A Medical Freebie for Pocket PC

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www2.epocrates.com/products/rx_ppc.html' target='_blank'>http://www2.epocrates.com/products/rx_ppc.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Epocrates Rx is our free drug and formulary reference, providing the most up-to-date, concise and clinically-relevant drug and formulary information available."</i><br /><br />Medical programs for the Pocket PC aren't always the cheapest of all things, so when one is offered for free, it's hard to ignore. Epocrates Rx is continually updated and provides comprehensive information on a variety of branded and generic drugs. So if you're a doctor, nurse, or drug enthusiast, why not give it a go today? ;)

[Sven Johannsen]

drug enthusiast

:?: What exactly would that mean :?:

[gorkon280]

I have installed it, but ePocrates never showed up in Active sync. I was able to navigate to the program and run it by hand which finally got everything on my PDA I needed. Now I will just update it from my WiFi network. They REALLY need to just use the net to autoupdate things like this. Would even work with a cradle through the passthrough. They could even have just go and grab the new stuff or ask you when you first open it. That way you can update it when you want to and you don't have a wacky Activestink plugin to deal with.

[medic119]

I have een waiting on this for a long time. I used to use it all the time in the dark Ages when I used a Palm.

[surur]

You really have to jump through hoops to download this. They wanted to know everything accept the name of my second son :)

Hopefully this will help me kill less patients :devilboy:

Surur

[dmck]

I installed ePocrates to my pocket PC initially to the SD card because I didn't see any documentation that said you couldn't install it there. When I tried to run the program, I got a message that said that the "subscription had expired" and to auto-sync again. When I tried auto-synching, nothing happened. I called the Epocrates support people and they told me that the program COULD NOT run on the storage card and said it was listed in the "system requirements" section. I then uninstalled the program and tried to re-install to the main memory. When I installed to the main memory, the pocket PC no longer recognized my storage card (I had just performed a back-up to the SD card just before installing Epocrates in case there were any problems); but now, since it didn't recognize the card, despite several resets, and taking the card out several times and re-inserting it, I ended up having to do a hard reset. I ended up having to do 2 hard resets before I was able to get the device to recognize the storage card and restore the backup.

I called back the Epocrates support line and they told me I had to contact the "device manufacturer" as they had no reports of this problem before. I have had no problems with my pocket PC (Ipaq 6315) recognizing the SD card before installing Epocrates.

So I would recommend:

1. DO NOT install Epocrates to the storage card on the Pocket PC.
2. Back-up your device to your desktop (not just your SD card) prior to installing

[cyclwestks]

I dl'd this morning, & was getting the same errors as you. Maybe I'll just leave it on the storage card until I feel like doing a hard-reset.

[docporter]

javascript:emoticon(':wink:')
Wink
ePocrates may be free (if you're willing to give them a lot of information), but there are much better references available. I have tried ePocrates and find it vastly inferior to LexiDrugs, which is what I use. LexiDrugs costs $75 per year, but is very comprehensive and they update it almost daily. Lexi interfaces with ActiveSync well and they provide a Java applet that updates it with just one click.

[maximus]

Correct me if I am wrong.

The freebie epocrates RX is a standalone program, which means all the drug reference is downloaded into your PDA, so you can use it without getting online ?

...

[Darius Wey]

:?: What exactly would that mean :?:

It was meant to be a joke, but I guess cross-culturally, it doesn't really work. :(

[JBC]

Okay, so CF and SD are out. Anyone try installing ePocrates in flash ROM yet?

Looks like a very interesting app, but a very large one, too, for RAM only!

[pbg]

drug enthusiast

:?: What exactly would that mean :?:

It could mean a sportsperson subject to drug testing, wanting to check on whether a particular packaged medication contained banned substances or not? Does this package have such an indication?

[shanks]

Okay, so CF and SD are out. Anyone try installing ePocrates in flash ROM yet?

Looks like a very interesting app, but a very large one, too, for RAM only!

I got it on the SD card no problem. You just have to be patient and be willing to wait. After the program is loaded, it automaticaly does the syncing part with their webservice. This takes a looong time :?: and you need an active internet connection.

Shankar.

[Jude]

I reviewed this for PPCThoughts more than a year ago, when they first offered the beta version for the Pocket PC. I haven't used it in a while, ever since I left med school and my free trial subscription for the review expired. It took them this long to start offering it for free!?

[ya1950]

Am I missing something? The free version just offers doseage information and a simple drug interaction tool. All the other tabs are blank unless you pay. Even the (free) mobile PDR has a lot more information than this. I'm disappointed as I've heard friends from the Palm side of things rave about this application. Maybe I'm doing something wrong here?

[tanalasta]

Hopefully this will help me kill less patients :devilboy:

Surur

That's why we have pharmacists ;) They're responsible for all the "mistakes" the medico's make when prescribing. Unless of course you are a pharmacist in which case I do apologise.

ePocrates has been a long time coming for PPC - a free PALM version had been available for years. Thank's for letting us know about it. I'm looking forward to trying it out when I find some spare time.

The other two drug programs out there are:
Micromedex and MIMS - both of which your institution may provide a free subscription for.

[adsbar]

The Tarascon Pharmacopea (sp?) is also available at www.tarascon.com. It's the only one I've kept with, also has some useful tables, etc.

Alan