Media and Book Reviews: Medications: How can we know them all?

Abstract

When are you planning to study all the important details of the more than 20 new drugs that get approved each year by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)? Similarly, what about the hundreds of labels, interactions, and side effect profiles that are constantly being updated? Likely, the answer is never. Yet a major component of clinical practice relates to drugs and the ever-changing details about them. Many have turned to mobile applications for smartphones, tablets, and PDAs for updates on the go. I selected 4 common apps, all of which are free and available on multiple mobile platforms (all are available for Apple, Blackberry, and Android platforms; Medscape is not available for Palm or Windows Mobile). I tested these apps on the Apple iPad and iPhone. All 4 allow automatic updating without special steps by the user. All 4 provide detailed monographs on thousands of drugs, including indications, dosing, adverse effects, pharmacology, and more. If you want the bottom line without getting into the details, I recommend getting all 4 apps. Each …