a wealth of information that both you and physicians can tap in to.

Features 

This life-saving app is packed with several features that you will find useful. These include:

1. Drug information　

   It reviews drug prescriptions and safety information for several generic, brand, and over-the-counter drugs. It also highlights black box warnings, adverse reactions, adult and child dosing, drug interactions, the manufacturer, and the appropriate retail price of the given drug.

2. Interaction check　

   You can quickly check any potentially harmful interaction for up to 30 different types of drugs. Just like the first feature, this covers brand, over the counter and generic medications. You will get an overview highlighting the interaction profile for all the active ingredients. Keep in mind that the interaction details are provided at the ingredient level, helping you decide which ingredient should be adjusted, monitored, removed, or substituted with the other.

3. Pill identification

   Did you know that you can identify a pill using its imprint codes? Knowing what a prescription treats can be tricky, especially if you randomly come across one. This app has an identification feature that helps you identify different pills using their shape, imprints, color, and scoring. It will reveal an alphabetically-arranged list of all the possible matches of the pill. Details include the drug name and a clear image that can be easily magnified.

4. Calculators

   One of its most striking features has to be the wide range of calculators. It has over 600 calculators, medical equations, and tools, all of which help to improve efficiency. You can also favorite your most used tools for an easy time.

5. Clinical guidelines 

   One of the reasons that have made this app successful is the available clinical guidelines to help you review evidence-based and patient-specific policies from different national specialty societies. These are put together to serve moments of care.

6. Notifications 

   You definitely want to know what is happening in the medical world. Epocrates allows users to request more detailed information on different specialty topics keeping you informed of trends and related issues.

7. Formulary

   Epocrates allows users to view drug coverage information for thousands of insurance plans in each state. This is an essential piece of information that you need to know before selecting an insurance plan. You can also view your frequent formularies for each drug.

Remember that this app offers premium features when one upgrades from the free version. You will access labs and diagnostics information and even check cost tests. With the paid version, you can review several differentials, including drugs, conditions, and factors that may bring about abnormal test results.

Premium features also include alternative medicine provisions such as herbals and supplements. You can access the reported uses, doses, adverse reactions, and several helpful information.

Pros 

1. Usability

   You will not fail to recognize the clean and professional UI responsible for the excellent user interface. You will find an attractive sneak peek of the app in the main menu of three pages for the free version and four for the paid. Users can quickly get information from the search button, which is provided in neatly written bullet points. At a closer look, you will notice that the format is on the same level as rival apps such as Up-to-date.

2. Excellent pharmacology reference

   This app boasts of excellent pharmacology references, which makes it better than other options in its category. This is further boosted by exceptional levels of functionality in its clinical decision support tools.

3. Ad-free experience

   One would expect the free version of Epocrates to be thronged by ads, which is not the case. Users enjoy a value and comprehensive ad-free experience even without spending a penny. This is, by far, one of the most significant pros of Epocrates.

Cons 

There are notable features that require room for improvement.

1. No free trial

   even though this app has a free version, you are not offered a free trial of the pro version for effective decision making.

2. Cost

   The professional version is quite expensive, especially if institution-level access is not granted. At its price, one would also expect a big footprint, which is not the case.

Customer reviews 

Being a famous app, there are lots of reviews on the internet, both positive and negative. Most users agree that it is a useful app in medical-related fields and also easy to use. Others love it because it offers a lot of information since it allows users to look up diagnoses and several treatment options.

On the negatives, incomplete referencing of some of the recommendations is a massive turn-off for some users. Some have also noted that a given percentage of information on the drugs is backed by insufficient studies.

Most customers complain about the high price of the paid version. Some have also observed that the app is relatively slow when loading information.

Alternatives

Do you want to compare similar apps? Some of the top alternatives are Chemia, Schrodinger Discovery Informatics Suites, CDD Vault, AutoDock, and DrugPatentWatch.

Each of these alternatives suggests a wide range of features that differ from one another and come with a different pricing model. However, these apps have grown large audiences of happy and loyal customers. If you are wondering which one you should choose, it is advised to check them out before you settle for an option.

Wrapping-up

Epocrates is definitely one of the best medicine-related apps. In this Epocrate review, we have looked at some of the features you will find useful. This is a good option in case you intend to try out new technology.

However, you should also take your time and look at some of the available alternatives before making up your mind. Having a clear understanding of what you want will help you settle on an app that meets your needs, giving you a quality experience.