Get trusted medication info with Davis’s Drug Guide
As a physician assistant student, I hear so many different pharmaceutical drug names thrown around all the time. Whether it be generic or brand names, the list of FDA approved medications is never ending and continues to grow each day. No medical provider or student can possibly memorize every single drug out there, each containing a long list of side effects, different doses and drug interactions. To help with this information overload I present to you Davis’s Drug Guide 2015 app. This app is free to download but there is an in app purchase of $39.99 in order to receive full access.
Davis’s Drug Guide app is based on a book that was published by F.A. Davis Company. From what I can see the book received so many great reviews another company called Unbound Medicine decided to create an app. Unbound Medicine’s goal is to increase healthcare providers’ knowledge by developing educational mobile and web products. After browsing their website you can see that they offer many other products beyond just the scope of pharmacology.
How it works
After downloading and completing the in-app purchase, you have instant access to tons of medication information. The first thing you see is a navigational menu on the side (as seen below). This app allows you to search for any medication by brand or generic name. Once you have found the desired drug, you’ll be able to select specific information about that drug from a drop-down menu. The drop-down menu includes choices such as side effects, dosing, metabolism and contraindications.
Home page of Davis’s Drug Guide
One of my favorite items on this list is patient/family teaching. This gives pertinent information that you’ll need to discuss with the patient about that drug. If you find yourself looking up information about the same drug over and over again, just hit the star in the right hand corner and it will automatically be added to your favorites list.
Pros
There are so many things to love about this app. Not having to carry around a pharmacology book is one of the big pros. Even when I am not able to have my iPad with me, I can easily access the app on my phone as well. The favorites list makes it easy to have those common medications together in one place, so you don’t have to continuously search them.
When looking at the side effects sections, it’s great that the severe/life threatening ones are in red (as shown below) so it brings it to the reader’s attention. Each year we hear the statistics about the unfortunate fatalities and billions of dollars spent on health care errors. This app provides an appendix with very helpful educational tools in hopes to reduce these errors.
There is even a section titled Medication errors: improving practices and patient safety. It then expands into causes of medication errors and prevention strategies. I feel like each time I look through this app I find even more and more helpful resources.
Medication information for Aspirin
Cons
Having an app that automatically updates when you open it is great for the most part. When you open the app, it takes about two to three minutes to download all the updates. I noticed it only does this once a day but don’t worry, it’s usually in the beginning of the day when you first use the app.
The favorites list is another great asset but there is no organization to the list what so ever. I found that the list is in the order in which I added the medications to my favorites. If there was someway to organize this list into groups or even alphabetically, would make this list even more helpful.
One last thing that is unclear to me is what is actually included in the purchase of this app. It does not state the price to renew your subscription nor does it state whether or not you lose complete access to the app if you choose not to renew. However, on the website it states that if you choose not to renew, you will still have access on your mobile device but updates will not be provided anymore. The fee to renew is $39.99 each year so if you want the updates, which most of us find essential, you would still need to pay the fee each year.
Bottom line
This is a great tool for medical providers and students to use on a daily basis. This app makes it easy to look up all the important things about medications and provides in depth detail needed for the providers. If you are willing to pay the $39.99 fee I strongly recommend Davis’s Drug Guide app for anyone in the medical field.
Follow
Comments are closed.