Keeping up with the times in your independent pharmacy can be a challenge, especially after the pandemic. With added services, fewer employees, and nonstop busyness, you don’t always know where to turn for help.
Believe it or not, your phone can be a very useful tool in your pharmacy. Download the right apps, and you can have everything from drug information to patient education at your fingertips. This list of mobile apps can lighten your load as you navigate your to-dos each day:
Epocrates:
Widely regarded as a useful tool for pharmacists, this medical app is reliable, easy to use, and updated regularly. In the free version, you’ll find a drug interaction checker, pill identifier, resources for COVID-19, and drug coverage information for insurance plans. For a monthly fee, you can access premium features such as access to labs, disease monographs, ICD-10 codes, and even an infectious disease treatment selector.
Pocket Pharmacist:
Need to look something up quickly? This app can be useful. As the company description says, “It feels like you’re talking to a live pharmacist versus reading through an encyclopedia.” If you need to search drug information or interactions, this is the app for you. You can also test your own knowledge through medication quizzes. Pocket Pharmacist is available for iPhone and iPad only.
Lexicomp:
This app is great for when you need to look up evidence-based drug information. Some of its unique features include pharmacogenomics databases, drug monographs, IV compatibility data, patient education forms, toxicology, and drug interactions. View more than 20 databases that feature updated, in-depth information on drugs, natural products, interactions, medical calculations, and more.
CDC Vaccine Schedules:
If you want the latest recommended immunization schedules at your fingertips, this app visually mimics the printed schedules that are reviewed and published annually. This is a free app that provides the most current versions of child/adolescent immunization schedules, a catch-up schedule for children and adolescents 4 months through 18 years, adult schedules (including recommended vaccines by age group and medical conditions), and an adult contraindications and precautions table.
Drugs.com Medication Guide:
This guide is full of information that allows you to check drug interactions, identify pills, and create custom lists and reports. It also offers in-depth consumer information, FDA alerts, and a complete database of drug information.
Monthly Prescribing Reference (MPR):
Optimize medication management with this app’s drug database with real-time updates, a news feed, and tools such as medical calculators, quick-reference charts and guidelines, and prescribing information. You can also personalize your settings to therapeutic areas relevant to your practice.
Sanford Guide – Antimicrobial Therapy:
This tool includes clinical references for the treatment of infectious diseases, dosing tables, information on clinical syndromes as well as pathogens.
Merck Manual Professional:
This long-time, go-to source for medical knowledge now fits in your pocket. The app contains thousands of regularly updated articles, drug reference information, illustrations, and much more.
Drugs@FDA Express:
This mobile version of the agency’s online database of information on approved drugs, allows you to search and browse by drug name, active ingredient, or application number. You can also view a list of recent approvals that are organized by date in the ‘Last 7 Days’ Approval’ option.
UpToDate:
If you’re looking for general clinical information, this is a great resource. It’s an evidence-based, physician-authored clinical support resource. Simply search by topic, including diseases, drugs, or procedures. The app covers 25 specialties, including internal medicine, psychiatry, infectious disease, and cardiovascular medicine.
Skyscape Medical Library App:
Released over 20 years ago as the first mHealth tool of its kind, the Skyscape Medical Library app is a decision-support tool for physicians, nurses, students, and healthcare professionals. It holds over 400 resources/titles from leading publishers, authors, and medical societies. It also includes a comprehensive drug guide, a clinical resource with over 850 topics, a calculator with over 200 interactive tools, and breaking clinical news and drug alerts.
Daily Med:
If you’d like high-quality information about marketed drugs, this app is for you. This searchable database provides the most recent labeling submitted to the Food and Drug Administration. This includes labeling for prescription and nonprescription drugs for human and animal use, and for additional products such as medical gases, devices, cosmetics, dietary supplements, and medical foods.
PEPID:
You’ll find all the tools you need to treat patients anywhere and at any time in PEPID. You can access their drug database, medical calculators, high-res pill photos, illustrations, news and alerts, and more.
Google Translate:
If you work with non-English speaking patients, this app translates words and phrases in more than 60 other languages. The app also offers the option to do an instant, two-way speech so you can answer your patients’ questions.
With a few exceptions, most of the apps listed have a free version you can try out. If you decide you’d like to use their premium features, you’ll pay a monthly or annual fee. Check reviews, try out the free features, and decide what apps might come in handy in your pharmacy.
Mobile phones can be a distraction in the workplace, but with these apps they can also be a blessing. You owe it to yourself to have the tools you need when you need them. Not only will you benefit, but so will your patients.
From the Magazine
This article was published in our quarterly print magazine, which covers relevant topics in greater depth featuring leading experts in the industry. Subscribe to receive the quarterly print issue in your mailbox. All registered independent pharmacies in the U.S. are eligible to receive a free subscription.
More articles from the December 2022 issue:
- Increasing Patient-Care Services
- Your HSA Has Your Back
- Your Pharmacy’s Online Presence
- Rev Up Your Revenue in 2023
- Providing Routine Health Screenings
- The Best Apps for Your Pharmacy
- Cashing in on the Sniffles
- Aggression in the Pharmacy
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